Cheap and Tasty! Seven Select Izakaya Chains in Japan

This is a restaurant chain that offers a carefully thought out menu using premium ingredients such as free range chicken raised on its own farms. There are three types of restaurants: Tsukada Nojo Nichinan, where you can enjoy fresh free range chicken and local sake from Miyazaki; Tsukada Nojo Kirishima, where you can have fatty free range chicken and Satsuma shochu from Kagoshima; and Tsukada Nojo Shintoku, which serves lean free range chicken and unusual sake from Hokkaido. Try them all for comparison.

The restaurants in this chain are designed to bring back memories from the Showa Period (1926 - 1989), and their prices are so low they seem to be from that period as well. Their menu items are simple but tasty, such as the charcoal-grilled skewers that start at 50 JPY a piece (excl. tax), items from the oden pot which are 60 JPY each (excl. tax), and the okonomiyaki at 200 JPY (excl. tax). The drinks are also affordably priced at 290 JPY (excl. tax) for a medium draft beer and 190 JPY (excl. tax) for whiskey!

This is a chain where you can try a variety of dishes from Hakata in Kyushu, an area famous for its rich food culture. The restaurants are mostly located in Tokyo. The low-calorie, collagen rich Motsunabe (880 JPY (excl. tax)) offal pot and Mentaiko Dashimaki Tamago (580 JPY (excl. tax), a Japanese-style omelet with soft and spicy mentaiko cod roe, are outstanding! You can also enjoy izakaya standards such as yakitori (46 JPY (excl. tax)) and draft beer (199 JPY (excl. tax)) at reasonable prices.

If you want to fill your tummy with super fresh seafood, this is the chain to go to. Both the sashimi plate of the day and the special nigiri sushi of the day made with plenty of fresh, seasonal seafood are 1,069 JPY (incl. tax). If you plan to have a party, get the Gokai Tairyo Course (3,000 JPY/person (incl. tax)), which includes an abundance of carefully selected ingredients such as whole red sea bream and boiled crab!