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Thousands of restaurants in Tokyo – there’s no shortage of options.
Countless dining spots are one of the best things about the biggest city in the world.
You might even come across a couple of places famous for Hollywood movies.
Here are a couple of those as well as some local eateries and places I often dine in Tokyo. Have you tried horse meat sushi? Let’s go to take a bite!
I often spend time in Tokyo when I either arrive in or leave Japan.
That’s when I land in to the city to continue elsewhere.
To be honest, Tokyo is not among my favorite cities in Japan.
I’m a city girl but in Japan, I prefer the small traditional villages and mountain regions.
Yet I find my spot in the biggest city in the world.
It’s not about the romantic idea of the traditional Japanese lifestyle.
It’s just me hating neon lights, any flashing lights, everything loud.
Btw, I love Junichiro Tanizaki’s book *In Praise of Shadows.
But there’s one reason I do make a stopover in the current capital of Japan, and that’s the food.
And of course visiting my friends living in Tokyo, or nearby.
French Rotisserie Chicken, Curry, and Hawaiian Beer
Huddle Curry Dining
Over the years, I’ve gotten quite familiar with the restaurants in the Akabanebashi neighborhood.
In December 2015, I found myself dining (or rather, feasting) at a nearby rotisserie restaurant, next to my former “home,” a hostel called Zabutton that seems to have since shut down.
My mom had sent me some money as a Christmas present and practically ordered me to spend it on a decent meal after a few months of living as a starving artist.
(Too late — pneumonia hit my malnourished body later on, but the food was good!)
This simple rotisserie chicken restaurant holds a permanent spot in my heart.
Not only did I get a proper meal after a long time, but it’s also where I bid farewell to the country after my first extended trip to Japan.
This place, called Huddle Curry Dining, offers curry and other delights in addition to grilled chicken, as the name suggests.
The beer selection is unique and international.
Prices for dishes hover around 1,000 yen (around 6 €/7 USD at the time of writing).
I needed to return to this chicken restaurant in October 2017 to introduce it to my fiancé as well.
It was his first time in Tokyo, though not his first time in Japan.
It became our dining spot on the third evening, as it was closed on the night we arrived.
Fortunately, a city with thousands of restaurants offers plenty of options without even leaving the neighborhood.
Aromatic French Lamb
Bistro Chick
The chicken grill isn’t the only familiar restaurant I want to revisit in this area.
As the rotisserie is closed, we head a couple of blocks over to Bistro Chick.
Located near the Azabu-Juban station and intersection, this restaurant is an intriguing blend of French and Japanese. Fusion cuisine isn’t that unusual in Tokyo, though.
The city often recreates European cuisine — many times even better than the original.
If you’re heading to Japan for the first time, I recommend sticking to local dishes and trying them fearlessly.
For those who spend more time in the country, international cuisine is also worth exploring.
When the Japanese take on foreign cuisine, they take it a step further.
You won’t find cheap copies in Tokyo.
In Japan, there’s always a quest for perfection, and they do succeed.
The quality of the ingredients is always top-notch.
Dining alone in Japan usually means sitting at a bar. That’s where I’ve been directed to also in my previous visits to Bistro Chick.
Space is often tight in restaurants, so even a two-person table is rarely given to a solo diner.
On the other hand, the staff tends to keep the solo diner company at the bar, and it’s a great spot to watch the chefs at work — just like here.
Bar dining in general is quite common in Japan, especially in casual eateries.
Dining together, we get our private table.
We glance over the delicious-sounding menu.
As usual, we both end up choosing the same dish.
This time it’s lamb shank.
While we wait, we sip red wine and nibble on appetizers.
The lamb arrives at the table, still smoking.
Not the meat itself, though
— small, aromatic paper pouches are placed on the plates.
I peek inside the fragrant bag: a sprig of rosemary is burning inside, meant to infuse the meat with a nice smoky, herbal flavor.
Meeting by the loyal dog Hachiko
For us, Tokyo is once again a stopover on the way to other parts of Japan.
This time, we’re staying for four nights in Tokyo, but on the second evening, we take a little sneak away.
Our friend Narumi has invited us to dinner outside Tokyo.
We met Narumi and her friend Riko in Helsinki as they were Couchsurfing in our home just before we embarked on our nomadic lifestyle in 2016.
It was their first trip abroad and our last days of having a home.
Since then, Riko has settled in Europe, but we arranged to meet Narumi at Shibuya Station, by the statue of the dog Hachiko, of course.
A symbol of loyalty, what could be a better place for a reunion with a friend?
The statue is a very popular meeting spot. It’s again crowded with the sea of people.
We manage to find Narumi, and then the three of us take a train to Kawasaki.
She wants to introduce us to her hometown restaurant her family has been dining for years.
Local resto, local food
My Japanese skills are limited to a small vocabulary — mostly a few Japanese words written in Latin characters and a few Kanjis.
So, we haven’t much idea what’s on the menu tonight.
There are no plastic models of portions like you’d find in the big cities, either.
Narumi, who speaks fluent English, could translate, but we ask her to recommend and order her favorite dishes for all of us. We’re ready to try anything.
And we certainly try a lot!
The food is fish-centric, and new bowls are brought to the table in a steady stream.
Despite the abundance, the final bill is quite reasonable.
What’s the name of this restaurant? I have no idea, but it’s easy to find near Kawasaki Station, which has a fairly large concentration of restaurants anyway.
Wrapping up the evening with an Irish vibe & Turku-New York twist
Narumi stays overnight in Kawasaki, and we return to Tokyo’s Akabanebashi, near Minato.
The endless earworm caused by Tokyo’s metro announcements—“Roppongi, Roppongi” — tempts us to skip the metro transfer and walk home from Roppongi.
As we stroll along the restaurant street in Azabu-Juban, we spot a small Irish pub, and I recall having visited it before. We immediately decide to stop in for a nightcap.
We meet an American-Japanese man who’s originally from New York but now living in Tokyo.
That’s not unusual, but soon comes a surprise: upon hearing our nationality, he informs us that the bartender is also Finnish!
We’ve been speaking English with the bartender at the counter and hadn’t realized we were fellow Finns.
Must-Visit Movie Spots in Tokyo
Tokyo is a collection of fun coincidences for us, often revolving around food.
New York also ties into our experiences in Tokyo beyond just the Irish bar.
There are a couple of restaurants that fans of Western movies should visit. Or I should say, I don’t think they are particularly worth visiting, but they’re nice to experience once.
Which is more popular: Gonpachi from Kill Bill or the Park Hyatt Tokyo’s New York Bar, featured in Lost in Translation? It likely depends on the thickness of your wallet.
Gonpachi
Gonpachi (Gonpachi Nishi-Azabu), known from Kill Bill, isn’t impossibly expensive, and the food is decent. However, to my taste, it feels too touristy.
Perhaps you wouldn’t notice it if you came directly from the West or if you had been in Japan long enough to crave a bit more lively atmosphere.
I visited this restaurant in December 2015 after a few months stay in Japan. Just one noisy visit with a few fellow Western tourists enjoying their beer was enough; I’m glad I went once.
*Park Hyatt Tokyo/New York Bar
The bar on the upper floor of this five-star hotel is familiar from the movie Lost in Translation.
The first time I walked in, I even bought a new pair of shoes along the way.
I had been trekking around Japan in hiking gear and didn’t dare to try to enter in sneakers.
I changed into a new pair of heeled ankle boots in the metro station restroom.
Then slid up in the elevator to the fancy scenic bar.
Trying to look like a wealthy Western tourist rather than a starving author who had been trekking around Japan on a tight budget.
A glass of champagne cost around twenty euros, so the experience wasn’t exactly cheap.
Still, I thought it was worth every penny.
Especially as no one noticed the starving author part.
We returned to the place of crime a couple of years later with my life partner Ismo.
Or at least we tried to.
The doorman told us they were fully booked, but we strongly suspected the real reason was our shoes. We weren’t exactly dressed to the nines.
And it’s not every year that one feels like buying new shoes, let alone carrying high heels in a backpack around the world. At least I don’t.
But that’s okay; we saved a few tens of euros, and we got to gaze at the same scenery through the lobby windows. After marveling at it for a moment, we sneaked off elsewhere.
If you find some extra cash in your back pocket, you can stay at *the Park Hyatt Tokyo for about a thousand euros per night.
By the way, the “bookshelf” of *the Book & Bed chain I mentioned in my previous post, located in Shinjuku, offers overnight stays for about 20 times less.
There is a difference in star rating (2 vs. 5), each of their own…
But let’s go for one more dinner in Tokyo before it’s time to head towards the traditional villages.
I swallow a (few pieces of) horse
After visiting some camera shops in Shinjuku, we decide to stay there for dinner as well.
We walk through the crowd of other shoppers, searching for a dinner spot amidst the glow of neon lights from the stores.
There are plenty of options, I don’t want to make too many decisions and my stomach is growling.
Eventually, we just climb a flight of stairs and decide that this is the place for dinner.
The choice turns out to be spot on. The selection of Japanese dishes is vast; Ismo chooses octopus, while my eyes immediately spot horse sushi. The decision is made quickly. I have to try this!
I know that eating horse meat is an absolute no-no for many, especially when it comes to raw horse meat.
But that’s exactly what I’m doing now. I have devoured horse meat many times before, but this is my first time eating raw horse meat.
I wouldn’t sample uncooked meat in many places without knowing the quality of the restaurant, but in Japan, one can trust raw meat and fish with confidence.
The flavor is once again excellent.
With thousands of restaurants in Tokyo, there’s no shortage of choices, but even on this restaurant’s menu, there were dozens of options for those seeking less exotic taste experiences.
When our stomachs are full, it’s time to take the metro to the land of dreams.
We move to our neighborhood in Akabanebashi and climb into the bookshelf to sleep.
The next morning, we will depart for Yamanouchi and Shibu Onsen.
P.S. Are you looking for an affordable place to stay in Tokyo? Then you should continue here.