What to Eat in Yokohama: 20 Must-Try Foods for Every Visitor

Iekei ramen is Yokohama’s most important contribution to Japanese food culture: a rich hybrid broth combining pork bone (tonkotsu) with chicken-based soy sauce tare, served with thick, straight noodles, three slices of chashu pork, spinach, and sheets of nori leaning against the bowl wall. The style was invented in 1974 by Minoru Yoshimura at Yoshimuraya in Yokohama — the first of hundreds of “ya” (house) suffix shops that form the Iekei family tree.

The broth is thicker and saltier than Tokyo-style ramen, with a distinctive chicken oil added at the end that gives it a glossy, deeply savory finish. Yoshimuraya in Kanagawa Ward remains the original, with a permanent queue. The Iekei Tokyo in Yokohama Station area is more accessible for first-time visitors.

Sanmamen was born in Yokohama around 1947, originally created as a meal for kitchen staff in the city’s Chinese restaurants. The defining feature is its sauce: a thick, glossy ankake (starch-thickened) glaze of stir-fried vegetables — bean sprouts, Chinese cabbage, carrots, pork, and sometimes seafood — poured hot over a bowl of light soy-sauce ramen. The starchy topping stays hot far longer than regular ramen toppings and clings to the noodles.

Sanmamen is almost exclusively found in Kanagawa Prefecture, particularly in Yokohama and Kawasaki. It represents the direct influence of Yokohama’s Chinese restaurant culture on local Japanese food.

Miura Maguro Ramen is a specialty from the Miura Peninsula at the southern tip of Kanagawa — one of Japan’s leading tuna fishing regions. The broth is built on a tuna-based dashi rather than the standard pork or chicken stock, giving it a clean, oceanic depth that is entirely unlike anything found in Yokohama’s ramen scene. Slices of fresh or marinated maguro tuna replace the chashu pork as the centrepiece topping.

Miura City is 60 minutes from Yokohama Station by Keikyu Line. The ramen was developed as a way to use the entire tuna, including cuts that restaurants wouldn’t typically serve as sashimi.

Yokohama shumai (spelled “Siumai” in local usage) is the city’s most iconic food and a source of intense civic pride. The Yokohama style is distinguished by a filling of coarsely ground pork mixed with dried scallop powder — a technique introduced by崎陽軒 (Kiyoken) in 1928 — which gives the dumpling a noticeably sweet, oceanic depth. Each shumai is small, firm, and topped with a single green pea. They are served with soy sauce and karashi mustard.

Kiyoken‘s cold-eaten shumai — developed to be delicious even without reheating, for train journeys — became one of Japan’s most beloved ekiben (train station bento) experiences. The Shumai Bento sold at Yokohama Station has been served since 1954 and sells over 50,000 units daily.

Yokohama Chinatown’s dim sum culture is the most developed outside of Hong Kong in Asia. Steamed har gow (shrimp dumplings), siu mai, cheung fun rice noodle rolls, char siu bao (BBQ pork buns), dan tart (egg custard tarts), and turnip cake are served tableside in bamboo steamers at dedicated yum cha restaurants. The Chinatown’s dim sum quality significantly surpasses what is typically found at Chinese restaurants elsewhere in Japan.

Weekend mornings from 10am–2pm are peak dim sum hours. Heichinrou and Manchinrou are the two most celebrated high-end Chinatown restaurants, both operating since the Meiji era. Budget-friendly options line Chukagai Odori, the main Chinatown street.

Walking through Yokohama Chinatown and eating a freshly steamed nikuman (steamed pork bun) from a street-side shop is one of the city’s most iconic food experiences. Yokohama’s Chinatown nikuman are significantly larger and more elaborately filled than the convenience store versions found nationwide — fluffy white dough encasing a dense, juicy filling of minced pork, bamboo shoots, ginger, and shiitake mushrooms. Specialty versions include black sesame, custard, and seafood fillings.

The giant 600g “king nikuman” served at several Chinatown shops has become a social media phenomenon and a genuine Yokohama experience. Even the standard version is a meal in itself.

Nama shirasu don is Kanagawa’s most beloved seafood bowl: a generous mound of raw baby sardines (shirasu) served ice-cold over warm sushi rice, garnished with grated ginger, green onions, and a drizzle of soy sauce. The shirasu must be caught that morning to be served raw — the slender, translucent fish have a mild, oceanic flavor and an almost creamy texture when ultra-fresh.

The Shonan coast towns of Kamakura and Enoshima are the premier destinations for nama shirasu don, with the fishing boats landing catches at Koshigoe Port just minutes from the restaurants. The season runs roughly April to December, with August and September producing peak quality.

Beyond the celebrated raw version, shirasu appears across Kanagawa’s food culture in multiple preparations: kama shirasu (gently boiled, lightly salted), tama shirasu (dried in the sun), and shirasu pasta (a Shonan coastal invention that has spread nationwide). Shirasu pizza, shirasu toast, and shirasu tempura are all served at beach cafes along the Shonan and Miura coastline.

The Kanagawa coastline produces over 3,000 tonnes of shirasu annually, making it one of Japan’s top three shirasu fishing regions. The fish are so delicate that they deteriorate within hours of landing, making the Shonan and Miura versions incomparable in freshness.

Kamakura, 30 minutes from Yokohama by train, sits directly on Sagami Bay and offers some of Kanagawa’s finest seafood dining. Local catches include kinmedai (splendid alfonsino), aji (horse mackerel), tako (octopus), and seasonal sakuraebi (cherry shrimp) from Suruga Bay. The town’s seafood restaurants along Yuigahama and Zaimokuza beaches serve kaisendon (seafood rice bowls) and freshly grilled whole fish at lunch prices that drop dramatically on weekdays.

Gyunabe is one of Japan’s most historically significant dishes: beef hot pot cooked in a shallow iron pan with soy sauce, sugar, mirin, and green onions — the direct ancestor of sukiyaki. When Yokohama’s port opened in 1859, Western traders brought beef-eating culture to Japan, and the city’s restaurants began serving gyunabe as a way to let Japanese customers experience beef for the first time. The dish became a symbol of Meiji-era modernization.

Authentic gyunabe is distinguished from sukiyaki by its earthier, less sweet broth and the traditional use of an iron pan rather than a sukiyaki pot. The beef is dipped in raw egg before eating. Juyukaku in Yokohama’s Kannai district is the most celebrated gyunabe restaurant.

Yokohama’s Tsurumi Ward contains one of Japan’s largest Koreatown concentrations, and its yakiniku (Korean-style BBQ) restaurants are among the best in the Kanto region. The proximity to Yokohama’s port — through which Korean workers arrived throughout the 20th century — created an authentic Korean-Japanese food culture distinct from the more tourist-oriented Korea-towns in Tokyo. Galbi (short rib), samgyeopsal (pork belly), and naengmyeon (cold noodles) are the stars.

Yokosuka Kaigun Curry is Japan’s most historically significant curry dish: a recreation of the exact recipe served aboard Imperial Japanese Navy ships from the Meiji era, based on the official Navy cookbook. The curry is mild, thick, and slightly sweet — closer to the British-style curry that the Navy adopted from Royal Navy rations than to the spice-forward Indian version. It is served alongside a glass of milk and a simple salad, exactly as it was on naval vessels.

Yokosuka City, 40 minutes from Yokohama Station by Keikyu Line, actively promotes the dish as its regional identity. Over 50 restaurants in the city serve certified “Kaigun Curry” using the historical recipe guidelines.

Pudding à la mode was invented in Yokohama in 1950 at Hotel New Grand — a caramel-custard pudding served alongside ice cream, fresh fruit, and whipped cream on an elaborate dessert plate. It became the defining yoshoku (Western-influenced Japanese cuisine) dessert and has remained on the menus of Yokohama’s grand hotels and old-school cafes ever since. The dish reflects Yokohama’s unique role as the city where Western dining culture was first absorbed and transformed by Japanese sensibility.

Yokohama has one of Japan’s strongest craft beer cultures, rooted in its long history as a port city where foreign brewing traditions arrived earliest. Yokohama Beer (横浜ビール), founded in 1999, brews distinctive ales and lagers using local Kanagawa hops and ingredients including Kamakura vegetables and Sagami Bay salt. The brewery taproom in the Kannai district is the anchor of Yokohama’s craft beer scene.

The city’s beer culture is particularly concentrated in the Kannai, Motomachi, and Minatomirai waterfront areas, where converted warehouse bars and harbor-view craft beer pubs create an atmosphere unlike anything in Tokyo.

Yokohama’s food identity is shaped by three forces that exist nowhere else in Japan simultaneously: the port’s tradition of international exchange (dating to 1859), the presence of Japan’s largest Chinatown, and the Shonan coast’s extraordinary seafood. The result is a city where Chinese, Korean, Western, and traditional Japanese cuisines have been merging and evolving for over 160 years. Yokohama’s food overview covers the key districts and dining philosophies in depth.

Kakigoori (shaved ice) holds a special place in Kanagawa’s summer food culture, particularly along the Shonan coast where beach matsuri (festivals) and outdoor stalls serve the dessert from June through September. Yokohama’s kakigoori scene has evolved far beyond the basic school-festival versions — Motomachi and Kamakura cafes serve artisanal versions with natural fruit syrups, condensed milk, and red bean paste built into the ice in layers.

Kamakura in particular has developed one of Japan’s most sophisticated kakigoori cultures, with dedicated shops that source regional ingredients including Shonan yuzu, Sagamihara peaches, and locally harvested azuki beans for their toppings.

Saka manjyu is a traditional steamed bun made from wheat flour dough fermented with rice koji (natural sake yeast), filled with sweet red bean paste. The koji fermentation gives the bun a light, naturally leavened texture and a gentle sake-like fragrance that distinguishes it from standard manju. Found throughout the mountain and valley communities of inland Kanagawa, particularly in the Tanzawa and Hakone foothill areas.

Herahera dango is a uniquely shaped rice-flour dumpling from the Sajima area of Yokosuka City — flat and wide like a spatula (hera) rather than the standard round shape. The dango is coated in sweet red bean paste (anko) and has a chewy, slightly firm texture. The shape is practical as well as distinctive: the flat form means more surface area for the anko coating and easier handling. An authentic local sweet with almost no presence outside Yokosuka.

Kanko yaki is a traditional drum-shaped baked snack from the Tsukui area of Sagamihara City in inland Kanagawa. Its round, slightly convex shape mimics the kakko drum used in Japanese imperial court music (gagaku), from which the name derives. The shell is a thin, lightly sweetened wheat batter baked until golden, filled with smooth white bean paste or red bean paste. Simple, elegant, and almost unknown outside its home region — the definition of a true hidden local specialty.

The Japanese Christmas cake — a light sponge layer cake covered in whipped cream and decorated with strawberries — was first popularized in Yokohama, where Western bakery traditions arrived earliest through the port. The Fujiya confectionery company, which standardized the Japanese Christmas cake format, originated its confectionery culture through Yokohama. Today the city’s patisseries produce some of Japan’s most elaborate Christmas cake versions, and the tradition of purchasing one on Christmas Eve remains deeply embedded in local family culture.