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How to search for the best places to eat in Japan

SCORE 1,101

Yukari Mitsuhashi 2014.01.13

If you’re looking for places to eat here in Japan, there more than a few options available to help you in your search. Tabelog, a Japanese restaurant review site (much like Yelp) is one, and its rival Gurunavi is another popular option. But over the years an abundance of alternatives have emerged to challenge these two leading services. I thought this would be a good opportunity to look at just a few. Retty is a popular mobile service, where you can get restaurant recommendations from your online friends. Readers may recall that we previously featured it leading up to the recent CNet Japan Awards. On mobile, you can also look to location-based apps like Tab that suggest nearby points of interest, including restaurants. Another interesting option is through customer relations platforms like Kanban Musume (roughly translates as ‘store representative girl’) which lets consumers communicate with store staff online. By becoming a regular at restaurants, people receive exclusive offers as a bonus. Although the name suggests female staff, Kanban Musume includes staff of both genders. Moving on to other services, a new website called ‘Kono-ko-ni-aitai’ (meaning ‘I want to see her’ ) recently launched. According to the site, male users can…

If you’re looking for places to eat here in Japan, there more than a few options available to help you in your search. Tabelog, a Japanese restaurant review site (much like Yelp) is one, and its rival Gurunavi is another popular option. But over the years an abundance of alternatives have emerged to challenge these two leading services. I thought this would be a good opportunity to look at just a few.

Retty is a popular mobile service, where you can get restaurant recommendations from your online friends. Readers may recall that we previously featured it leading up to the recent CNet Japan Awards. On mobile, you can also look to location-based apps like Tab that suggest nearby points of interest, including restaurants.

Another interesting option is through customer relations platforms like Kanban Musume (roughly translates as ‘store representative girl’) which lets consumers communicate with store staff online. By becoming a regular at restaurants, people receive exclusive offers as a bonus. Although the name suggests female staff, Kanban Musume includes staff of both genders.

Moving on to other services, a new website called ‘Kono-ko-ni-aitai’ (meaning ‘I want to see her’ ) recently launched. According to the site, male users can look through photos of female staff at various establishments to find where they’d like to go.

Now this could be for restaurants, hair/esthetic salons, or even night clubs. The site was only launched this past week, so there’s not much data registered at this point. If you want to promote your store, you can add up to three staff registrations for free.

Other ways to discovering new places to eat include websites like Meshitomo, Social Lunch or Coffee Meeting. These websites are built to provide working people or job-seeking students a chance to connect with each other through casual lunches or dinners. While the purposes of these websites are more social, they may also be an interesting way to discover new places to eat and drink.

With so much information out there, it’s good to have so many options to turn to besides just Google. If you’re hungry, these are just a few ways that you can find new and interesting discoveries. If you know of others, let us know in the comments!

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Japanese restaurant site explains tough sushi terms in a handy graphic

Yukari Mitsuhashi 2013.06.20

See the full infographic on Gurunavi Here on SD Japan, we’ve written a few articles about how tech has been used to make sushi restaurants more efficient. There was even a very unusual drone helicopter sushi in London being used for marketing purposes. Speaking of marketing, today Gurunavi (sort of Japan’s answer to Yelp) released an infographic about the many sushi-related terms used at restaurants. Even though sushi is both a casual and more formal dinner option in Japan, there are many terms that people may not be familiar with or maybe they misunderstand them. Gurunavi released this infographic to promote a better understanding of the traditional cuisine (and likely for some self-promotion too!). ‘Gari’ (pink ginger on the side) or ‘Neta’ (ingredient) are common words heard at sushi restaurants, but the infographic dives into even more advanced terms like ‘Nigemono’ (I didn’t know this one, but it means cost-efficient ingredient) and ‘Debana’ (tea served at the beginning of meal). The term ‘murasaki’, which usually refers to the color purple, is apparently used to describe soy sauce at sushi restaurants. Bookmark this infographic to show off to your friends how much you know about sushi. Gurunavi was founded way back…

See the full infographic on Gurunavi

Here on SD Japan, we’ve written a few articles about how tech has been used to make sushi restaurants more efficient. There was even a very unusual drone helicopter sushi in London being used for marketing purposes.

Speaking of marketing, today Gurunavi (sort of Japan’s answer to Yelp) released an infographic about the many sushi-related terms used at restaurants. Even though sushi is both a casual and more formal dinner option in Japan, there are many terms that people may not be familiar with or maybe they misunderstand them. Gurunavi released this infographic to promote a better understanding of the traditional cuisine (and likely for some self-promotion too!).

‘Gari’ (pink ginger on the side) or ‘Neta’ (ingredient) are common words heard at sushi restaurants, but the infographic dives into even more advanced terms like ‘Nigemono’ (I didn’t know this one, but it means cost-efficient ingredient) and ‘Debana’ (tea served at the beginning of meal). The term ‘murasaki’, which usually refers to the color purple, is apparently used to describe soy sauce at sushi restaurants. Bookmark this infographic to show off to your friends how much you know about sushi.

Gurunavi was founded way back in 1989 and went public in 2008 as a local restaurant portal and search engine. The site’s direct competitor is Tabelog, which was launched in 2005. Tabelog’s parent company is Kakaku.com, and they recently launched a version of its site for New York in March of this year. The main difference between the two competitors is that Gurunavi is more store-oriented, providing exclusive coupons for special occasions or drinking parties. In contrast, Tabelog’s strength is its consumer-generated restaurant reviews.

Update: Here’s an awesome translation of the graphic from reader David. Pretty awesome!

news

4 ramen related mobile apps helping to feed Japan

SCORE 1,373

Yukari Mitsuhashi 2013.04.17

Nisshin’s Cup Noodle product is eaten in 80 countries around the world, with more than 31 billion cups having been sold in its near 50 year history, of which Japanese people ate 20 billion. Interestingly, the product is also associated with many early stage startups. There are even expressions like ‘Ramen Profitable‘ by Paul Graham. There are about 34,000 ramen restaurants in Japan according to Tsurumi Ramen, and interestingly that industry has spawned more than a few ramen-related apps, as well as fun products. Here are just a few of them: The Ramen Now With over 300,000 downloads, this app allows users to find ramen restaurants nearby by using geolocation. It also provides coupons for some restaurants giving users a reason to try out different ramen. It has Twitter integration, letting people share ramen they like with friends. The app is currently available for both iOS and Android. Cho Ramen Map Cho can be roughly translated as ‘extreme.’ And this app is extremely detailed in that it even has information like the thickness of ramen noodles at different restaurants. Of course there is also more general information about restaurants’ hours too. It’s available on Google Play. Mitsukete Ramen Mitsukete means…

Nisshin’s Cup Noodle product is eaten in 80 countries around the world, with more than 31 billion cups having been sold in its near 50 year history, of which Japanese people ate 20 billion. Interestingly, the product is also associated with many early stage startups. There are even expressions like ‘Ramen Profitable‘ by Paul Graham. There are about 34,000 ramen restaurants in Japan according to Tsurumi Ramen, and interestingly that industry has spawned more than a few ramen-related apps, as well as fun products. Here are just a few of them:

The Ramen Now

With over 300,000 downloads, this app allows users to find ramen restaurants nearby by using geolocation. It also provides coupons for some restaurants giving users a reason to try out different ramen. It has Twitter integration, letting people share ramen they like with friends. The app is currently available for both iOS and Android.

Cho Ramen Map

Cho can be roughly translated as ‘extreme.’ And this app is extremely detailed in that it even has information like the thickness of ramen noodles at different restaurants. Of course there is also more general information about restaurants’ hours too. It’s available on Google Play.

Mitsukete Ramen

Mitsukete means ‘to find’ in Japanese. It is yet another ramen restaurant map application provided by Gurunavi, one of the major Yelp-like sites in Japan. Users are rewarded with stamps for ramen they have ‘conquered’ and can make a log of their ramen experience. The app is currently available on Google Play.

Minna no Ramen Timer

The name of this app translates into ‘Everyone’s Ramen Timer’, and as you may have guessed by now, it is a cooking timer dedicated exclusively to ramen. It’s for people who opt to go with cup noodles at home, rather than eating out. By reading the barcode on different cup noodles, it automatically sets its timer for that particular type. Just tap the start button and it will tell you when your noodles are most delish! You can also find your favorite cup noodles from favorites and history. It’s available over on Google Play.

More please!

Takumen

Now, if these apps aren’t enough to fulfill your ramen appetite, you can order popular ramen from restaurants online which you can then cook at home. The ecommerce startup launched back in July of 2010, and it’s called Takumen. In a year and a half after its launch, the site has sold over 100,000 items to noodle lovers all over Japan. We’ve heard that they have global expansion in mind, and if that happens, we will be sure to let you know!

Cup Noodle Inception?

We recently came across some cute Cup Noodle merchandise designed by Japanese design studio Nendo, which was produced for the Nisshin Cup Noodles Museum in Yokohama. The Cup noodle Matryoshka (pictured above) takes the brand’s iconic packaging and makes it into a matryoshka-like container, with a cup in a cup in a cup (in a dream?).

Cup noodle forms (below) is another interesting product, making a slight change in the form and shape of the cup to transform it into something entirely different.

Gurunavi

Japanese restaurant site explains tough sushi terms in a handy graphic