Ueda, Nagano, Japan｜Wakana kan

The cheerful landlady will welcome you. A relaxing space inside the store The kimoyaki is also big and has just the right amount of elasticity. The eel is also thick and fluffy, melting in your mouth, very delicious, and the skin is soft and not rubbery, giving it a very satisfying taste. I'll bother you again(*^^*)

It's a small and homely restaurant, but the food is delicious. The price is also more reasonable than the main store, and I personally like the taste here. There are three parking spaces on the adjacent lot, and it's great that it's close to the store. Reservations are required for takeout or eat-in.

I love eel, so I go to most of the restaurants where you can eat eel, mainly in Nagano City, Chikuma City, Suzaka City, Nakano City, Iiyama City, and Joetsu City in Niigata Prefecture, and when I go on business trips etc. I must have visited 5 or 6 eel restaurants in Tokyo and Aichi. I usually go to about 3 of my favorite restaurants in rotation, mainly in Nagano City. This time, I visited most of the stores within an hour from my home, so I visited this long-established store in Ueda for the first time. It's a little hard to find because it's in a residential area, but I entered the store just before 12:30 noon on a weekday. It's an inconvenient location if you don't have a car, but there was a parking lot for 5 cars in total, 2 spaces in front of the store and 3 spaces in a monthly parking lot next to the store. When I asked the shop owner later, he said that if the car is full, if you ask, you can park your car in a space across the street in front of the shop that looks like it can accommodate about 3 cars. was. Inside the store, there seemed to be a counter and two (or maybe three?) tables that could seat about 6 people, and a tatami room in the back. When I entered the restaurant, there were 4 to 5 customers at two tables, and since I was there alone, I was led to the counter by the polite and polite hostess, and I ordered Unajyu (Matsu) for 3,450 yen. After about 10 minutes of waiting, the eel was brought to me. Unajyu is made with about 3/4 eel and has liver attached. The liver of liver soup is large and chewy, and when you bite into it, it has a slightly bitter taste that spreads in your mouth. I had high expectations for Unagiya because you can tell just by eating liver soup that the restaurant is good or bad. First, when I tried to cut the eel into bite-sized pieces with chopsticks, the eel meat fell apart easily. Kanto-style eel with steaming. Now, put the eel on your rice and bring it to your mouth. The moment I put it in my mouth and took a bite, the firm and thick eel fluffed up in my mouth and then melted in my mouth! Then, the deliciousness of the eel and the rice soaked in the slightly sweet sauce that I like spreads in my mouth. “T-this is delicious!!!” I couldn't help but whisper in my heart... This is the first time in my life that I have eaten eel that is so fluffy and soft that it just melts in your mouth. The more you chew, the more the flavor spreads throughout your mouth, and the more time passes. This is the best and most delicious dish I have ever eaten! I moved forward with my chopsticks, slowly savoring that happiness with each bite. Of course, there is no odor that is typical of eel, which shows the careful work of the owner. I'm a big eater, so I ordered a large serving of rice, and I was completely satisfied with the meal, filling my stomach and heart without leaving even the last grain of rice. When we finished eating, there was no one else in the restaurant, so we asked the owner to talk to us about various things. There is also a store with the same name, Wakanakan, in front of Ueda Station, but it is run by a different owner and has been in its current location for 27 years. Since it's Noren-Wari, the eel and sauce used are the same, and depending on the time, the eel used is only domestically produced eel from Kyushu, Shizuoka, or Aichi, and on this day it was from Kyushu. Even though he was busy with work, he answered my questions politely, and the owner was also a calm and friendly person. Recently, the amount of eel caught has decreased dramatically, and there are concerns about how long we will be able to eat eel again, but I sincerely hope that famous restaurants like this one will remain open forever. By the way, the store is closed on Tuesdays, and if Tuesday is a public holiday, the store will be closed on the following Wednesday. I don't really want to tell anyone about it because it's possible that delicious restaurants are crowded, or that the taste deteriorates due to crowding, but I hear that all eel restaurants are currently struggling with management, so I'll continue to enjoy eel at this restaurant forever. I decided to post it this time with the hope that you can eat it. The price of 3,450 yen is quite difficult for ordinary people to afford, but I paid the price and left the store thinking that it was cheap if it would make me feel this satisfied. Thank you for the meal today. It has become my favorite eel restaurant. Please continue to eat our delicious eel dishes.