I searched past posts and there is little posted during the past years. What are some of the highlights from recent visitors. I want to mix it up so I want to try great examples of what both places have to offer.
Places I’ve enjoyed recently:
Tokyo
- Sushi Namba Hibiya
- Sushi Suzuki
- Sushi Inomata
- Sushi Yuki
- Sushi Keita
- Uomasa
- Kusunoki
- Setsugekka
- Kuroki
- Men Mitsui
Kyoto
- Kiyama
- Kuishinobo Yamanaka
- Akagakiya
- Gion Rohan
- Washoku Haru
- Numata (actually in Osaka, but close to Kyoto)
Hello Mont - I find this to be the hardest restaurant question to answer and get I get asked it frequently. There are 160,000 restaurants in Tokyo. In comparison there are 17,000 restaurants in Manhattan. I think you have to start with a little research and figure out what you are interested in. There is everything from great hole in the wall places that focus on one thing to Michelin starred international cuisine to the best sushi restaurants in the world that are impossible to get a reservation. Oh and don’t forget the Pizza!
I find looking through the OAD lists to be a very helpful starting point.
Japan - casual
https://www.oadguides.com/lists/japan/casual/2024
Japan - All
https://www.oadguides.com/lists/japan/top-restaurants/2024
hope this helps on one hand it is a daunting task on the other you could just walk around and stumble into places and eat better than most places in the world!
p.s. I grew up in Buffalo!
there were a few different posts from just last year here (mine included), so hopefully the search turned those up. wish i were going back!
this is the way – I was surprised how good the random restaurants I went to were on the days I didn’t have a reservation lined up.
in those cases, I would generally just look the place up on Tabelog and if the score is over 3.5, it probably was going to be very, very good.
trying to book reservations in Japan can be one of the most frustrating experiences in the world. the hotel concierge is no longer the cheat code it once was.
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A lot of restaurants can now be booked under various online concierge services, which means paid reservations.
Good point re. Tabelog scores. Japanese are very critical about food. If a restaurant has 3.5 stars in Google, it probably has rats running around the floor. If it has 3.5 in Tabelog, it will be excellent.
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Fully agree with Robert and Yule, the average level is incredibly high.
Japanese have an incredible sense of quality when it comes to food, I doubt most Westerners can tell the difference always, as the good there is excellent anywhere else.
Personally I love the more humble places over the fine dining places, you really pay for the setting and space rather than quality of the food itself. It’s quite difficult to find bad food places.
My very best recommendation is not one single place but to really try the width of Japanese cuisine! Be as brave as you dare - not sure I’ll do chicken sashimi again but it was very good.
Personally I also love doing a few salaryman small restaurants/bar hopping on weekdays, experience “real” life in Tokyo, have some nice interactions if it comes natural. Just stumble across a place with 10 seats or so.