Yamagata Imoniya

This izakaya opened in March 2026 on the second floor of a building two minutes from the east exit of Yamagata Station. It cooks five kinds of imoni, the taro stew Yamagata families boil in huge pots on the riverbanks each autumn. The list covers the Murayama style with beef and soy sauce, Shonai's pork and miso, and an original pot from Nakayama town made with dried cod, the ingredient the stew's origin story begins with. The menu also runs through Yamagata pickles, cold soba and sake from every brewery in the prefecture. Each style costs the same, and a one-person pot is the easy way to taste two.