Japan Eat- Best Eats in Karuizawa

Situated in Nagano Prefecture, Karuizawa is surrounded by nature and a perfect place for a city dweller to escape from the daily hustle of life. When we visited Karuizawa, we were surprised by the delicious food that it has to offer!

Read Our Karuizawa Self-Drive Itinerary and Things to Do Here

1.     Karuizawa French Bakery

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This French bakery is popular among locals as well as tourist. More than just a bakery that was visited by John Lennon, they serve quality bread and pastries. Bread is freshly baked and the most popular item is the Apple Crumble. If you are looking for something smaller, do try the Apple Crumble bread with cream cheese inside. So good! We could have another one but decide to save the space for other food in Karuizawa.

Address: Kyukaruizawa-618 Karuizawa, Kitasaku District, Nagano 389-0102, Japan

Opening Hours: 8 am – 5pm, Daily except forThursday

2.     柏倉製菓

Tuck away in a small corner of Karuizwa old street, this traditional Japanese sweet and rice caught our eyes with its rustic looking shop front. The best seller is 花豆の赤飯, Red Sticky rice with Beans which we didn’t manage to get because it was already sold out. Instead, we purchased the peanut mochi and it was soft and chewy! Plus, the adzuki isn’t too sweet and goes really well with the mochi.

Address: Kyūkaruizawa-742-6 Karuizawa, Kitasaku District, Nagano 389-0102, Japan

Opening Hour: 9 am – 5pm, Daily except for Thursday

3.     Mikado Coffee Old Karuizawa Street Shop

Located on the main street of Old Karuizawa, is Mikado Coffee, founded in 1948. The Kyu Karuizawa Mikado Coffee branch is opened in 1952 and is a must visit in Kyukaruizawa. It is famous for their inhouse roasted coffee beans, and their Soft Serve Coffee Ice Cream is delicious!It’s rich in flavourful, soft and creamy! Some of the must buy here are the fresh roasted coffee beans which are fragrant. The friendly staff also shared with us the interesting design elements of the shop! There is sign board in with a hidden soft serve ice cream shape, hidden speaker in the interior etc! What a cute design!

Address: Kyūkaruizawa-786-2 Karuizawa, Kitasaku District, Nagano 389-0102, Japan

Opening Hours: Daily, 10am–6pm

4.     Kawakamian 川上庵

Located on the highland and famous for buckwheat in the region, 川上庵 Kawakamian's  handmade buckwheat soba is highly recommended by many visitors. We went in the evening and was lucky to find seats. I’m guessing that most day trip visitors have already left the town.

We started our meal with an appetizer – Smoked Duck. To be honest, it exceeded our expectation.  It changes the way we see a smoked duck and how it supposed to taste. Each piece was sliced thinly and cooked to perfection. Unlike the ones found in Singapore, it was tender, juicy but not have a gamey taste. To enjoy it, mix it with the accompanying soy sauce, wasabi and spring onion!

For mains, we order a hot soba tempura set and a cold soba tempura set each. The hot soba perhaps is softer and can be easily broken into pieces. On the other hand, the cold soba was more chewy. 

The tempura came with Ebi and a variety of vegetables such as asparagus, shimeji mushroom, lotus roots, bell pepper and etc. These days, I skip Ebi tempura because whenever I visited a Japanese restaurant because of the poor quality of prawn used. Unlike others, the Ebi tempura at Kawakamian is huge and juicy! Vegetables were really fresh and tasty! Best of all, the batter is not overwhelming.

To end the meal, the restaurant staff will provide the water used to cook the soba for you to add to your existing soup as a soup! We like ours with a bit of wasabi in the soup! Definitely the perfect meal in the cold weather!

Address: 6-10 Karuizawa, Kitasaku District, Nagano 389-0102, Japan

Opening Hours: Daily, 11am – 10 pm

5.     Paomu Pudding

Situated along the Old Karuizawa Street, one will not miss this pudding stand! The pudding served in Paomu is a must eat and it is creamy, soft and not overly sweet. Love it! There are also seats just next to the stand for you to enjoy this decadent dessert. There is also a restaurant that serves western Japanese food together with japanese sweets on the second level.

Address: Kyūkaruizawa-806-1 Karuizawa, Kitasaku District, Nagano 389-0102, Japan

Opening Hours: 9am – 5pm

Central Japan Self drive itinerary 

Read Kawagoe Koedo Itinerary & Things to do in Kawagoe here (Part 1)

Read Karuizawa Itinerary and things to do here (Part 2)

Other Japan Travel Itinerary 

Read 6 Day 6 Night Tokyo, Hakone & Kawaguchiko Itinerary here

Read Hokkaido Itinerary Self Drive - 10 Day 9 Night here