Munagi — Restaurant in Nagoya

This is the best grilled fresh water eel / unagi / Hitsumabushi I have ever had hands down. Chef Morioka grilled the unagi to a beautiful crispy perfection. I can eat this all day everyday if I wasn’t full. I went for the half / half and my wife went for the unagi and boy it was so delicious, being able to grate my own wasabi was a lovely DIY touch. Fresh wasabi tastes so different from the commercial ones combined with horse radish. Highly recommend, and if I ever come back to Nagoya I would be eating it again for sure.

As background, Nagoya is the Japan's largest producer of fresh water eel (unagi), which are typically grilled, slathered in a rich, dark sauce, and served over rice. Nagoya's take on the dish, known as hitsumabushi, is served in a traditional wooden bowl accompanied by a rice bowl, a plate of condiments and a pot of broth.

One eats hitsumabushi by splitting the serving of eel into four portions. For the first portion, scoop the eel into the rice bowl and eat it straight in order to savor the flavor of the eel. The second portion, eat with condiments added. The third portion, season to taste as before, but this time, add broth to create a type of chazuke. The final portion can be eaten...

This was recommended to us by our hotel. As a big fan of unagi, I knew I had to try hitsumabushi whilst in Nagoya. The restaurant was cozy, clean, and had a variety of eel-based dishes to try. I got the hitsumabushi set and my mom opted for a lighter rice bowl. Both were EXCELLENT. The eel was fresh, with a beautiful char from the grill making the skin crispy. The broth served with my meal was delicious, even on its own. Portions are generous.

You order via a tablet on the table and we couldn't find a way to change language to English. We used a translation app to help sort us out. We also didnt have a reservation but we did walk in at an odd time (5pm) so we were seated immediately...

Nagoya is famous for its grilled eel and Munagi Hitsumabushi certainly lives up to that. This restaurant serves the best unagi I have tried. We tried both the hitsumabushi (a Nagoya specialty using special sauce) and the kouhaku-ju (salted). The eels were both crisp on the outside and soft on the inside. Paired with rice, it was a perfect match. If you could only select one, I would go with the hitsumabushi. Freshly grated wasabi was also served with our dish.

The restaurant is comfortable despite its small size. Tables are adequately spaced and the staff were friendly. English menu was available which made ordering a breeze.

We would come back here again in our future...