Best Eats in Tokyo

Numbered tickets are required to dine here, which will be distributed from 9.30am for lunch and 5.30pm for dinner. Sobahouse Konjiki Hototogisu is only the third ramen restaurant in the world to get a Michelin star (awarded in 2019, after Tsuta and Nakiryu). The signature shouyu soba is made from three types of soup stock – pork broth, wa-dashi (Japanese stock) and hamaguri clam dashi – and topped with truffle sauce as well as porcini oil and flakes for that bold umami punch. However, the restaurant recommends the shio soba – and we concur.

If you’re visiting Tokyo, make sure you give this place a try! From the kindness or the staff to the quality of the meal, it was a fantastic experience that neither one of us will forget. I recommend coming a bit earlier for dinner to reduce your wait time. They even offer you to take a keepsake on your way out!

Visiting a standing sushi bar is a must while you’re in Tokyo and Uogashi Nihon-Ichi is one of the best around. You’ll find this chain eatery in a few areas around Tokyo, including its newly reopened outlet in Shibuya Dogenzaka. The best part about visiting this joint is watching the sushi chefs up close as they whip up your order at lightning speed. There’s an English menu – or you can just point to the seafood you recognise at the counter. Apart from Dogenzaka, there are branches all over town, including in Shinagawa, Akihabara, Kojimachi, Nakano, Shinjuku and Gotanda.

Omoide Yokocho in Shinjuku, Tokyo is a warren of small alleys crammed with izakaya-type restaurants appealing to office works and foreign visitors alike. Note: most of these places only accept cash and you often have to buy a drink and food to sit. There is not a lot of english spoken so come armed with google translate or some basic Japanese. Starting out as an illegal drinking quarter in the late 1940s, this narrow side street quickly became a prime spot for cheap drinks, yakitori and cabaret-style hostess bars. Due to the lack of restroom facilities, patrons would wander off and relieve themselves on the nearby train tracks, and it didn’t take long for Piss Alley to earn its name. In those days, the area provided a social space for local residents who otherwise wouldn’t have been able to afford such luxuries as meat and alcohol in the impoverished post-war economy. Try the horse penis and pig testicles at Asadachi

All-you-can-eat barbecued meat, grilled at the table, in a casual setup with booth seating. Jonetsu Horumon is a popular chain of restaurants in Japan that specializes in serving "horumon," which are various types of grilled offal or innards, commonly from beef or pork. The name "Jonetsu Horumon" roughly translates to "Passionate Offal," with "jonetsu" meaning passion and "horumon" being a play on the word "hormone," which refers to the offal used in their dishes.

Kibori is a renowned Hokkaido restaurant known for its focus on serving dishes that showcase the distinctive and high-quality ingredients from the Hokkaido region of Japan. Hokkaido is famous for its fresh seafood, dairy products, and produce, making it a gastronomic paradise for those who enjoy Japanese cuisine.

The Nagi ramen chain now has half a dozen shops scattered around Tokyo, but in 2008 it returned to its birthplace by reopening a branch in Golden Gai, Shinjuku’s famed old-school bar district. Located on the second floor of an old wooden house, this Nagi comes steeped in the atmosphere of the neighbourhood, with a smell that hits you as soon as you walk in the door. And no wonder – the speciality here is pungent niboshi ramen, made by boiling vast amounts of dried sardines for 12 hours to create a distinctive, boldly flavoured soup. We recommend the Niboshi Ramen (¥1,300), which comes generously laden with slices of chashu pork, menma (seasoned bamboo shoots), scallions, nori seaweed and a soft-boiled egg, along with a mix of curly and wide, flat noodles. As an added bonus, Nagi is open 24 hours a day, meaning you can start and end a heavy night out with a bowl of their noodles.