Our Favorite Restaurants in Iwakuni
You can find great food all throughout Japan. Although Iwakuni isn’t known as a “Food Destination,” you can still find all your traditional Japanese dishes here like ramen and sushi. In fact, Iwakuni is known for a special type of sushi. Sushi here is layered in a block with rice, mushrooms, lotus root, and other ingredients. We have never tried this sushi, never heard of anyone’s recommendations on it, and quite frankly never heard of it outside of Iwakuni. Although we never tried Iwakuni’s claim to fame sushi at any of the restaurants, we managed to try out many other restaurants in and around Iwakuni. Below is a list of our favorite restaurants in Iwakuni.
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You can’t go wrong with Indian Food in Japan. Iwakuni has no shortage of Indian Restaurants. Near downtown Iwakuni you have Ganesh, Taj, Srijana, and Krishna. They are all really good but one stands out to me as the best and that is Devi Indian Restaurant. They used to have two locations but now only the one near the main gate of MCAS Iwakuni remains.
Jill, me, and friends have frequented Devi several times. The restaurant is small and staff was always friendly. I usually tend to get a curry and naan bread. They do have really good specials, especially for lunch! Before the meals come, they serve this chicken broth soup that is to die for! Sometimes, I’d ask for seconds of the small cup of soup.
Their menu is huge. There are so many different styles of curry and naan bread to choose from. Personally, I like mutton or keema curry and I always get garlic cheese naan. The garlic cheese naan is a meal in itself and it’s absolutely delicious! Jill is always happy with the sesame seed naan, apparently the cheese one is to filling for her! For curry, you can choose your spice level. I always go with 2-3 but it goes all the way to 15.
Irori Sanzoku Kuga - Chicken Shack
Probably one of the most unique and beautiful restaurants I’ve ever been to is Irori Sanzoku Kuga or as us Americans like to call it “The Chicken Shack.” Irori Sanzoku Kuga is a restaurant 15 kilometers outside of Iwakuni in the city of Kuga. Trust me, the atmosphere alone is worth the trip out here.
The restaurant is huge and takes up several buildings and outdoor spaces. I’ve sat at three different locations here now and every spot is truly magnificent. The last time Jill and I were here with our friends we sat inside on the second floor surrounded by Samurai Armor.
If coming to The Chicken Shack, visitors have to try the Sanzoku-yaki which is grilled chicken on a stick. Another popular item is the Sanzoku Musubi, which is a gigantic rice ball filled with ingredients wrapped in seaweed. I’ve had soup here, karaage, and their gyoza and it’s all been wonderful. After eating, I recommend walking around the temple and taking in the sites of this restaurants. It’s hard to say, but this might be one of my favorite dining experiences in all of Japan.
You can see their menu and learn more about the Chicken Shack by visiting their website.
Janjaka Minami - Yakiniku
Yakiniku is always a fun experience and Iwakuni has several yakiniku options. There are all you can eat yakiniku options but there are also yakiniku restaurants that provide more quality meats and usually serve set meals or provide menus where you can choose the meats and vegetables you want to grill.
Janjaka Minami was popular among Americans on base, so we popped in here for a romantic evening date. The tables are somewhat private at Janjaka Minami, makes for a relaxing experience.
We found the quality of both the meats and vegetables to be higher then the all you can eat options around town and we were both stuffed at the end. For the quality of the meat you get here, it really wasn’t all that expensive.
Kaisugi - Ramen Restaurant
Kaisugi Ramen is probably my second favorite ramen restaurant in Iwakuni after Yamabiko. I have friends that absolutely love Kaisugi and claim it is the best, but everyone has their opinions.
Kaisugi is a great place to come to for a long night of drinking as they are open until like 4:00 am on Friday and Saturday.
Kaisugi does various styles of ramen, I loved their Tonkotsu Ramen with the thick pork bone broth. I usually order a side of gyoza along with the ramen and their gyoza are decent. The Tantanmen is also a very popular item on the menu here as is the Shiru-Ari Tantanmen. So I’d recommend visiting Kaisugi a few different times to try the traditional ramen dishes as well as the Tantanmen.
Mamuang Cafe - Thai Food
Jill and I walked right on past Mamuang Cafe for the longest time and never stopped in. Until one day we were looking for a new restaurant and decided to give this cute Thai restaurant a shot. It’s kind of tucked away in an alley road off of Route 188 in downtown Iwakuni.
After our first visit here, we realized we were missing out on good home-cooked Thai food that whole time. The lady there seemed to run the place by herself. She took our orders, cooked, and served us. The service was fantastic! The menu was limited, which I am a fan of because she cooked all the dishes to perfection!
The Thai Style Fried Chicken and Rice was my favorite. It came as a set with a soup and vegetable egg rolls and everything was absolutely delicious. The ingredients were fresh and the dishes were perfectly cooked and presented nicely. I wish I came here more often. Regardless, it’s probably one of the better restaurants in Iwakuni and she deserves more business.
Mountain Café - Local Café
Mountain Café is a cute café located right on the Imazu River. Jill and I frequented this restaurant for both breakfast and lunch. They have some of the best set meals in all of Iwakuni. In Japan set meals are popular especially at lunch time. In a set meal you usually are served the main course along with a salad, soup, veggies, and maybe even dessert.
What I loved about Mountain Café is there were always the same two or three women working there. I’d even see them at the local grocery store buying fresh food and ingredients for the restaurant.
Some of our favorite meals here were the Croque Madame for breakfast and Karaage, Pork Cutlet Curry, and Yakisoba for lunch.
Sobatamaya - Okonomiyaki Restaurant
Okonomiyaki is definitely one of our favorite meals in Japan. Iwakuni had several Okonomiyaki restaurants and they were all excellent. Our local friends in Iwakuni invited us to their favorite Okonomiyaki Restaurant called Sobatamaya and it quickly became our favorite as well.
A lot of okonomiyaki restaurants have traditional dining where you sit on the floor. It’s always a unique experience but sometimes tough for us taller people. The four of us shared several appetizers but honestly I can’t remember what we all ate, I just remember it was all very delicious. Then we ordered two okonomiyaki’s to split. The way Sobatamaya made their okonomiyaki was unique, I felt their noodles were fried better and the toppings were abundant.
To learn more about okonomiyaki I wrote a post on Dining and Eating our way through Japan that has a section on okonomiyaki.
Yamabiko - Ramen Restaurant
When it comes to favorite restaurants in Iwakuni, Yamabiko Ramen might be the one. I love Tonkotsu Ramen and to this day have not had a better bowl of Tonkotsu Ramen, this includes all the ramen restaurants I’ve since been to in Fukuoka.
Yamabiko’s pork broth is creamy and rich, the noodles were thin and soft, and the chashu (pork belly) was always flavorful and thick. I always left Yamabiko full. Along with the ramen, Jill and I always shared a side of fried rice. To this day, their fried rice is still our favorite. Everything we’ve had here to include their gyoza and karaage has been excellent.
Conclusion
So there you have it, a list of some of our favorite restaurants in Iwakuni. Let’s be honest, we never had a bad meal in Iwakuni, every restaurant we went to was very good. But these are just a few of the restaurants that stood out and we found ourselves going back to time and time again.
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