Budget
Cafe.the Market Mai Mai
This bakery and dessert shop serves a variety of fresh breads and pastries. Try the Peach Juice ¥600, made from the delicious homegrown white peaches.
Fujiya
A soba restaraunt that has gained fame for its delicious chuuka soba Chinese soba noodles.
Ramen Ikki
A very popular ramen shop with its own special Ikki Ramen dish.
Tandoor
A tasty Indian restaurant serving all the typical curry dishes.
Tenjin Soba
Named after the dish it is most famous for, tenjin soba. This is considered to be the best soba restaurant in the city, as the flavor of the tenjin soba is truly "heavenly".
Torisoba
A great place to find cheap soba and udon dishes.
Yamato
Another one of Okayama's popular places to eat Chinese soba
Midrange
Contents Cafe
As it mainly serves desserts, it's a bit pricey, but the grape parfait budou pafe ¥900 is particularly delicious, as it contains fresh muscat grapes from the prefecture's many grape farms. They also have peone parfaits available from July to November.
Ajitsuka no Mura
This restaurant serves a variety of katsu dishes, the most popular being the roast katsu ¥1200.
Heartland and Ryoutei
Serves a wide variety of pasta, meat, and seafood dishes.
Kotoya
Seasonal seafood and vegetables in a stylishly renovated bar.
Onmaku Sushi Aoe
One of Okayama's most popular sushi restaurants, directly south of the city center.
Torattoria Mizuochi
This classy Italian restaurant serves delicious pastas, breads, and desserts. The price of food changes dramatically from lunch to dinner, so if you want to eat great food for a reasonable price, be sure to come during lunch hours.
Top end
Asuka
Serves aji sashimi, vinegared aji and deep-fried aji, along with a variety of other sashimi. Perhaps more of a drinking spot/pub than a restaurant, Asuka is still a fine place for food and drink and an excellent place to experience "after-work Japan" in a relaxed, friendly atmosphere.
Hamasaku
A teppanyaki restaurant with local seafood specialties, including oysters.
Kanshiki Teppanabe Tanatana
One of Okayama's most popular and expensive Korean restaurants, most famous for its Korean-style hot pot.
Kappou Mamakari
The best place in Okayama to dine on the city's famous mamakari, fresh from the Seto Inland Sea.
Senju
Omakase negiri is the order of the day at this sushi restaurant, where the chef is keen to serve samples of that morning's catch.
Kibi dango ååå£å are sweet millet-flour dumplings. According to the legend, Momotaro gave his companions kibi dango, and they helped him defeat the demons. Whether or not you'll like kibi dango enough to run off and fight demons will vary by personal taste, but they certainly are a tasty treat. The name is a bit of a pun too, as kibi means both "millet" and the ancient kingdom of Kibi, which covered a large area of present-day Okayama prefecture.
Not surprisingly, going along with the "peach boy" theme, one of the famous fruits grown in and around Okayama is the white peach ç½æ¡ shiromomo. Okayama is also well known for grapes è¡è budÅ, particularly muscat, which have been grown here since 1886 and command 95% of the Japanese market. Known as the "Queen of Fruits", they're priced to match at Â¥2000 to Â¥10,000 a bunch, while pione grapes can go for as little as Â¥1000. The best season to eat muscats is the beginning of October, but the best choice for a souvenir are the grape sherbets, jellies, and wines, which keep for longer and are easier to get through customs.
Mamakari ã¾ã¾ãã, a herring-like fish, is another specialty that can be enjoyed throughout Okayama, as they are fished from the Seto Inland Sea. Another local delicacy is sawara é°, a white-fleshed fish translated into English alternatively as "trout" or "horse mackerel". A popular takeaway option is matsuri-zushi ç¥ã寿å¸, the local version of chirashi-zushi sushi rice dressed with vinegar and topped with egg and seafood, sold in a peach-shaped box at Okayama station kiosks and some restaurants as well.