You'll Want to Go Out of Your Way to Visit! 5 Restaurants With Delicious Morning Sets in Nara

1. Nara-nagomikan Restaurant & Cafe Awogaki

It\'s said that "in Yamato (now Nara), the day starts with chagayu." Chagayu is tea-flavored rice gruel, and it\'s a local specialty that has continued for 1,200 years. At this restaurant, you can have the Chagayu Gozen set (1,296 JPY (incl. tax)) for breakfast. Okayu (rice gruel) is usually made with a lot of water so it can get gooey, but Nara\'s chagayu is cooked in tea, so it\'s rather smooth. The flavor of the tea melts into the rice for a gentle flavor, so it\'s easy on the gut and great for breakfast. This restaurant opens at 10:30 am, and it\'s a cafe inside Nara\'s biggest souvenir shop, Nara-nagomikan. Please enjoy a meal before or after you shop.
*English-speaking staff and English menu available

2. Shika no Fune Kamado

Shika no Fune is a facility made up of Mayu, a tourism information center; Kamado, a restaurant and grocery, and Saezuri, a tea house. Kamado opens at 8:00 am and offers breakfast. The recommended dish is the Yamato no Asagohan (1,050 JPY), a breakfast set made with local vegetables. The rice is cooked over a wood-burning stove, so it\'s soft and fluffy as well as rich and sweet. You can have as many servings as you want. This restaurant is a self-service restaurant, where you buy tickets at the machine (English writing available) at the entrance. After you eat, please don\'t forget to take your tray to the return area.

3. BAN INOUE Time\'s Place Saidaiji Branch

This cafe is inside the ticket gates of Kintetsu Yamato-Saidaiji Station. If you\'re not planning on using the station for transportation, you can buy a Time\'s Place Saidaiji Service Entrance Ticket (150 JPY) at the machine to enter. You\'ll get the money back by showing the ticket at the register of the cafe or shop you visit. The recommended breakfast set is the Morning Onigiri Set (450 JPY (excl. tax) which starts at 7:30 am. The rice used for the onigiri (riceballs) isn\'t white rice, but wild rice with a characteristic red coloring. It\'s a facility with multiple shops, so you can also buy Nara souvenirs.

4. Restaurant Kotoka

This restaurant offers a fresh breakfast made with ingredients delivered directly from Nara\'s Umaimono-kai, an association of farmers. It\'s in Nara no Umaimono Plaza, directly connected to Nara Station. The recommended dish is the Tamagokake Gohan (400 JPY (excl. tax) (only available from 7:00 am – 10:00 am). Tamagokake gohan is raw egg on rice, and this egg comes from chickens that are fed with great attention to detail not just to their food but also their water, so both the yolk and the white are plump. That egg is used as a topping on delicious Nara rice and then seasoned with a specific soy sauce. It comes with salad and miso soup, so 400 JPY is a bargain.

5. Pan Kobo Tour Blanche

This restaurant offers fresh stone-baked additive-free bread made with natural yeast. The bakers were raised on local farms, and they use local ingredients to make delicious bread made slowly and carefully with lots of feeling. The recommended dish is the freshly made French toast. It\'s a popular product made with a thick slice of their famous white bread soaked in egg, milk, and sugar. They only make 6 pieces at a time, so you should definitely buy it if they have it! There\'s an eat-in space, so you can have their freshly ground coffee (120 JPY) starting at 8:00 am while you enjoy the fragrance of bread that permeates the shop.

All of these shops offer a delicious breakfast that will become a great memory of your trip. Please consider stopping by.