Review excerpt: Mai Nagamatsu has made it her mission to celebrate and spread the word about katsuobushi at Katsuo Shokudo and the artisans who still harness the age-old methods to produce it.

Review excerpt: Calayer has become a popular destination for heavy metal fans and musicians in Kansai. Where else can you enjoy a meal and a cold beer while listening to Slayer in the background?

Review excerpt: Unlike other fashionable restaurants that focus on the usual Italian-inflected fare, the menu at Lakan-ka is based on light, wholesome Japanese cooking.

Review excerpt: This is Ginza Kagari Honten as it should have been from the outset: Classy, polished and much better equipped for fame and the inevitable influx.

Review excerpt: Men Chirashi stylish new udonya lies on a narrow alley among the boutiques and hip streetwear emporiums of Harajuku.

Review excerpt: Not only is the location more central — in the heart of Roppongi Hills, no less — Torioka is also more stylish and, for the time being at any rate, much easier to book.

Review excerpt: Sato no Ie Hanase is a kaiseki (multicourse) restaurant in Osaka’s white-collar neighborhood of Honmachi.

Review excerpt: Hasao Tanaka, at Osaka Hanten, charges only ¥200 for a bowl of ramen, but knows it has to be of the highest quality, otherwise his customers would never come back for a second serving.

Review excerpt: RyuGin 2.0 represents a major upgrade. At last, chef Yamamoto has a setting worthy of his culinary status, and of the well-heeled clientele who will favor this more salubrious and central location.

Review excerpt: Konjiki Hototogisu is exactly the kind of new-wave noodle counter that old-school ramen grinches love to hate. It’s squeaky clean and has a rustic wooden frontage.

Review excerpt: At both lunch and dinner, wild food remains front and center on the menu at Lature. The chef's signature starter is a delicate savory macaron made with the blood of the same Yezo sika deer he serves as a main course.

Review excerpt: Wana Tedome doesn’t mess with any ordinary meat. “Deer, not cow. Boar, not pig,” the illuminated street-level sign outside proclaims in Japanese. “Grilled venison, grilled boar and grilled pheasant.”