Nagoya cooks with hatcho miso — a soybean paste fermented two years until it stains the rice black — and serves breakfast for the price of a coffee. Three days from the 04:00 fish market to Okazaki's miso vats and the standing bars of Nishiki.
Nagoya's working wholesale market since 1910, roughly 300 stalls of bluefin, hamo eel, wasabi root and shaved katsuobushi packed into three blocks behind Nagoya Station. Trading starts at 04:00 and most fishmongers shutter by 10:00.
A cafeteria-style market canteen where you slide a tray past small bowls priced ¥300-500: maguro zuke, simmered kingfish, doteni offal in red miso, plus rice and free hot soup. Counter seats face the kitchen and turnover at noon is brutal.
Twelve covered blocks around Osu Kannon where the eating is cheap and hand-held: fist-sized karaage, Taiwanese fried chicken cutlets, Brazilian pastel counters and tapioca stands. Most shops trade 10:00-20:00 and queues form on the main strip.
Nagoya's oldest arcade, an Edo-era merchant street that survived the 1945 firebombing and now mixes 60-year-old sweet shops with natural-wine bars and standing sake counters. Quiet at 17:00, full by 19:00, largely local rather than tourist.
A 1949 coffee house in Izumi with green vinyl booths and a pastry case of cream rolls and fruit shortcake baked on site. Order coffee before 11:00 and the Nagoya morning service adds thick-cut toast and a boiled egg at no extra charge.
Miso nikomi udon simmered in a clay donabe until the hatcho broth turns almost black and the noodles stay deliberately hard and uncooked at the core. Served boiling; the lid doubles as your bowl. In the Esca mall under Nagoya Station.
Two basement floors of Sakae's oldest department store devoted to food: steamed uiro rice cakes from Aoyagi, tenmusu shrimp rice balls, Nagoya Cochin chicken bento and regional sake. Open 10:00-20:00 with free tastings at most counters.
The Taiwanese-Chinese diner that invented Taiwan ramen in the 1970s: soy broth loaded with minced pork, garlic, chives and a punishing quantity of dried chilli. It is a Nagoya dish despite the name, unknown in Taiwan.
The sloping stone approach to Nittai-ji temple, lined with fruit-sandwich counters, small-batch coffee roasters and the Kakuozan Apartment craft complex. Compact, residential and far calmer than Sakae, with most shops opening around 10:00.
Ankake spaghetti: fat 2.2mm noodles fried in lard and drowned in a peppery, gravy-thick tomato sauce, topped with sausage and green pepper. Invented in Nagoya in 1963 and served here in portions named by size, from Regular to Extra Jumbo.
A working miso brewery since 1645, 40 minutes from Meitetsu Nagoya. Free guided tours pass cedar vats holding six tonnes of soybean paste, weighted down by hand-stacked river-stone pyramids and left to ferment through two summers.
A 1949 counter bar in Nishiki serving doteni — beef tendon stewed for hours in a hatcho miso vat that is topped up rather than emptied. Order it with hot sake and boiled eggs dipped in the same dark sauce. Cash only, no reservations.