Hirome Market

Something like Huge food court with many shops you can enjoy. You can sit anywhere if it is available. Crowded at lunch time. Here you can enjoy various type of food and drinks, especially Katsuo (smoked Tuna) the famous dish of Kochi. If you have no plan to go anywhere else. You can stay here all day!!!

The famous Hirome Market is one of Kochi's main tourist attractions. We love to visit the fish market and enjoy the yummy sashimi. So we were there when we visited Kochi. The market is not as organized and easy to navigate through as the other markets we have visited in Japan. Fortunately, we found three very good restaurants in there. So our trip to Hirome Market was enjoyable.

Hirome Market feels less like a traditional market and more like a carefully curated food theme park, where your appetite is constantly stimulated from all sides. The atmosphere is loud, colourful and persuasive. You are not invited to browse so much as encouraged to consume. While it is impressive in scale, it is also strangely exhausting, as if every stall is shouting its best headline at the same time. However, I could not understand the space itself. The entrances are sealed with heavy curtains, shutting the market off from the outside air. In such a densely populated place, full of steam, oil and voices, the lack of visible ventilation is unsettling. If anything unwanted were to circulate here, it would have nowhere to escape to. The cheerfulness of the food cannot fully mask that discomfort. Hirome Market is efficient, popular and undeniably successful. However, it prioritises spectacle over breathing room. I left thinking not about flavours or memories, but about air. For a place that celebrates abundance, that feels like a serious, albeit quiet, flaw.

Visiting Kochi without coming here would mean you've only seen half of Kochi – it's that quintessentially Kochi. Located in the heart of Kochi City, it's an indoor food court featuring around 60 eateries and souvenir shops. Its defining feature is the “food stall village style = food court”, where you can gather dishes from your favourite stalls and enjoy them at communal tables alongside locals. Fondly known as “Kochi's Kitchen”, it's a place where you can casually savour local specialities like seared bonito and regional sake from midday onwards. The trick during busy times is to secure a seat first before going to buy your food. Interestingly, there's a sign stating: “Please refrain from picking up women”.

I visited Hirome Market on the weekend and it was extremely crowded. I bought uni from one of the shops near the entrance, but unfortunately it didn’t taste very fresh. The market is most famous for katsuo no tataki — a local Kochi specialty of seared bonito (skipjack tuna). A few stalls selling it had very long lines, while many of the other shops were much quieter. Overall, it’s an interesting place to explore and try local food, but weekends can feel hectic, and the quality really depends on which stall you choose.

Greta market more for drinking than food although there are good options (sashimi, fish etc.) also the more drinking vibe may be because we went in the evening around 8pm. Unsure if it is different during the day. Drinks are around 450 yen each. Overall great and lively atmosphere.

The main shop that sells the bonito fish with rice and bonito sushi was delicious. But this market during weekend is packed with people hard to get a seat. Its frustrating when some local japanese seems racist and only offer their seat to their own people. But thankfully towards the end there was a helpful japanese lady that saw us holding the tray helplessly for almost 20mins and she came to us and ask us to her seat as she is leaving. In short, this market has variety of food but amount of crowd during weekend and certain racist japanese kills of the mood. Do go there during weekdays for better experience.

Great place to see all the different kinds of food and people. Awesome Raman and Gyoza. Money exchange also located here.

I went to 22 cities in japan and this was my favourite market for authentic delicious good for very good prices. The most affordable market with lots of the high quality items priced pretty darn cheap. They smoke the bonito all from the same place. So it doesn't matter where you buy it. The sushi and gyoza are also pretty darn delicious. The queues were pretty long during the bon odori festival but that was expected. Go as early as possible to beat the lines. I highly recommend the grilled bonito fish. It is my new favourite type of sashimi which you eat with fresh garlic and NO soy sauce. It is unbelievable. It melts in your mouth and is so delicious. And a specialty in Kochi. A must for sure. I tried the seaweed tempura and those were pretty tasty too and paired will with the bonito. FYI. Get a table first. Take a picture of the table number and then tell the restaurant your table and avoid waiting for your food. They deliver it straight to your table. Lots of good local beers on tap as well and it seems like the local hangout!

This food market has so many different things to eat. I love all the variety and unique shops. Everything my colleagues had was great. I also enjoyed the gift shop... a little too much :)

If I could take anything back from Japan with me, I would take this market. I've only been away from it for a couple days, and I already miss it. It is a magical place for lovers of food and drink. We went two days in a row. You need to find a table 1st and have someone hold it or use your bag/coat to mark your spot. Then go off to various spots collecting your goodies. Some if then will be delivered to your table, so be sure to note the table number so you can tell the shop keeper when you order. Other things you'll get when you order it and you will just take it back to your table. The coolest thing about this place is you can try so many different things at once, prices are fair, and it's a great way to interact with the locals. We ended up chatting with two high schoolers and a university student at our table. We ate and drank for hours and had a great time. Plus, it forced me to try speak my bad Japanese, which while embarrassing, is how you learn. If you like fish at all, you have to get the Katsuo Tataki. This is tender, flavorful, smokey fish goodness. I tried a few different ones in the market, and my favorite is the one on the back left corner of the market. Nice people there too. You order it by how many people. My husband and I ate 4 people's worth, and could have eaten more, but we had the good sense to stop at that point. That shop also has tasty tempura sea veggies and a garlic cucumber salad we enjoyed. If you want to see how the katsuo tataki is made, check out the shop in the right front of the market. They use hay and char it to give it that smokey flavor. That one was good too, but not quite as good. Go for salt flavor, not sauce. Enjoy with some raw garlic and lemon. There are drinks galore! Lots of local nihonshu, beer, and fruit chu-hi's. You can get lots of salty snacks to go with them that you would find at an izakaya like gobo (burdock root) sticks, French fries, fried cheese...etc. we had some cheap but tasty nigiri from a stand at this market too. You can even buy Indian food! So so many choices, so everyone will be happy! A word of advice, if you come on a weekend, chances are it will be packed to the gills, and you'll have trouble finding a table. Find a shop that delivers to the table, and they might help you find a seat. That's how we managed at prime time in a Saturday night!

Looks pretty cool in here. There are two sections -- a market and a food court; across the street from each other The food court looks by far like the better part of the market with tons of variety and options even for the pickier crowd.

Awesome. Crowded. Delicious food. Our favorite offerings: definitely the fish katsuo, bonito fish in various forms: raw, fried, boiled, and grilled. It was a bit difficult to maneuver around because it's so crowded and the stores are back to back, with very little space to walk through. My recommendation: have a friend or someone in your group save seats at the eating area. Not only is it super crowded, but people like to take their time eating and trying different foods, that rarely will you find an open seat within the time frame you are there. I also recommend splitting your party/group so that each person can go and buy different foods to try. Other delicious offerings: croquette, fried fish, raw sashimi for reasonable price like "toro", "ootoro", "maguro", "fresh uni," etc. TIP! If you stay at the Richmond hotel a few blocks away, the hotel will give you a 2,000 yen voucher to spend here, which is actually a pretty good deal. You will need to find the info booth to redeem the 2,000 yen voucher.

Wish they had this in Tokyo! Great selection of fresh food, cheap and fun to come with family or friends. There's a lot of whale meat too (native to this region). A must try (not whale meat but this market) if you're visiting this city (I'm not a fan of whale meat)

It's great for grabbing a drink with friends and family. It can be tricky to find seating during weekend, but the atmosphere is fantastic. When my friends visit me in Kochi, I always bring them here.