Prices, ratings and dates
Every country guide on this site is written after the trip, not during it. The prices in a guide are what dishes and everyday costs were on that trip, written in the local currency they were sold in, for example ¥400–700 for a bowl of standing soba or ฿20–40 for boat noodles. A range means the same dish cost different amounts in different places.
The guides were last checked in September 2026. Prices move, and some move quickly, so treat each figure as a guide to the right order of magnitude and check anything that matters, such as a ticket, a visa fee or a booking, with the official source before you pay.
How other currencies are worked out
The currency bar in each guide converts local prices into a currency you choose, using daily exchange rates from the Exchange Rate API. The rates refresh every few hours, and the converted figures are rounded and marked as approximate. Your bank or card will use its own rate, so expect small differences.
The month ratings and Taste Match
The month chart in each guide rates every month as best, good, mixed or one to avoid. The quick-answer box at the top of a guide repeats those ratings and the daily food cost, so the two always agree. Taste Match scores the eleven guides against your answers using those same ratings and food costs. Its heat, street food, grill, city, wild and ease scores are my own one-to-five read on each country, so treat a result as a good argument for where to start, not a verdict.
What is paid for, and what is not
I pay for the meal and arrive unannounced. I do not accept free meals in exchange for coverage.
The site earns money in two ways. Some articles and guides show advertising from Google AdSense. Pages that are mostly tools or shop pages, such as this one, the shop, the cart and the contact page, do not show ads. Some links, mainly flight and hotel searches with Trip.com, are affiliate links and are marked as sponsored. If you book through one I may earn a small commission, and it costs you nothing extra. The affiliate disclosure explains this in full, and the privacy policy covers cookies and advertising.
Photography is by the creator. Some images are AI-generated, and they are labelled where that applies.
Found something wrong?
If a price, a date or a fact is out of date or wrong, please tell me. Email hello@kayiwacraves.com with the page you were reading and what you found, and I will correct confirmed errors. For partnerships, press and licensing, the contact page has the right address. To read more about who writes the guides, see the about page.