best everyday Japanese… Japanisch

Iimori Gyoza Bar
| Mainzer Landstraße 125 | Bahnhofsviertel |
This sister restaurant to cute café Iimori has a similarly mismatched kitsch décor. It also has a wide-ranging gyoza menu (plus other dishes, none of which I’ve tried yet). The gyoza menu includes both hits and misses - if you order a cheese gyoza, well, you’ll get what you deserve; on the other hand, the meat and seafood gyoza, flavoured with fresh herbs (coriander and shiso are my favourites and their flavours really come through) are delicious. A lunch menu is offered but I prefer to choose a la carte as the range is wider.

Iroha
| Friedensstraße 6-10 | Innenstadt/Bahnhofsviertel|
This is one of my favourite lunch choices, mid-week or on a Saturday, when they offer a great value lunch menu. I rarely have one dish that I default to but here it is the mackerel set lunch – fresh grilled mackerel with rice, miso soup, sashimi scraps, a savoury custard dish and probably more that I can’t remember. Each set lunch (which includes sushi and rice options as well as fish, meat and tempura) has a different selection of sides so check the menu carefully. It gets busy but you can book through their website.

Ramen Jun (pictured above)
| Wilhelm-Hauff-Straße 10 | Westend |
I was so happy when Ramen Jun opened – the food is fabulous, the service friendly and it’s in my neighbourhood. It also has air conditioning if you’re suffering a hot summer’s day in Frankfurt! Noodles are homemade, can be ordered hard or soft, and can be topped up if you run out partway through your bowl. There is also choice of broths – tonkotsu (pork), tonkotsu miso and vegetarian – plus you can choose whether you’d like a chilli or roasted garlic oil added. Toppings can also be personalised – extra chashu pork slices, extra egg etc. But don’t worry, the menu makes this very easy to navigate.  I also really recommend trying the starters – I’m not a fan of their gyoza but love the chicken nanban and the kara-age (get a half portion of each!). There is also a branch in the city centre (Ramen Jun Red) which I don’t think is as good as this one, the original.