Why the order matters
Nagoya’s food day has a shape. The kissaten morning ends at 11am sharp. The famous lunch houses queue from 11:30. The old taverns open at five and the late-night noodles do not get going until ten. Eat in the wrong order and you spend the day queueing; eat in this order and the queues happen to other people.
Everything below is reachable on one subway network with an IC card, and no single hop takes more than twenty minutes.
Morning — a kissaten, before 11am
Order a coffee anywhere with 「モーニング」 in the window and breakfast arrives with it: thick toast, a boiled egg, often a small salad, sometimes a spread of red-bean paste that is the city’s own habit. This is the cheapest good meal in Japan and it is specific to this region — the coffee shops here compete on what they give away.
Do not look for a famous one; the point of the kissaten is that the ordinary ones are good. Walk into whichever is nearest your hotel, say “hotto kōhī” and let it happen.
Lunch — hitsumabushi near Atsuta
Hitsumabushi is grilled eel over rice, eaten three ways from one bowl, and it is the dish Japanese travellers come to Nagoya for. The most famous house sits by Atsuta Shrine, which means lunch comes with a reason to spend the early afternoon walking a 1,900-year-old shrine forest.
The famous houses have queues by 11:30. Go at 11:00 when the doors open, or go to a second-tier shop and spend half as much for something nearly as good — this site lists both kinds, with prices.
Afternoon — Osu arcade
Two subway stops back towards the centre, Osu is a temple market that grew into a shopping arcade: second-hand clothes, electronics, a working Buddhist temple, Brazilian lunch counters and tenmusu — the prawn-tempura rice ball that is this city’s portable snack.
Walk it end to end and graze. Nothing here needs a queue or a plan, which is exactly what an afternoon between two big meals wants.
Evening — tebasaki and doteni in Sakae
At five the taverns open. Tebasaki are Nagoya’s chicken wings — fried without batter, glazed, hit with white pepper — and doteni is beef tendon simmered in the dark local miso until sticky. Order both, with beer, and you are eating what this city actually eats after work.
Both famous wing houses have branches within walking distance of Sakae station, and the old taverns underneath the centre have been serving doteni from the same pots for decades.
Late — Taiwan ramen in Imaike
Taiwan ramen was invented in Imaike in 1975 and the shop that invented it is still open past midnight. Minced pork, chilli and garlic over noodles, hot enough that locals order rice alongside. It is the correct end to this day, and the subway back to your hotel runs until just after twelve.
If the day beat you, skip it without guilt — the dish appears again in the late-night guide, and it will still be there tomorrow.
The practical layer
Carry cash — the kissaten and the old taverns are mostly cash only, and convenience-store ATMs take foreign cards. Get an IC card before the first subway ride and the day involves no ticket machines at all. Every restaurant on this site shows its closing day; check the one place you would be saddest to miss, because small shops close on fixed weekdays without exception.