Nagaya

Nagaya is a Michelin one-star restaurant at Klosterstraße 42 in Düsseldorf, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, run by chef Yoshizumi Nagaya and open since 2003. The cuisine combines Japanese technique and ingredients with European influences, and the restaurant is one of the best-known fine-dining addresses in the city, which has a large Japanese community. The cooking is built around a multi-course Japanese-European tasting menu, priced at about EUR 170 (roughly $195) according to listings, with sashimi and nigiri courses as an emblematic part of the experience and a wagyu course as the richer main stage. The dining room is refined and quiet, in keeping with a tasting-menu restaurant in the city centre, and the service is formal and precise. Dress is smart casual to smart, and conversation is hushed rather than boisterous. A beverage programme of sake, wine and tea would be typical of this style of restaurant, but visitors should check the current list with the restaurant. Reservations are required and should be made by phone on +49 211 8639636 or through the website, and for dinner on Friday and Saturday booking several weeks ahead is prudent. A directory listing gives opening hours of Tuesday to Saturday for lunch from 12:00 to 14:00 and dinner from 19:00 to 22:00, closed Sunday and Monday, though these should be confirmed on nagaya.de. Prices are at the top of the local scale, so a visit is a special-occasion meal for most travellers. Lunch can offer a more accessible way to experience the cooking if a lunch menu is available. The restaurant sits in the Stadtmitte district, within reach of the Altstadt and the Königsallee, and shares chef lineage with Yoshi by Nagaya, the same chef's counter-style restaurant near the Japanese quarter.