The drinking grid: several thousand bars, izakaya and okonomiyaki counters packed into a few blocks that only really wake up after 19:00.
Yagenbori Hassho is the Hiroshima okonomiyaki counter that works slowly, resting the cabbage under pork belly for 20 to 30 minutes before the soba lands.
Signature: Soba niku-tama, Teppanyaki ox tongue
Order: Soba niku-tama at 1,150 yen, the only order most regulars ever place
Tip: Cooking takes 20 to 30 minutes per griddle cake, so this is a sit-down dinner rather than a quick stop.
Bakudanya is the Shintenchi shop that pushed Hiroshima tsukemen beyond the city: cold noodles dipped in a chilli and seafood-stock sauce you grade yourself.
Signature: Hiroshima tsukemen
Order: Hiroshima tsukemen, choosing your own heat level
Tip: The dipping sauce comes in graded heat steps, so order low on a first visit and add chilli powder at the table.
Bar Alegre hides on a third floor in Horikawa-cho, a Hiroshima room split between a tea-house entrance and a back bar modelled on a 1920s speakeasy.
Signature drink: Seasonal fruit cocktails
Food: Bar snacks
Tip: Seasonal fruit cocktails are the house line, and the bar keeps homemade dark chocolate cut with Sakurao whisky.
Bar Neo works the fourth floor of a Nagarekawa building in Hiroshima until 03:00, with house fruit syrups, a darts board and a karaoke corner in the back.
Signature drink: Fresh fruit syrup cocktails
Food: Snacks
Tip: Friday and Saturday service runs to 04:00, which makes this one of the later doors in the Nagarekawa grid.
American Pub Ace runs until 05:00 on Yagenbori in Hiroshima, an American-style room with burgers, hot dogs, darts, billiards and a poker table at the back.
Signature drink: Bottled beer and casual cocktails
Food: Burgers and hot dogs
Tip: Kitchen orders stop at 04:00 even though the bar keeps pouring, so eat before the last hour.
Bambino spreads over two floors in Mikawa-cho, a Hiroshima dining bar with a griddle turning out ketchup omurice into the small hours every day of the week.
Signature drink: Highballs
Food: Teppan dishes
Tip: Food orders stop at 04:00 and drinks at 04:30, and the venue never closes for a regular rest day.
80s Bar Kayokyoku Hit Studio plays requests from about 3,000 singles and LPs in Nagarekawa, a Hiroshima room built entirely around Showa-era pop music.
Signature drink: All-you-can-drink sets
Food: Snacks
Tip: Groups of twenty or more can take the whole room, and the bar closes on Sundays outside public holidays.
Okonomimura stacks more than twenty okonomiyaki counters over three floors in Shintenchi, the block Hiroshima's postwar griddle stalls moved into in 1965.
Try: Hiroshima okonomiyaki
Tip: Every floor is a corridor of griddle counters; pick a stall with locals at it rather than the one nearest the lift.
RAKU BEER lines up 15 taps of Japanese craft in a 17-seat Mikawa-cho room, pulling kegs from small breweries nationwide, English menu on the counter.
Tip: Take one of the five counter seats facing the taps; weekend pours start at 13:00 and the room goes dark on Tuesdays.
Okonomimura is Hiroshima's okonomiyaki building, more than twenty griddle counters across three floors of Shintenchi Plaza at the east end of Hondori.
Tip: The building marked sixty years of trading in 2025; the current seven-storey block replaced the original in 1992.
Bakudanya sells Hiroshima tsukemen for under 1,000 yen in Shintenchi: cold noodles with cabbage, cucumber and a chilli dipping sauce you grade yourself.
Try: Hiroshima tsukemen
Tip: Heat runs on a numbered scale, and asking for a lower number costs nothing and keeps the sauce readable.
Bambino keeps a griddle running to a 04:00 kitchen close in Mikawa-cho, the Hiroshima dining bar to fall into once the Nagarekawa doors start closing.
Try: Ketchup omurice
Order: Ketchup omurice off the teppan at three in the morning
Tip: Food orders stop at 04:00 and drinks at 04:30, and the venue keeps no regular closing day.
American Pub Ace runs to 05:00 on Yagenbori in Hiroshima with burgers, hot dogs, darts and billiards for the tail end of a long night in Nagarekawa.
Try: Burgers and hot dogs
Order: A burger and a bottled beer before the 04:00 kitchen close
Tip: Sundays and public holidays close at 02:00 instead, which catches people out at the end of a long weekend.
Bar Neo pours until 03:00 on most nights and until 04:00 at weekends, from a fourth-floor Nagarekawa room in the middle of central Hiroshima.
Try: Bar snacks
Order: A seasonal cocktail built on the house fruit syrup
Tip: Darts and karaoke share the floor, so this is a loud last stop rather than a quiet nightcap.
Bar Alegre splits a third-floor Horikawa-cho room in Hiroshima between a tea-house entrance and a back bar modelled on a 1920s speakeasy.
Signature drink: Seasonal fruit cocktails
Tip: There are two doors: a tea-room entrance cut so low that everyone bows to get in, and a hidden speakeasy door beside it.
80s Bar Kayokyoku Hit Studio takes requests from roughly 3,000 singles and LPs, a Nagarekawa room in Hiroshima built entirely on Showa pop.
Signature drink: All-you-can-drink sets
Tip: Records are played with the original video footage, and the room can be booked out for parties of twenty or more.
American Pub Ace on Yagenbori is the Hiroshima room that stays open to 05:00 with burgers, darts, billiards and a poker table in the back.
Signature drink: Bottled beer
Tip: Sundays and public holidays close at 02:00, three hours earlier than the rest of the week.
Bambino spreads a teppan dining bar over two Mikawa-cho floors in Hiroshima, cooking omurice up to the 04:00 kitchen close every night of the week.
Signature drink: Highballs
Tip: Simulation golf, darts and karaoke share the upper floor, so it works better for a group than a quiet drink.