Local Eats Japan

Yamasan is located in a great location just a short walk from Kanazawa station, and in the middle of one of Kanazawa’s popular tourist destinations – Omicho Market. 

Omicho Market is a smaller version of the uber popular fish markets in Tokyo (like Toyosu) but has just as good, if not better seafood quality and at a significantly cheaper price.
One of the reasons for this is that Kanazawa’s central fish market opens the earliest out of any other one in Japan at only 3:30 in the morning!

Because of this they have caught the fish the night before and already are selling it to markets and restaurants such as Yamasan. 

The taste of the fish was more than reflective of this.

Yamasan has everything ranging from nigiri to kaisen-don (seafood rice bowl) which is what I ended up getting. 

While the Nigiri I am sure is amazing, and is what I saw a lot of people eating actually, I knew that it is more common to find good Nigiri than it is an incredible kaisen-don. 

They had a few options, one of which was the classic which has what seems like every single type of seafood that exists on planet earth all arranged beautifully underneath a bed of piping hot rice. This is by far their most popular menu item. 

But the one that stood out to me the post (and was what I eventually ordered) was their Ikura-Uni don which is heaps of fresh cor roe and uni served over you guessed it, rice. 

While it would have been cool to try all the different types of seafood on the classic bowl, I felt that I might have regretted my decision if I didn’t like a certain seafood as much as I liked another one or vice-versa. 

I knew what I liked, and so I stuck to it and didn’t regret my decision one bit. 

Both cod roe and uni can be very hit or miss, especially if you are eating it abroad and to a lot of people, they might also just not like the overly fishy taste. 

I was the same before, but as I ate more high quality versions of it I began to come to really like it and this bowl here cemented that quality is everything when it comes to the taste. 

The cod roe was the perfect balance of saltiness and slightly crunchy texture that bursts in your mouth when you eat it. 

The uni, contrary to other cheaper equivalents I have had, had no smell and definitely not any overly-fishy taste to it. It was the perfect rich, melt in your mouth bite that I started longing for again after leaving the restaurant. 

The bowl I had was about $40 cad, which honestly? It was completely worth it to me and had a lot of food as well. 

If you want to go here I recommend going either a little bit before lunch time (12-1), or a little bit after because it can get really busy (sometimes even an hour long wait times). 

I think this is the perfect place to taste Kanazawa’s amazingly fresh sushi at a reasonable price in a restaurant with a nice interior to it as well.

If you are going to Kanazawa for the first time I think this should be your first priority!

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More about me

Different types of ordering systems in Japan explained

Purchasing an onigiri to keep me fuelled throughout my journey 🍙