Dinner in Nikko
Food is an important part of our travels, very important and its the one thing that hubby is in charge of discovering and finding when we go on our adventures. This trip to Nikko we had a couple lunches and dinners to enjoy out in the local area. Small, family run restaurants that were indeed all highlights. So if you visit Nikko make sure to stop by these places for dinner.
STEAKHOUSE ENYA
This trip we didn’t really feel like an izakaya for dinner, and all the Japanese food we wanted to eat like Yuba were only open for lunch.
So dinners we went for other cuisine, Steakhouse Enya was a great little fix for those wishing some tasty steaks, addictive garlic rice and some very nice homemade soup.
TRATTORIA GIGLI
We love Italian food & Italy in general (probably the country we’ve visited the most together. In Japan you can find these amazing Italian restaurants run by local Japanese where the food is divine. Most of them have spent time working and living in Italy, learning the cuisine. Some of the best Italian we’ve had in Japan is in the most random places, like Hirosaki in Aomori and on Yakushima Island in Kagoshima.
Trattori Gigli is a lovely small family run restaurant, you feel like you’re eating in their house! It had already got points on our list because they made had pasta dishes using pasta other than spaghetti (Japan uses too much spaghetti). A small menu, but all are done well, we love a good ragu & the sauce was perfect and if they have burrata cheese on the menu, you can bet we’re ordering it.
NEED A LITTLE TEA BREAK?
CAFE KARIN
Drop by Cafe Karin, for a little afternoon tea/coffee break where you can sip on some toasty hot hot chocolate & marshmallows (we don’t drink coffee) & surprisingly have some scrumptious homemade scones with clotted cream (hubby was happy) whilst appreciating the cute quirk of Moomin paraphernalia around.
ACCESS TO TOBU & JR NIKKO STATION
BY TRAIN
FROM TOBU ASAKUSA STATION | approx 2-3 hrs | COST: ~1400 - 3340JPY OW (local/expresses)
FROM SHINJUKU STATION | approx 2hrs | COST4090JPY OW | limited express train
TO GET TO THE TEMPLES & SHRINES
as all the temples & shrines are around each other, one can walk to them in roughly ~30-40mins
otherwise a local bus takes 10mins (350JPY OW)
