Visiting Kanazawa – How we Spent Our Time in Kanazawa

Being so close to the Sea of Japan, Kanazawa is known for their seafood, especially crab. If you don’t like seafood, you can still find all your favorite Japanese dishes in Kanazawa. We had some of the best Indian food we’ve ever had in Japan here and found a decent omurice restaurant in the basement of a department store. 

Kanazawa also has several sake breweries within the historic districts that are fun to try. We even found a beer brewery near the Higashi Chaya District that brewed up spectacular beers. Below are some of the places we found ourselves eating and drinking at while visiting Kanazawa. 

Dining

Aashirwad (Indian Food)

Probably some of the best Indian Food I’ve had while in Japan. People probably won’t believe me, but Indian Food here outside of India is probably some of the best on the planet. The curry at Indian Restaurants and Naan bread is out of this world. 

At Aashirwad I had my favorite garlic cheese naan with lamb curry and was blown away by the amount of food and flavors. The staff spoke English and were extremely polite. I was very satisfied with Aashirwad and think it might just very well be my favorite Indian restaurant in Japan. 

勝乃屋 金沢エムザ店 (Japanese Food)

Sorry, no translation for the restaurant name. We were on our way back from the Higashi Chaya District and were starving. We figured we’d grab dinner at Omicho Market plus I was craving seafood. To our surprise, most restaurants at the market closed at 3:00 pm. So we browsed around the area and found a shopping mall. In Japan, even shopping malls have amazing local restaurants. So don’t let a mall scare you into thinking they just have a food court with chain fast food restaurants. 

Right across from Omicho Market is the M’za department store. Jill and I found a nice restaurant called 勝乃屋 金沢エムザ店 that served omurice and other Japanese dishes. I got the omurice with tempura and was quite surprised. For those that don’t know Omurice is a Japanese dish that is a Japanese omelet over rice. Jill had a stir fry, we were both pleasantly surprised, especially since our bill was under ¥2000 for dinner. 

Drinking

Oriental Brewing

Right in the Higashi Chaya District is Oriental Brewing. After walking all day in a new place, one of my favorite things to do is to find a local brewery to take a much needed break.

Oriental Brewing was a fantastic brewery serving up delicious beer. You can order beer flights here or by the pint. 

I had a total of 5 beers here, including tasters and ranked all their beers pretty high according to my Untappd app. They had a Barleywine that I was a fan of. I also liked their Yuwaku Yuzu Ale, Noto Sea Salt Saison, and their Single Hop Citra beer. 

福光屋 ひがし (sake brewery)

We came across this sake brewery in the heart of the Higashi Chaya District. 

I am not a huge sake guy, I like sake, I just don’t know it as well as I do beer. I do know that good sake can be found all throughout mainland Japan, so I had to at least try one sake brewery in Kanazawa. 

We stumbled upon 福光屋 ひがし based on their sign hanging outside the wooden brewery for sake tastings. The inside was modern, we sat at the bar and ordered a set of three different sake’s to try. They gave us generous pours. 

Along with the sake, we got a small miso paste dish that was supposed to complement the sake. It had a very unique flavor. Lets just say, I used the sake to wash this dish down and get the flavor out of my mouth.