- Where to Eat Kanazawa Curry: Champion's Curry, a Pioneer Since 1961 at Omicho Market
- Champion's Curry, founded in 1961, is one of the defining names in Kanazawa curry. This Omicho branch is in Omicho Market basement.
Katamachi, the Biggest Nightlife District in Kanazawa
Once the sun sets in Kanazawa, one stretch of the national highway running from Saigawa Bridge up to Korinbo fills with the lights of one storefront after another.
That stretch is Katamachi, the largest nightlife district in the city. Food, drink, and everything else Kanazawa offers after dark gathers here.
Where to spend an evening, how to fill the hours after the museums close, where the restaurants and bars are. In Kanazawa, the answer to all of it is Katamachi.
This is the other face of the historic castle town of Kaga Hyakumangoku (one million koku). This guide walks you through the district.
Right Next to Korinbo, in the Center of Kanazawa
Katamachi sits in central Kanazawa. It borders Korinbo, the area of department stores and brand shops, on the south side, and the stretch of National Route 157 running from there down to Saigawa Bridge is what the city calls Katamachi.
Kanazawa Castle Park, Kenrokuen Garden, the Higashi Chaya District, the Nishi Chaya District, the Nagamachi Samurai District, Omicho Market. The main sights of Kanazawa are scattered around Katamachi on every side.
Because those major sights are concentrated south of Kanazawa Station, the city is easy to tour by day, and Katamachi falls inside that same area, which keeps it easy to reach at night as well.
A taxi is the simplest way to get to and from the district. From around Oyama Shrine the fare runs about ¥600, and a ride back from Katamachi to the Kanazawa Station area at the late-night surcharge comes to roughly ¥1,500. Plenty of taxis are on the road even in the small hours.
Buses serve the area too, but after 6:00 pm services thin out or stop running altogether, so decide how you are getting back before you head out. (For most sightseeing buses, the final departure is around 6:00 pm.)
A Web of Alleys That Makes the Liveliest Night in Kanazawa
The landmark of the district is the Katamachi Intersection, where Chuo-dori from the west and Saigawa-odori from the east meet National Route 157 running north to south. Photos and footage of Kanazawa after dark almost always feature this crossing, so you may well have seen it already.
Bars, traditional Japanese restaurants, and entertainment venues fan out from the intersection in all four directions.
National Route 157, running north to south through the intersection, is the main street of Kanazawa. Restaurants and bars line both sides of it, many of them chains, and the crowds hold up night after night.
The southern half of Katamachi runs on small venues across a wide range of genres: izakaya, kappo (traditional Japanese fine dining), Italian, French, German, Chinese, along with bars and lounges.
The streets along the Sai River on the west side carry plenty of variety as well, with a notable concentration of stylish traditional Japanese restaurants and kappo. The mood along here is worth the detour, so work this stretch into your route. Snack bars and lounges operate in this part of the district too.
Izakaya are scattered across the whole district, so walking it once night falls is a fine way to pick a table. Within Katamachi, a few distinctive drinking alleys and clusters of places to eat and drink stand out, and those are the ones worth knowing before you go.
Shintenchi: A Drinking Alley Still in the Showa Era
Right beside the Katamachi Kirara complex runs a narrow alley of small bars and eateries called Shintenchi. Signs for tiny shops cover both sides of the lane from end to end.
Snack bars and bars dominate the signage, but the range of businesses runs much wider than that. Izakaya, oden, sushi, udon, onigiri, tacos, cafes. One bar plays 70s rock, another snack bar has karaoke. Every one of them is small and built around a counter.
The Showa retro mood of the lane recalls Golden Gai in Shinjuku. A walk through it is worth the time on its own.
Chuo Mishokugai: A Yokocho Built to Bring Back the Lost Yatai
Just past Shintenchi is Kanazawa Chuo Mishokugai, a tiny yokocho alley.
Kanazawa once had yatai (street food stalls) set up all over the city. After those stalls disappeared, calls to bring that liveliness back produced this block, in 1966.
Plain wooden huts run together like a row house, each shop under about 10 square meters. Six to eight people at the counter fill one of them. Around 20 of these small shops stand shoulder to shoulder.
Sixty years on, the yokocho built in the image of those stalls still keeps the same close quarters. The atmosphere runs deep, but step through a door and you find a fine owner, good cooking, and regulars glad to share the counter. This alley is well worth an evening.
Kiguramachi Street: Where the Food of Kanazawa Comes Together
Kiguramachi Street is the street that represents dining in Kanazawa. Izakaya, kappo, sushi, yakiniku, ramen, French, Italian, other Asian cuisines, wine bars, cafe bars, even concept cafes. The variety on this one street covers nearly everything, and among the alleys of Katamachi it is the most modern and the most current.
This is my own favorite street in the district. I have eaten at a good number of its restaurants, and the food was excellent at every one, with owners and regulars who were a pleasure to sit beside. If you have already worked your way through the signature dishes of Kanazawa and simply want a good dinner and a drink, this is the street for it.
The District for Dinner and Drinks in Kanazawa
Come to Katamachi and you will find whatever you want to eat and drink in Kanazawa at night.
A casual drink in an alley still standing as it did in the Showa era. A small counter-only shop where you talk with the person beside you. The noren curtain of a kappo, parted for a slow course of Kaga cuisine, named for the old province this region once formed.
Walking all of the areas covered here takes about 15 to 20 minutes. Daytime in Kanazawa belongs to samurai history, while the night brings modern izakaya, kappo serving the flavors of Kaga, and Showa retro drinking alleys. Holding all of those at once is what makes Katamachi worth an evening, and since each one is a short walk from the next, a completely different mood is only a few minutes away.
Katamachi is where the Kanazawa night gathers. Make time for it.
