Restaurants, hotels, bars and wineries in Otsu from the En Primeur Club guide.
Accolades in Otsu
These rooms show Otsu’s upper tier of Japanese dining, from kaiseki and charcoal grill to hotel teppanyaki.
This Otsu traditional Japanese restaurant works in a modest setting with fresh local flavours. It has a broad set of accolades, including Tabelog 100 #89 in 2025, Opinionated About Dining Top Restaurants in Japan Ranked #4 in 2025 and La Liste Top Restaurants: 87pts in 2026. The format is à la carte.
This kaiseki restaurant in Otsu uses seasonal Lake Biwa ingredients in an elegant setting. It offers tasting menus and set menus, drawing on Shiga’s kaiseki tradition, with a wine list and sake.
In Seta, this charcoal-grilled kappo restaurant serves wild game, local Shiga chicken, aged beef and Lake Biwa fish. The menu runs à la carte and set menu, with a wine list and sake.
Otsu’s specialist rooms focus on one tradition at a time, with eel, Omi beef and handmade soba each given clear identity.
In Hamaotsu, this traditional unagi restaurant centres on grilled eel and a sake program, with minimal wine service. It carries Tabelog Gold (2025), Tabelog 100 #1 in 2024 and Tabelog Silver #151 in 2026.
In Chuo, Otsu, this Omi beef specialist serves steak, sukiyaki and shabu shabu in private and semi-private rooms. It offers à la carte and set menus and was selected for Tabelog 100 #40 in 2025.
This handmade soba house near Ishiyamadera serves noodles and tempura in a traditional Japanese house-style setting. The drinks side includes sake and wine is minimal. It was selected for Tabelog 100 #95 in 2025.
Otsu and Hamaotsu have the most listed venues in our guide, with additional pockets in Chuo, Seta, Katata, Awazu and Miidera. Otsu holds kaiseki, hotel teppanyaki and traditional Japanese cooking, while Hamaotsu adds unagi and wagashi.
Otsu has no Michelin-starred restaurants in our guide. Hotel Koo Otsuhyakucho in Chuo is Michelin Selected for 2025 in the hotel guide, where its renovated machiya townhouses combine traditional Japanese and modern Scandinavian design.
Tasting menus are available at Teppanyaki Oomi and a traditional kaiseki restaurant in Otsu. Teppanyaki Oomi serves Omi wagyu and seasonal local Shiga ingredients at a counter inside Biwako Hotel with Lake Biwa views. The kaiseki restaurant serves seasonal Lake Biwa ingredients in an elegant setting.
wine lists and sake are served at Teppanyaki Oomi and a traditional kaiseki restaurant in Otsu, and at a charcoal-grilled kappo restaurant in Seta. Teppanyaki Oomi also serves shochu and cocktails alongside Omi wagyu and seasonal local Shiga ingredients.
By Emmett Haley · Updated October 8, 2026 · Editorial standards
Otsu
Selected entries from the current guide for Otsu.
Otsu, Japan
毎良山荘 occupies a quiet address in Otsu's Katsuragawabomuracho, placing it at a significant remove from Kyoto's more trafficked dining corridors. The restaurant draws on Shiga Prefecture's produce traditions and proximity to Lake Biwa, situating it within a regional kaiseki lineage that rewards visitors willing to travel beyond the obvious. Reservation logistics and current pricing should be confirmed directly before visiting.
Otsu, Japan
Uran places Otsu’s freshwater cooking in a serious national conversation: unagi as a specialist craft rather than a casual comfort category. Its Tabelog Award 2026 Silver recognition, 2025 Gold history, and selection for Tabelog Unagi 100 in 2024 put a small Shiga eel house into a demanding peer group, with ingredient focus doing the heavy lifting.
Otsu, Japan
In Otsu's quieter dining quarter, Jidoriya Onza draws on the jidori free-range chicken tradition that defines a particular tier of Japanese poultry-focused cooking. The restaurant sits within the Shiga Prefecture restaurant scene, where Lake Biwa's agricultural hinterland supplies produce that larger city kitchens often overlook. For anyone tracing ingredient-driven Japanese cooking beyond Kyoto's more visible counters, it represents a considered stop.
Otsu, Japan
Korakuan (Kouraku An) is a Tabelog Bronze Award winner in Otsu's Kayanoura district, recognised every year from 2018 through 2026 and selected three times for the Tabelog Japanese Cuisine WEST Top 100. With 27 seats, a tatami room, and a fish-forward kaiseki format, dinner runs JPY 15,000–19,999 against a backdrop of Lake Biwa views. Cash only; reservations required for two or more.
Otsu, Japan
Chikasada gives Otsu’s unagi tradition a practical, ingredient-led frame: eel, seafood, regional cooking, and a no-frills room near the Seta River rather than the performance style common in larger cities. Its selection for Tabelog 100 - Unagi - 2024 places it in a national conversation about serious eel restaurants, while the experience remains rooted in Shiga’s everyday dining culture.
Otsu, Japan
Miidera Chikara Mochi Honke places Otsu’s wagashi culture in a practical, low-priced format: Japanese traditional sweets, cafe seating, take-out, and a free Otsu-e gallery upstairs. Its Tabelog 100 selection for Japanese traditional sweets and sweets cafes in WEST 2023 makes it a useful stop for reading the city through local confectionery rather than a full restaurant meal.
Otsu, Japan
Otsu’s beef culture is not a Kyoto side note; Shiga has its own claim through Omi beef, one of Japan’s historic wagyu names. Omi Gyu Senmon Ten Omi Kadoman sits in the serious end of that conversation, pairing steak, sukiyaki and shabu shabu with Tabelog 100 Steak / Teppanyaki WEST recognition in 2025.
Otsu, Japan
Otsu’s Omi beef tradition has a serious address in Karahashicho, where a three-floor format moves from teppanyaki counter to banquet hall and private rooms. Omi Gyu Senmon Ten Restaurant Matsukiya Honten is selected for Tabelog 100 Steak / Teppanyaki WEST 2025, with Omi beef, sukiyaki and beef dishes framed by a substantial wine, sake and shochu program.
Otsu, Japan
Ramen Yoshichi Katata ten gives Otsu’s ramen scene a low-cost, high-signal address in Katata, with ramen, tsukemen and dumplings priced in the sub-¥1,000 bracket. Its repeated Tabelog Ramen WEST 100 selections in 2023, 2024 and 2025 place it among Kansai’s more closely watched noodle counters without turning the experience formal.
Otsu, Japan
Sara Soba Nagisa An places Otsu’s soba culture in a practical, ingredient-led register: buckwheat noodles, saba sushi, donburi, sake, and shochu in a house-style room rather than a luxury dining format. Its Tabelog 100 Soba WEST 2025 selection gives it a clear credential within western Japan’s soba field, while the experience remains grounded in everyday pricing and lunch-driven rhythm.
Otsu, Japan
Teppanyaki Oomi places Shiga’s beef culture in a hotel-counter format overlooking Lake Biwa, with 17 counter seats and recognition in Tabelog’s Steak / Teppanyaki WEST 100 for 2024 and 2025. The draw is not spectacle for its own sake, but the regional grammar of Omi beef, cooked in front of guests with drinks support that includes sake, shochu, wine and cocktails.
Otsu, Japan
Handmade soba near Ishiyamadera places Otsu’s temple-side dining culture in a quieter register than the city’s beef and kaiseki addresses. Teuchi Soba Sobaya Sumikura is a 21-seat soba house recognized in Tabelog 100 Soba WEST 2025, with tempura, Japanese side dishes, sake and shochu shaping a compact meal around buckwheat rather than ceremony.
Otsu, Japan
炭火割烹 蔓ききょう sits in Otsu's Seta district, where charcoal-fired kaiseki-adjacent cooking meets the quieter rhythms of Shiga Prefecture's dining culture. The restaurant name references the bellflower (kikyō), a plant long associated with Japanese seasonal aesthetics, and the charcoal grill (sumibī) format signals a focus on live-fire technique rather than purely cold-knife precision. Booking details and current hours are best confirmed directly through local reservation channels.
Otsu, Japan
行楽庵 sits in Otsu's lakeside Kayanoura district, drawing on Shiga's deep kaiseki tradition and the produce rhythms of Lake Biwa's shoreline. The setting, within the ALTA Hōeiura complex, positions it away from Kyoto's more crowded dining corridor while remaining connected to the same culinary lineage. Sparse public data makes advance research and direct contact advisable before visiting.
Otsu
Selected entries from the current guide for Otsu.
Otsu, Japan
Selected by the Michelin Guide Hotels 2025, Hotel Koo Otsuhyakucho occupies a quiet address in central Otsu, the lakeside city on Biwa's western shore that sits within easy reach of Kyoto. The property belongs to a tier of smaller, design-conscious Japanese hotels that trade on spatial restraint and local material sensibility rather than resort scale or chain affiliation.
Otsu
Selected entries from the current guide for Otsu.
No venues found.
Otsu
Selected entries from the current guide for Otsu.
No venues found.
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