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Local restaurant in Tokyo, Japan. Photo by: Clay Banks- Wikimedia.
10 Best non-touristy restaurants in Tokyo
Tokyo, pulsing with energy and overflowing with Michelin stars, is the place to be for foodies. Dishes are prepared with care and respect for seasonal ingredients, from humble yakitori joints serving skewered grilled chicken to multi-course traditional kaiseki feasts.
However, the city’s culinary excellence isn’t restricted to Japanese cuisine: there’s also fantastic Italian, refined Chinese, and a genre-defying French style that deserves its own section.
“It’s becoming difficult to eat anywhere else because Tokyo has it all and does it better,” a world-weary Brazilian gastronaut recently admitted. We completely agree. Continue reading for our recommendations for the best places to eat in Tokyo.
1. Tempura Funabashiya Shinjuku
It can be a quick, elegant, and delicious meal, and there are few better places to eat tempura than at a specialised restaurant. Funabashiya is one of these places to shop in Shinjuku.
Shinjuku Station is a short 4-5 minute walk from Funabashiya. It’s not hard to find, but it can be a little perplexing in the hustle and bustle of Shinjuku. There are several tempura set meals available.
There are more expensive options available, including sashimi and the works. Most of them make for nice, casual, balanced meals – they even feel healthy, given that they’re mostly deep-fried food. Ordering à la carte is possible, but it is unlikely to be the most cost-effective way to eat here.
Open: Sunday- Saturday
Cuisine: Japanese
Service options: Dine-in · Takeaway · No delivery
2. Sézanne
This site is designed by Sharan Architecture+design. Photo by: Sharan Sharma- Wikimedia.
Sezanne is a cool-toned sanctuary devoted to contemporary elegance on the 7th floor of the , with Zen-inspired motifs and contemporary artwork by Annie Morris.
The champagne trolley features rare vintage bubbly, such as 1964 Dom Perignon and 1978 La Grande Dame. The wine list includes unique selections such as Jura red, and digestifs such as ratafia de champagne.
Due to the warm but professional service provided by maire d’hotel Simone Macri, this may be Tokyo’s least pretentious high-brow restaurant.
Open: Wednesday- Sunday
Cuisine: French
Service options: Dine-in · No takeaway · No delivery
3. Il Ristorante – Luca Fantin
Chef Luca Fantin’s artistic interpretations of Italian classics are made entirely from Japanese ingredients, but “the flavors are completely Italian,” he says. “I don’t use shoyu (soy sauce) or yuzu (Japanese citrus) on my pasta. I’m not interested in fusing.”
His cooking is accurate and focused. A single raviolo filled with smoked burrata broth and topped with Miyazaki Prefecture caviar is a silky, a deluxe bite.
The deconstructed minestrone soup, a clear broth adorned with gem-toned root vegetable marbles, is showy, but the fresh pasta and sea urchin, completed with lemon and colatura di alici, is simple.
Open: Tuesday- Saturday
Cuisine: Italian
Service options: Dine-in · No delivery
: 2 Chome-7-12 Ginza, Chuo City, Tokyo 104-0061, Japan
4. Heichan (平ちゃん)
Oden is the best Japanese comfort food, consisting of seafood, meat, and vegetables steamed in dashi broth. However, chef Ippei Matsumoto has elevated it to the forefront of a kaiseki-style menu at this casual fine-dining newcomer.
Matsumoto’s parents owned an oden shop in his hometown of Wakayama, and Heichan is a love letter to his roots. The recipe can be served in a variety of ways, including as a colourful salad with a dash of hot mustard, or stuffed into a spring roll with dangerously hot, tender chunks of daikon and pork belly.
The main course is a simple but elegant trio of konjac jelly nestled between a chicken meatball and a fish dumpling. The key ingredient is the umami-tastic dashi, which is inspired by the chef’s family recipe.
Open: Sunday- Saturday
Cuisine: Japanese
Service options: Dine-in · No takeaway · No delivery
5. Tosenkaku Tokyo
Illuminated wooden shelf with many glass jars containing cookies for sale, near Kaminarimon-dori Street, Asakusa, Tokyo, Japan. Photo by: Basile Morin- Wikimedia.
The moody interior of Ryoji Hayashi’s modern Chinese restaurant, which is owned by the three-Michelin-starred Sazenka, has a maze-like feel, with several private dining rooms hidden behind dark wood panels and gray stone walls.
The menu features a wide variety of Chinese classics prepared with Japanese precision and panache, such as the silkiest steamed chicken with scallion sauce, the most luxurious braised trotter, and a perfect cube of fried daikon radish cake.
Can’t decide between the Peking duck (rolled into thin crepes with cucumber slivers and hoisin sauce) and the slow burn of Mapo tofu or steamed dim sum dumplings? Order the Peking duck chef’s menu and you’ll get everything.
Open: Sunday- Saturday
Cuisine: Chinese
Service options: Dine-in · Takeaway · Delivery
6. Narisawa
Two-Michelin-starred In 2009, Narisawa was the first Japanese restaurant to make the list of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants.
Now, the restaurant—a clean-lined oasis with linen-covered tabletops and tall, stately windows—is as popular as it has always been, and chef Yoshihiro Narisawa is in top form.
Chef Narisawa, a founder of the farm-to-table movement in Japan, focuses sustainable ingredients in creative dishes inspired by Japanese, Chinese, and French cuisine. The seamlessly bilingual staff, which is still a rarity in Tokyo, thoroughly explains each course but refrains from giving a table-side lecture.
Open: Tuesday- Saturday
Cuisine: Japanese
Service options: Dine-in · Kerbside pickup · Delivery
7. Eat Play Works
The vibe inside this food hall, located on two floors of a narrow building in Hiroo’s residential district, is somewhere between a festival and a slapping house party.
Eat Play Works has 17 sophisticated-casual restaurants to satisfy your cravings for burgers, sushi, Basque cheesecake, or Mexican tostadas.
To go with the diverse cuisine, there is a healthy mix of diners. Each venue has its own counter seating, but shared tables are available on both floors and on the outdoor patio.
Bar hopping is advised at this roving banquet.
Open: Sunday- Saturday
Cuisine: International
: 5 Chome-4-16 Hiroo, Shibuya City, Tokyo 150-0012, Japan
8. Nihombashi Kakigaracho Sugita
Chef Takaaki Sugita began working in the sushi industry while still in high school, and after more than 20 years in the industry, he is considered one of the best.
His approach is traditional but subtle, as demonstrated by his experiments with fish maturation times to bring out the buttery richness of bonito and the silky texture of thinly sliced sardine.
His signature dish is a luxuriously creamy ankimo (monkfish liver) pate steeped in sweetened soy sauce and dabbed with wasabi, which pairs perfectly with sake. The shime-saba and shiso nori roll, on the other hand, is a must-try.
Open: Wednesday- Sunday
Cuisine: Sushi
Service options: Dine-in · No takeaway · No delivery
9. Tenoshima
This site is designed by Sharan Architecture+design. Photo by: Sharan Sharma- Wikimedia.
Ryohei Hayashi spent 13 years as a top chef at Kyoto’s three-starred kaiseki restaurant Kikunoi. His method to Japanese cuisine at Tenoshima combines elegance with ease of access and pleasant atmosphere in a minimalist environment with earthen walls.
The food is both creative and comforting, made with sustainable seafood and Seto Inland Sea ingredients. Seasonal pressed sushi topped with marinated mackerel or anago sea eel brushed with sweetened soy is one of Hayashi’s areas of expertise.
Open: Sunday- Saturday
Cuisine: Kaiseki
Service options: Dine-in · Takeaway · No delivery
10. Burger Police
This newcomer works as a trattoria and an organic wine bar in addition to serving perfectly grilled wagyu beef burgers in a smart environment with seating at the shiny metal counter. Starters such as the asparagus omelet with bottarga cream and the herring carpaccio are meant to be shared.
However, you’ll want to keep the signature shio (salt) burger to yourself. It’s a premium patty of bovine succulence that’s been simply seasoned with salt and butter.
If you order mustard or mayonnaise, you may be served shade: Burger Police does not serve condiments. The meat is delicious as is.
Open: Sunday- Saturday
Cuisine: Kaiseki
Service options: Dine-in · Takeaway · No delivery
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