Inagaki

Not willing to confine itself to just one style of oden, Inagaki in Hanzomon offers three types of broth: Kansai-style, Kanto-style and Nagoya-style. The restaurant has been serving up steaming bowls of soup for almost 30 years and, with the same family in charge for all that time, it still uses the same recipes as when it first opened. All three styles of oden – Kansai-style, with its clear and relatively simple soup; Kanto-style, with its rich, soy-flavoured soup; and Nagoya-style, with its dark, miso-flavoured soup – are worth sampling, but if we really had to choose one, we’d pick the latter. This deep broth is best sampled with soft beef tendons, konnyaku and egg, all of which manage to thoroughly absorb the flavour of the soup. If you're craving extra carbs, order a side of rice, douse it in soup and top with a few pieces of beef tendon for a satisfying side dish. Of course, there’s more to Ingaki than just oden – you can also sample excellent shimesaba (raw mackerel sprinkled with salt and pickled in vinegar), iwashi-baini (sardines with plum) and an extremely tasty komatsuna to aburage no nibidashi (Japanese mustard spinach with fried, seasoned vegetables). Just be sure to start with the oden before you fill up on the restaurant’s other offerings. The friendliness of the staff, including the owner, makes a visit all the more enjoyable.