About Sumiyaki Unafuji
Sumiyaki Unafuji is the restaurant that the Michelin inspectors found worth noting, and local food lovers found years before them. In Nagoya — a city with a distinct regional cuisine built around thick miso, chicken wings, and above all the freshwater eel preparation called hitsumabushi — Unafuji represents the apex of a tradition the city considers its own greatest culinary contribution to Japan.
Hitsumabushi is Nagoya's most distinctive dish: eel grilled over charcoal and served sliced over rice in a wooden ohitsu (serving bucket), eaten in three successive stages that reveal different dimensions of the same preparation. First, plain: the eel's charcoal-kissed sweetness against simple steamed rice. Second, with condiments: the chopped spring onion, wasabi, and dried nori that add brightness and counterpoint. Third, as ochazuke: the remaining rice and eel drenched in dashi broth, transforming into a savoury soup that reflects the Japanese concept of using everything and wasting nothing.
The eel at Unafuji is sourced with the specificity that the best unagi restaurants demand — freshwater eel raised in Aichi Prefecture, selected for the ideal fat content that produces the lacquered surface the charcoal grilling technique creates. The binchotan charcoal used for grilling burns at a consistent high temperature that sears without burning, producing the caramelised exterior and yielding interior that defines excellent unaju.
The restaurant's Michelin recognition reflects not celebrity cooking but the mastery of a regional tradition practised with absolute sincerity — the kind of expertise that only twenty-five years of doing one thing extremely well can produce.
Best Occasion Fit
Unafuji is mandatory for any visitor to Nagoya who wants to understand what the city's culinary identity actually means. For team dinners, the hitsumabushi format — with its three-stage eating ritual — creates natural communal energy and shared discovery. For solo dining, the counter seats at a quality unagi restaurant provide the meditative pleasure of watching a craft tradition performed by someone who has dedicated their professional life to it.