Enjoy the Bounty of the Shimanto River and the Pacific Ocean! 11 Popular Restaurants for Kochi Gourmet

This dining spot is located inside “Kachu Furusatokan” in eastern Kochi Prefecture. The restaurant’s specialty is dishes that make the most of local products.
Its signature menu items include the “Kamaage Chirimen Rice Bowl” and the “Kakiage Chirimen Rice Bowl.”
The “Kamaage Chirimen Rice Bowl” is generously topped with small local fish. The “Kakiage Chirimen Rice Bowl” features a kakiage fritter made with small fish and mountain vegetables.
The restaurant also offers a wide variety of dishes made with local vegetables.

“Myojinmaru Main Store” is an izakaya operated by Myojin Suisan, a company proud of having Japan’s top bonito catch volume.
The restaurant’s biggest commitment is straw-grilling fresh bonito delivered directly from Myojin Suisan right in the restaurant. This brings out concentrated umami and the distinctive fragrant aroma of straw.
Its signature dish is “Warayaki Katsuo Shio Tataki,” created by the current president, a former fisherman. It is widely known across Japan as a dish that originated at Myojinmaru.
The menu also features a wide range of regional dishes made with Kochi ingredients.

“Aki Shirasu Shokudo Aki Main Store” is located inside Aki Fishing Port in Nishihama, Aki City, Kochi Prefecture.
It is a seafood restaurant operated by Aki Suisan. Its specialty is using fresh shirasu and dorome raw whitebait caught that very day.
Its signature dish, the “Kamaage Chirimen Rice Bowl,” won the grand prize at the 4th National Jako Summit.
The fresh raw whitebait has a springy texture and a faint bitterness. Another part of its appeal is the fresh aroma of the sea.

“Kaneharu” is a specialty eel restaurant located in Yoshihara, Haruno-cho, Kochi City, Kochi Prefecture. For more than 24 years since its founding, it has continued using and adding to a secret sauce passed down from the previous generation.
Its philosophy is “freshly filleted, freshly grilled.” Each eel is prepared after the order is placed and grilled over about 30 minutes. The result is crispy and fragrant outside, soft and fluffy inside.
The restaurant is also particular about its ingredients, using only high-quality domestically produced eel.
At Kaneharu, the preferred way to enjoy it is with the sweetness of the sauce and the richness of the eel fat, paired with stem wasabi.

A lively food-stall-style market packed with around 46 eateries and 7 local product shops.
The fun here is buying dishes from different shops and bringing them together to enjoy in the shared food court.
You can sample a variety of Kochi specialties in small portions.
Many shops serve seared bonito, one of Kochi’s best-known gourmet dishes, and you may even see the dynamic process of straw grilling.
Other local flavors include Tosa Akaushi beef dishes, whale dishes, and gamecock dishes, giving you plenty of chances to discover tastes unique to Kochi.

A market in the fishing town of Kure, which has long been known for its thriving bonito pole-and-line fishing industry.
Markets are often thought of as busiest in the morning, but here the selection often becomes more complete around 11am, once the day’s catch, including fresh raw bonito and other seasonal seafood, begins to arrive after fishing ends.
One local specialty is the “Kure Bowl,” which lets you gather ingredients from participating shops inside the market and create your own original rice bowl.
Part of the fun is chatting with staff at each shop while putting together a bowl to suit your taste.

A specialty nabeyaki ramen restaurant located inside the complex facility “Tosanosato AGRI COLLETTO.”
This popular restaurant was founded 50 years ago in Susaki City, the home of nabeyaki ramen. Its main store is now in Kochi City.
There are four types of nabeyaki ramen in total, including the classic “Oyadori.” The standard toppings are slices of mature chicken, green onion, chikuwa fish cake, and a raw egg.
The key to the flavor is the soup, made by simmering mature chicken bones and vegetables for at least 7 hours to draw out their umami.

“Restaurant Toretatei” is located on the second floor of Roadside Station Kawauso no Sato Susaki.
It serves dishes made with fresh local seafood and regional specialties.
The signature dish at “Restaurant Toretatei” is nabeyaki ramen, known for its light soy sauce-based broth.
Other options include the “Katsuo Tataki Set Meal,” “Shimanto Pork Cutlet Set Meal,” and “Chicken Nanban Set Meal.”
The menu offers a wide variety, from seafood dishes to meat dishes.

“Jiro no Ouchi” is an accommodation facility with a dining space in Hatayama, a remote mountain area of Kochi Prefecture.
It serves fresh local jidori chicken called “Tosa Jiro,” carefully raised at its own poultry farm and prepared in ways that bring out the ingredient’s natural flavor.
The “Tosa Jiro Charcoal Grill Course” is the signature menu. It includes Tosa Jiro soup, shabu-shabu, a daily surprise dish, 10 kinds of charcoal-grilled items, a mini oyakodon, and egg ice cream.
You can also try rare cuts such as the comb of a young male chicken, something unusual even on a national level.

“1×1＝1 Ice Kurin” is a shop attached to a workshop that makes ice kurin using a traditional method.
Its simple recipe uses sugar, eggs, skim milk powder, and banana flavoring.
You can enjoy a crisp, refreshing, and light taste.
The signature product is the plain “Ice Kurin,” a simple flavor that preserves its old-fashioned taste.
Other flavors include matcha, yuzu, coffee, and more.

“Tosanosato AGRI COLLETTO Kubota Ice” is located inside the complex facility “Tosanosato AGRI COLLETTO.”
This sweets shop pursues simple flavors you will never get tired of, even if you eat them every day. It makes products with as few unnecessary additives as possible, focusing on the natural flavor of the ingredients.
Using Kochi-grown fruits and traditional teas, it offers flavors that change with the seasons.
Its “Original Ice Cream” lineup includes 20 varieties at all times, along with limited seasonal flavors made with fruits in season.