Where to Eat in Tokyo: 5 Must-Try Restaurants

Where to Eat in Tokyo: 5 Must-Try Restaurants

There are endless restaurants to choose from in Japan, but especially in Tokyo, where there are over 137,000 restaurants to choose from. There are so many restaurants here and so many of them are really, really good. So, today I’m going to look back at a few restaurants that I’ve visited that really kind of stood out. But before we do so, I wanted to let you guys know about this awesome platform that is byfood.com. It’s really great because they’ve even worked so close with some of these restaurants that we’ve shot at. So, they’ve even created these kind of original course options that you can book in English and even in Chinese. Now, it makes it really easy to book a restaurant without having to try to book in Japanese. And without further ado, here are some notable restaurants that I would like to highlight in today’s video. Let’s go. [Music] Okay, so I’ve made a few notes on my phone for some notable restaurants that I want to highlight today. The first one is called Ushihachi Kiwami, and it actually has a much longer name, which is Shibuya Wagyu Yakiniku Ushihachi Kiwami, and it’s kind of one of our more casual dining restaurants on our list today. First of all, the thing that really stood out was the remarkable view. It is located right on the corner of Shibuya Crossing. It looks really cool, especially if you were to go for dinner at nighttime. You get those neon night view. So, that was a great place to visit. And this restaurant aims to be able to provide the most affordable high quality Wagyu beef. Some people might think it’s still kind of pricey. It’s over, depending on the course you choose, over 10,000 yen. But, it is notable that you can also get an all you can drink menu, which is really nice. So, you can keep ordering drinks, whether it be, I think, soft drinks or alcoholic drinks, and get a premium course of Wagyu beef. Plus, if you get that view, amazing. But make sure if you want the view, you’re really going to have to probably book in advance and request a windowside [Music] seating. On to the next. Number two, the all you can eat Shaboo Shabu. And this place is called Shaboo Shima in Senjaya. Sagena is a really cool neighborhood that I really recommend exploring. Personally, I know it is a bit of a university town. A lot of young university age students tend to live around there. So, I it has a really young atmosphere, I think. So, Shabuima specializes in Shabu Shaboo. I explained in in the previous video that we did, but it means kind of like swish swish when you take a slice of raw pork and then you dip it in a boiling hot pot and that is what cooks the pork and you just swish it a few times until it cooks through and then it’s ready to eat. So that’s shaboo shaboo. It’s a really fun and delicious experience. This shop specializes in kurog bhuda which is the blackhaired pork and uh I believe in English this is like a birkshshire pork in Japan it’s considered to be kind of the A5 Wagyu rank for pork. We went there for an all you can eat video. I wouldn’t say it was an all you can eat challenge but there was an all you can eat option. The all you can eat is quite a large amount of pork and it was so good. I think it would have been doable for me to finish all of it if I hadn’t done two other all you can eats earlier that day. They also had all you can drink options. So, if you really wanted to go crazy while you were there, you could do the all you can eat shaboo shaboo or sikiaki and then throw on all you can drink and then just go wild really. So, you could have a really fun and delicious time there. It really is one of the more affordable options because you get 90 minutes of all you can eat shaboo shaboo and it’s only it only ranges like depending on the course you choose it ranges from between like $30 to $35 on the buy food website. So you can actually book that on by food. They also have a sukiyaki course that is all you can eat as well. All of those are within the 30 to $35 range, which I think is super affordable. And that’s also a key reason as to why it was. So, it’s quite popular and why I thoroughly recommend [Music] this. All right, so number three is an omakas sushi restaurant that I really enjoyed. This one is called Sushi Koshiawa, and it’s located in the kind of stylish neighborhood of Akasaka. the lady who welcomes you to this restaurant. She was so sweet. She wears her traditional kimono. She welcomes you in. She’s so friendly. She’s the one who will bring you your drinks and she was very knowledgeable about Japanese sake. So, she could pair Japanese sake with your sushi, your omakas sushi course. She was lovely. So, that was one part that I really liked about this restaurant. The other aspect was that the chef of course he is very knowledgeable about all the ingredients that he uses as you would expect from an omakas sushi restaurant. But the other thing was that he was also very open-minded and he doesn’t expect his guests or his customers to follow really rigid rules about omakas sushi restaurants. He even said, I believe that he you don’t need to dress up to come to this restaurant. Just come as you are. Uh he seemed very accommodating to foreign travelers. He’ll even adjust his um ACA menu, which means leave it up to you. In this case, the chef. He’ll adjust this menu based on your allergies or your dietary needs or preferences. So, if you are vegan, vegetarian, he will even accommodate that for you, which is kind of rare at sushi restaurants in Japan. There’s some that do, but it of course it’s not that many. So, if you can let him know in advance, he said he’d be happy to cater to a vegetarian or vegan omakas sushi experience, which is very cool. The other thing that I really liked about it was that it was not just sushi that he served at this restaurant. It almost felt a little bit like a capoori restaurant. Kapo being a type of restaurant style where there’s a counter and the chef will cook everything in front of you. So sushi is typically mainly just you know nigiriti and like making sushi rolls nigiriti um in front of you but couple could be like cooking so they’ll cook things. So I also had a really delicious grilled eggplant that was really really good. So yeah I think I would definitely say sushi koshikawa is worth checking out. maybe a little bit less famous. So, I think that’s also a good appeal. And other additional shoutouts for really good sushi in Tokyo. Sushi Hajime is really good and so is Sushi Shin. I haven’t filmed a video at these places, but they’re really, really popular sushi restaurants that are very high quality on the high-end range of course, but you can also book those on the BY food website along with a Yakitoi omakas restaurant, which is called Yakito, and that is a really, really highly rated Yakito restaurant. the owner of this Yakito restaurant. I think he is the understudy of a well-known Yakitoi master who has a a Michelin star yaki restaurant. So, you can expect really high quality and you can book it on [Music] byfood.com. The next one that I would like to mention that I really, really enjoyed was a pizza restaurant in Japan called Pizza Strada. That one was really, really good. This one is located in Azaba Juban, also a really stylish kind of higher-end area. Tokyo has established itself as a strong competitor on the pizza scene globally. The there’s many uh restaurants in Tokyo, pizza restaurants that have won uh first place awards in global competitions. And Pizza Strata is one of those pizza restaurants that’s garnered a lot of attention in recent years. And it was recently ranked 14th in the top 50 Asia-Pacific ranking by the 50 top pizza ranking, which is, I believe, quite a prestigious pizza ranking. I really loved the pizzas. They make it right in front of you in the stone oven, of course. And I think the one that I still just kind of drool over was the Wagyu burger pizza, I think it was. That one was so good. Everything was amazing. So, I do recommend Pizza Strada and also just check out the other ones in the pizza scene in Tokyo. We’ll have to do another pizza video sometime. There’s a lot more to check out. Number five, this is a food truck that I recommend to pretty much anybody who visits Tokyo. And it is a food truck that serves authentic Mexican tacos. and it’s in the back streets of Shibuya and the atmosphere here is great. What’s really special about it is the chef’s backstory and how just honestly of course how delicious the tacos are. So the chef is from Mexico and he also worked in a Michelin star restaurant in Canada I believe and then he moved to Japan and he would often be asked for good Mexican food recommendations in Tokyo when he first moved here. At the time there were not many. If you’re going to go for Mexican food in Tokyo or if you live here and you just want a little taste of something from back home then Laabina taco truck in Shibuya is fantastic. So I love this place and uh when I was there we even met a few travelers from the US. I think California is is really famous for their Mexican food scene and it’s known for being very authentic. Even they said that this was some of the best tacos that they’d ever had. If you’re you’re coming to Tokyo and you’re thinking, “Why would I get tacos?” Why not? I mean, it depends how much time you have and what you want to try. But I’d like to point out that the food scene in Tokyo is becoming incredibly diverse. One last honorable mention I’d like to make just to highlight how diverse Tokyo food culture and the food scene is nowadays is Vegan Gyoza. That’s this is the name of the restaurant. We h nowadays we have a lot of vegan and vegetarian options. Not as many as I think would be good to have, but it’s really increased over the years. And the one that really stood out was this one called Vegan Yoza. It’s a little bit out of the maybe central area where most people would be in Tokyo. Anyway, that’s all the time we have in this video. As you can see, um I could easily cover tons more. Um, and it’s really, really hard to narrow down the list to things that I would really recommend to everybody. So, basically, that’s all I’m going to be mentioning for today, even though I could do many more, but if you would like to see a few more suggestions of good restaurants that we’ve had, there will be some in the link in the description down below. So, check that out. And, um, yeah, if if this is your first time visiting Tokyo and you’re kind of worried about finding the right restaurants, I would say don’t be worried. There are so many options to choose from and the quality of food is so high here that you really can’t go wrong. And if you would like some help in booking restaurants, again, don’t forget to check out the website byfood.com. It makes it super easy to book in English or Chinese. I hope you enjoyed this and see you guys in another video. Bye. If you enjoyed this video, click the photos on the left for more and click the one on the right to learn more about BY food and book your own Japan adventures. [Music]

Planning your Tokyo trip? Don’t miss these 5 incredible restaurants—from iconic sushi to Michelin-rated ramen—and the best part? You can reserve them all online through byFood, with no Japanese needed.

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*Featured Restaurants*
Ushihachi Kiwami– For wagyu fans
https://bit.ly/4kphIJW

Shabu Shima – For delicious, all-you-can-eat Japanese hot pot
https://bit.ly/4ksDSes

Sushi Koshikawa – For sushi lovers
https://bit.ly/3FeWkrU

Pizza Strada – For the best pizza slice in Tokyo
https://maps.app.goo.gl/9ePHY8VyEG3DkngE6

La Cabina – For comforting and AUTHENTIC tacos
https://maps.app.goo.gl/hmnb3YPnvv36RSjUA

Bonus recommendations:
Sushi Hajime: https://bit.ly/43k9qvP
Yakitori Sei: https://bit.ly/4k1HrIJ
Vegan Gyoza Yu: https://maps.app.goo.gl/z2sZ9JnSrukyoxxi9

*About byFood*
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