I have a very short stay in Nagoya this weekend, and am looking for dining suggestions in or around the JR Towers/Marriott. Would like to try udon noodles. Also looking for good American style breakfast.

Japan is so full of restaurants that you can hardly walk a block without running into a noodle shop.

My advice is just to walk around, looking at the window or outdoor menu displays, and pick something that looks intriguing.

I don't know what you mean by an American-style breakfast. Here are some of the options:

1. McDonald's, with the options as back home and picture menus you can point to

2. A bakery that serves rolls and coffee or a Mr. Donut

3. A "Jonathan's" family restaurant (with picture menu to help the kanji-illiterate foreigner)

On the other hand, your hotel may offer a multinational breakfast buffet.

If you're afraid of getting rice and miso soup for breakfast, that's actually not easy to find unless you're staying in traditional accommodations such as a ryokan or minshuku. It may be an option on your hotel's breakfast buffet, but of course, you can always ignore it.

Sorry I can't give you any recommendations. I wasn't in Nagoya for long, didn't do any prior research and failed miserably in my attempt to eat something half decent.

But, to be fair to Nagoya, the main reason we didn't find anything was that after ditching my parents and sending them on to Okayama we didn't emerge from our hotel until after 11pm (our rate included some free cocktails). We walked for nearly an hour and only found a Sports Izakaya with lacklustre food amongst the endless pachinko parlours.

So my tip is don't leave it too late.

Also, although you can find udon noodles almost everywhere, Nagoya has no real reputation for them (EDIT - apart fom udon in a thick miso broth - I forgot!). It does have a fine reputation for soba noodles, but in many places soba and udon are sold alongside one another as they can often share the same broths and soup bases.
Without knowing a great soba shop in Nagoya, and if your concierge can't help you (you want freshly milled, hand rolled and cut soba) my own instinct would be to head to Osu Kannon Temple - there will be plenty of restaurants around this temple specialising in traditional fare.

If you're not to concerned with how splendid your udon is, you could do a lot worse than your local branch of the Udon chain Hanamaru Udon.

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I can give you a restaurant recommendation for Udon in Tokyo
www.setouchi-shunsaikan.com/contents/
Which is run by the Kagawa and Ehime Prefectural governments as a showcase for sanuki udon.

Otherwise, consider popping over to Shikoku and eating udon there. There's a world of difference between the 'normal' soba served at thousands of restaurants across Japan and great soba prepared by a master soba chef. I imagine it's not so different from udon.

One tip for you though, if you do order a bowl of soba or udon with crispy tenpura on the side, be sure to immerse at least one of the tenpura pieces into the soup. The oil is released from the batter and this enriches the broth making it into a more satisfying experience. (This came from a discussion with a very competent udon chef in yanaka, Tokyo who believes that it's the little pearls of melted fat that lie on a broth that do the most to bring out its flavour)

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you've been given an excellent rundown on breakfast choices. I can't comment as breakfast was included with my rate at the Sofitel and I prefer eating Japanese breakfasts anyway. No cheese at the Sofitel, western buffet there only recommended for people who enjoy meat, lots and lots of meat. I'd imagine that the Marriott would fulfill your requirements and then some for breakfast.

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If you are stuck at lunch or dinner times, just go to the department stores around the station. Go down if you want to pick up a bento box in the food departments, or aim for the restaurant franchises they'll have in a slightly different part of the building. You're almost assured of a decent meal there at a good price. If there's a queue - for something that doesn't involve coldstone creamery or krispy kremes - join it. I've never been disappointed when joining a queue for a mystery lunch or dinner.

OP: In terms of noodles, Kishimen and Misonikomi are Nagoya specialties, which are included in this: http://www.kr.jal.com/world/en/guide...on/ngo/dishes/

I would recommend the very easy to find ESCA (Nagoya train station subterranean shopping area) which has yaba-ton (misokatsu) and pretty much anything else. They have fast food old school ramen (sugakiya) and good fish place (suzunami) too. Top of department stores have very nice selection of restaurants as usual.

For American style breakfast, I bet JR Marriott has one of those breakfast vikings (buffet for Americans), if not, I know for sure that Nagoya Kankou hotel has a breakfast viking and Hilton probably has one as well.

*EDIT: I was wrong about Yamamotoya being at ESCA but there is one on the 13th floor of JR Central Towers.
http://www.yamamotoya.co.jp/day/tempo01.html

That is 1 or 2 floors below your hotel lobby! but dont limit yourself into the station building(which can easily happen when I visited Nagoya. Spent the whole day walking in Expo 2005). It WAS a bit hard to look for food around the station tho

Could you suggest some good japanese restaurants in Nagoya for my first evening in Japan ?

The different guides did not rate too much restaurants there !

Not many mentioned here either, alas. I left the Sofitel too late to find anything during my first (and last) evening in Nagoya.

studentbecomesteacher has a couple of good suggestions in this thread
link goes to this merged thread

Your question has been asked a few times in various guises. Unfortunately, hardly anyone ever has much to say on the subject.

I know someone very well who spent the good part of a year working at a Nagoyan Spanish restaurant - the place used Japanese rice (a big no-no) and wasn't at all recommended.

We didn't ask for recommendations from our hotel (we probably should have) but the Front Desk staff at the Sofitel were memorably outstanding (and in Japan it takes a lot to stand out!). If you find yourself staying there don't hesitate to ask.

Ask around for a good miso-katsu joint. That's nagoya's tademark as far as japanese food goes.

Just returned from Nagoya couple of weeks ago. Stayed at the Marriott Nagoya (right on top of the JR Train Station. In this train station complex of 2 50+ story high towers, there are countless number of restaurants. I dined in 2 of the Japanese (sashimi, sushi type) restaurants on the 13th floor in the Marriott building. Don't recall their names, but they are located toward the back from the elevators. The 12th floor is also full of restaurants. If you can't find anything you like here, I don't know what to say. Other places for real great food are ANY department stores. They usually have fast food in the basement (udon...). The refined dining is usually on the top floor(s). Awesome, try they out. You won't be disappointed. For the 2 days I was there, I explored but 15% of the station area. Prepared to be lost in there. Fun