Hiroshima C · ShintenchiNo.418★★★Open in map →
Hiroshima Okonomiyaki
Okonomiyaki in Hiroshima is layered, not mixed, with fried noodles pressed into the middle. Okonomimura gathers the griddles of many small shops onto the upper floors of one building in the Shintenchi entertainment block.
Hiroshima okonomiyaki is built in layers rather than stirred together. A thin crepe of wheat batter goes down first, then a heap of cabbage with bean sprouts and spring onion, then pork, then a nest of fried noodles, and the stack is turned and pressed onto the griddle. Soba is the standard noodle and udon the usual alternative. Okonomimura holds a line of these griddles on each floor from the second to the fourth of the Shintenchi Plaza building. Because every seat faces the plate, the order of the layers is visible while it cooks, which is the part a photograph never gets across.
Background & history
Okonomiyaki carts gathered across Hiroshima after the war, and about fifty of them ended up around Shintenchi square in the middle of the city. The writer Kida Minoru is credited with the name Okonomi-mura, the okonomi village, after seeing the row of them. When the square was cleared the stalls moved into a plain building nearby, and in 1992 they moved again into the Shintenchi Plaza that stands there now. What began as an improvised line of carts became a stacked address.
What to look for — in walking order
- Hatchobori tram stop
- where the Hiroden main line meets the Hakushima line, the arrival point for the district
- Shintenchi Plaza
- the building that holds Okonomimura, with a separate row of shops on each upper floor
- The griddle counters
- seats set directly against the hot plate, where the layers go on in order
- Shintenchi square
- the open square in front, where the postwar okonomiyaki carts once gathered
How to enjoy it
Take a counter seat rather than a table, because watching the stack go together is most of the point. Hours and closing days belong to each shop, so an early evening arrival gives the widest choice of open counters. When you order, say soba or udon — the noodle is the one decision the cook leaves to you.
How to actually get there
- Hiroshima Station → Hatchobori (Hiroden main line tram).
- Hatchobori → Shintenchi Plaza (about three minutes on foot, south into the Shintenchi block).
- Shintenchi Plaza → the second, third or fourth floor (each has its own row of shops).
- Step out afterwards into the square in front, where the postwar stalls once stood.
- Hiroden tram from Hiroshima Station
- From the tram stop in front of Hiroshima Station, take any Hiroden main line service and get off at Hatchobori. Trams run through the day at short intervals, so no timetable planning is needed. From Hatchobori, walk south into the Shintenchi block.
- Return from Hatchobori
- Walk back to Hatchobori and take a main line tram toward Hiroshima Station. Trams keep running into the late evening, but the last services are earlier than a big-city subway, so check the posted time if you stay for a second plate.
Before you go
- Cash
- Each shop in the building is a separate business and bills separately, so carry cash. Hiroden trams take cash, nationwide transport IC cards and WAON; the PASPY card was withdrawn in 2025 and is no longer accepted.
- Closing days
- Opening hours and closing days are set by each shop, not by the building, so some counters are shut while others are busy. Weekday afternoons are the thinnest time on all three floors.
- Another way
- From the Hiroshima Bus Center in Kamiyacho it is about a twelve-minute walk east through the covered shopping streets to the same block.
- After you get off
- From Hatchobori, walk south about three minutes into Shintenchi. Okonomimura occupies the upper floors of the Shintenchi Plaza building, and the entrance is on the street side.