Japan 2023

[HIROSHIMA, JAPAN] Ramen and garlic lovers, this is for you. Yumewokatare serves up Jiro style ramen noodles, which is a tonkutsu base ramen with heaps of garlic, char soup and bean sprouts. I ordered the ramen with 150g standard amount of noodles (1,100 yen with seasoned egg) and it was HUGE. The soup itself may be very savoury, but it is full of umami coming from the shoyu and the thick pork bone broth. The added garlic and fat just made it even richer!

The noodles were of a thicker kind, and hence was much chewier. The char siu was tender and full of braised pork flavour! Seasoned egg was perfectly done too. Definitely one ramen I will recommend if you are in Hiroshima!

[HIROSHIMA, JAPAN] We realised that we chanced upon a really popular cafe among the locals, and we really loved the desserts here!

We had the baked apple with vanilla ice cream (780 yen) and the autumn fruits parfait (1,300 yen). The baked apple was really soft and sweet and it had a slight caramel flavour! The vanilla ice cream with cinnamon powder was a perfect pairing.

The autumn fruits parfait had a variety of ingredients, from figs to pear to grapes but what we loved the most was the sweet potato gelato. The sweet potato flavour was not too strong, but aromatic enough to keep us going 😍

With cozy romantic vibes, this is one cafe I will recommend for groups or even date nights!

[HIROSHIMA, JAPAN] We found a very unique izakaya with retro vibes and music, and their food is not bad as well! Very glad that they have an English menu or we will be confused by their enormous menu 😂

We ordered quite a few varieties of food, from kushiyaki to yakitori to cooked dishes. One of our favourites was their Fried Eggplant, as it was juicy on the inside and so light and crispy outside!

Their pork cheek grilled skewers were good as well, as they were meaty, rather tender and did not have a foul pork odour.

The highlight had to be the Fried Dough with Soy Flavour, as it reminded us of a really fresh sugared doughnut. A great finish to the meal.

The total meal cost 5,000 yen for the 2 of us, which may be rather expensive but the vibes made up for it!

[HIROSHIMA, JAPAN] A hidden hole in the wall coffee house in a residential district, Wakakusa coffee serves up really good coffee in a cozy chill environment.

We had the Hot Mocha (650 yen), which had a rich quality chocolate flavour that complemented so well with their aromatic coffee! Definitely one of the better mocha we have had.

The Iced Latte (550 yen) was even better. The aroma of the coffee itself was amazing! A very smooth cup of coffee, it wasn't acidic towards the end and the nutty notes were not too strong as well. What a well balanced coffee!

We sat outside and it was fun watching people while sipping away our coffee. One can easily spend hours here!

[HIROSHIMA, JAPAN] With the many Japanese sushi chains around the city, Nonta Sushi charmed us with their quality food and hospitality. We ordered many different varieties of sushi and their unagi sushi was the one that was incredibly mind-blowing! It was soft yet meaty, succulent and had a wonderful smokey aroma.

Their Uni sushi was also rich, clean and had a strong seafood flavour. The Torched Butter Scallops were meaty and really rich too! The total bill was 5,630 yen, may be a little expensive but definitely worth it for the quality. Recommended!

[HIROSHIMA, JAPAN] One place you have to go is the Okinomimura Village, which is filled with multiple levels of stalls selling Hiroshima style okonomiyaki. It was hard to choose among which stalls to dine in, but we finally settled on one that is close to the lift on the 4th floor. We were so mind blown by the food quality and hospitality!

With a very cozy retro vibe, it was definitely a very authentic okonomiyaki experience. We had the Hiroshima Special (1,200 yen) which was a Hiroshima take on okonomiyaki. Compared to the more famous Osaka style, there is significantly less flour used and yakisoba is added within the pancake too! The portion was humongous, definitely enough for 2. The flavours were intense, with the sweet savoury sauce used. There was a beautiful mix of textures, from the crispy pancake, to the chewy noodles and the fresh crunch from the heaping amount of spring onions.

What left us speechless was the Grilled Butter Oysters (1,100 yen) which were not only huge, but was so fresh and juicy! Each bite was a literal explosion of seafood rich flavours and we love how the grilling has created a crust around the oysters.

Definitely a must visit in Hiroshima and I think it is a great place to try out what the prefecture is famous for: okonomiyaki and oysters!