Atsuta Horaiken Main Restaurant

Atsuta Horaiken is the restaurant credited with inventing hitsumabushi, the dish that has become the single most famous plate of "Nagoya meshi" (Nagoya-style food). Founded in 1873 next to the ancient Atsuta Shrine, the main restaurant is a low, tile-roofed building where you remove your shoes at the entrance and are shown to tatami rooms arranged around a small dry-landscape courtyard. The atmosphere is deliberately traditional, and the century-and-a-half of history is part of what draws both pilgrims from the shrine and eel lovers from across Japan.

Hitsumabushi is unagi (freshwater eel) that has been filleted, skewered, steamed and then charcoal-grilled with a lacquer-dark tare sauce until the edges caramelise. Here the eel is finely chopped and heaped over rice in a wooden ohitsu tub, and the ritual of eating it is half the pleasure. You divide the bowl into four portions. The first quarter you eat plain, to taste the smoky, slightly crisp eel against the sweet sauce. The second you dress with the condiments provided — nori seaweed, wasabi and finely sliced spring onion. The third you turn into ochazuke by pouring hot dashi or green tea over the rice, which softens everything into a savoury, comforting broth. The fourth quarter you eat whichever way you liked best. Staff explain the method to first-timers, and there is usually an English card describing each step.

The quality of the eel is noticeably high: crisp-skinned, fatty without being heavy, and grilled to order so it arrives hot. Because everything is cooked fresh, waits both for a table and for the food can be long, and the restaurant is famous for its queues. Regulars arrive before the 11:30 opening or put their name down and spend the interval walking the cedar-shaded paths of Atsuta Jingu, one of Shinto's most sacred sites, which sits directly next door.

There are several Horaiken branches around the city, including convenient ones at Matsuzakaya department store and Nagoya Station, but the Atsuta main restaurant is the original and the one worth the pilgrimage for its setting and sense of occasion. Prices are mid-to-upper range for a Japanese lunch, reflecting the cost of good eel, and cash is preferred though cards are accepted for larger bills.

Beyond hitsumabushi the menu offers una-don, kabayaki and shirayaki eel, plus set meals with liver soup and pickles. Reservations are not usually taken for the main restaurant, so plan for a wait, especially on weekends and holidays. Pairing lunch with a morning visit to Atsuta Shrine and the nearby Shirotori Garden makes for an easy, atmospheric half-day in the southern part of Nagoya. For anyone trying to understand why Nagoyans are so proud of their regional cuisine, a bowl at the place that started it all is the essential first stop.