Discover Koenji: Tokyo’s Best Kept Secret for Food and Fun

Discover Koenji: Tokyo’s Best Kept Secret for Food and Fun

Tokyo isn’t just about Shinjuku or Shibuya. Today, we’re taking you into one of the city’s coolest neighborhoods, Coeni. Famous for its vintage shops, hidden alleys, and incredible food, Coeni has its own unique vibe that you won’t find anywhere else in Tokyo. Welcome back to Tubby Eats and welcome to our brand new series, Tokyo Neighborhoods, where we explore Tokyo one neighborhood at a time. Today we’re exploring Coeni and it’s one of our favorite Tokyo playgrounds. So we know this area pretty well. We also know you guys will love Coeni. So make sure to watch until the end of this video. So we started from Coeni Chio Park. This is a small neighborhood park. Very comfortable place. Lots of trees and benches. In front of this park there is our favorite isizakaya restaurant named Mara. The restaurant is themed Yamangata. We filmed once before. If you haven’t seen that video, make sure to watch it. The link is in the description. The great thing about Tokyo neighborhoods that you’ll always find parks like this one. And this park is literally like a 2-minute walk from Kenji station. So near the park, there is a one shrine. This shrine is for me or weather named Ko Ginga. It’s combined with Hikawa Ginga. The big building is Hikawa Ginger. And next of the Hikawa Ginger, there is a Ko Ginger. I’m a weather forecaster. Kind of weather forecaster. I have a license. I sometimes come here and pray for my knowledge of meology. Yeah. Even in a place like Coji, you will find temples like this one. There is actually a number of temples and shrine just in this neighborhood alone. These temples and shrines are definitely not touristy, but that’s what makes them so relaxing. [Music] So, we begin the day with a light snack before lunch. And we are here at Floresta Donuts. And this is one of our favorite doughnut shops in the area. These donuts are lighter than your typical deep fried donuts. I believe they are baked. Satoshi loves these like cute ones. They’re so kawaii. The other great thing is that they have decaf coffee. I got decaf iced coffee to start the day. Cheers. [Music] That just hits the spot for me. Today I went with a donut called lemon tea. And there is a slice of real lemon on top and is glazed with something. M I think this is one of the best doughnuts I’ve had from this shop. And I have had a lot. First of all, it’s very lemony. Definitely a little bit of tart, but it’s also sweet as well. There’s some kind of like lemon glaze on the top. And the doughnut itself is flavored like a gray tea. It’s like tea leaves inside. It’s so good. It’s such a great combination. And as always, the donuts here are not overly sweet. So they are perfect for like breakfast or like a light snack before lunch. So my coffee is a regular coffee, regular iced coffee. I like this. Very refreshing. Nice bitterness. My donuts is this cute one. The top one is cat using white chocolate. M m inside is nice baked donuts. This is very good dango. I like this dango. The middle one is graced by white chocolate and the bottom one is with dark chocolate. So on our way to the lunch place, we decide to walk through this alley that we’ve never walked through. And surprise surprise, we discovered something brand new. Here is a public bus. Very historical public bus named Kosugi. The building is very old. It registered heritage building is built in 1933. 1933 and it’s still in operation. So here is a illustration of this public bus. So this very retro old style and bath and here’s look the mount Fuji Mount Fuji mural. Mount Fuji miro. This is very typical, right? And of course it’s a women’s and men’s and then you have like a resting area as well. This is one of the charms of Coeni. There are so many hidden alleyways that you can walk through and explore and you never know what you’ll find. Lunchtime, guys. So, we are at one of our favorite burger shops here in Coeni. This place is super hidden, so we definitely can call it a hidden gem. We’re here at Awajishima Burger. The burger patties are all 100% beef. Each burger has grilled onions inside made with Aajushima onions. So, Aaji Shima onion. For those of you from Hawaii, it’s kind of like the Maui onion of Japan. This is the Shima lemonado soda. Uh, this is soda made with island lemon. Super refreshing, especially on a super hot day like today. Today is like 37° C. So, I got a shima lemonade. Island lemonade. Ah, nice sourness and sweetness combination. This is a shima onion. Aishim onion. So big. It’s I think it’s the double size of a regular onion ketchup. I think so. You can actually buy these one for 200 yen or three for 550. Not bad. So, I got the basic aaji burger with a side of onion ring. And of course, I got the drink. So, if you order it as a set burger, side, and a drink, it’s 100 yen cheaper. First, let’s talk about the onion rings. The onion rings are made with those special onions from Aji Island, and they are so good. Did you hear how crispy that is? These are so crispy. They fry it to order. It’s just so good and naturally sweet because of the aaji onion, lettuce, tomato, fresh. That is the That is the awaji onion right there. Oh. Oh my god. The the beef patty is incredibly juicy. The onion naturally sweet, has a nice texture. Vegetables are super fresh. And the sauce is like somewhere in between like a demiglos sauce and a little bit of soy sauce, but kind of Japanese kind of western, but really pairs perfectly with all the ingredients in here. So good. So mine is tamaka and kamu cheese fry. First, I want to bite this kamu cheese fry. M very light sakuto nice cheese and very good friend of beer. This looks like the patty but this is onion. Onion katu this sweetness onion incredible. Yes. It’s combined with the sourness of honey mustard sauce. Of course, the patty is good flavor for onion katu. It’s incredible. What a fabulous burger. I enjoyed so much. Me, too. If you’re craving a good burger, definitely check this place out. Afterwards, you can walk off your calories by exploring these many side streets. There’s I think about seven guys in Coeni alone. So, lots and lots to explore. The shops here are unique. You won’t find any uh big brand names here, which is part of the charm of Coen, I think. True, true. I love this town. There’s also a supermarket called Seu here. Super super convenient if you’re looking for like souvenirs, you’re you’re looking to buy uh Kit Kats and stuff like that at very very low prices. And the other thing is that it’s open 24 hours. So, one of the main shopping streets is called Pel. It’s a covered arcade shoen. But at the end of that street, there’s another shorten. This one is outdoors and this is the cogi look. And this is another long shopping street with tons of secondhand clothing. That’s another thing that Coi is famous for. Here is another shopping street named Central Loto. And along this street, there is a restaurant named Wanua. We come here often. This restaurant specialized for Japanese wine. Here is a Okinawan restaurant. They have a very authentic Okinawan food here. So, if you are craving for Okinawan food, come here. We’re going to visit our friend over at her cake shop and we’re going to pick up some cookies there. Her cakes are amazing, especially her blueberry cake. But I I hope they’re open today. Okay, so here we are at Black Mountain. If you’ve watched our past videos, you know that this is one of our favorite bakeries. The cakes here are amazing, especially the blueberry cake. But we’re here to pick up some cookies for our friend. So, these are the selections. She recommends the bergamut sabé. So, I’m going to get a pack of that. I think I’ll get this uh Earl Gray Twill strawberry cookie, lemon and chocolate poundake. I think that’s a good selection for my friend. What do you guys think? So, not too far from the doughnut place we went this morning is a cookie shop. And we always stop by here. If you are in Tokyo and you’re craving Americanstyle cookies, really good quality ones as well as good matcha, check this place out. The donut shop is over there at the Monster Sweet and Oizo Cafe is here. I come here all the time. I cannot resist because I do get cravings for cookies. I really love cookies and the cookies here are amazing. It is tea time and this is like my seat. Welcome to my seat. I usually get a matcha latte. Like that’s my go-to. The matcha latte here is really, really good. Like probably better than some of the fancier places around this area. My opinion, of course. But I think it’s true. I never tried this before. This is their pumpkin spice latte, and I love pumpkin spice, and I didn’t know they had this. So, cheers. This looks good. Oh. That is amazing. That is something that Satoshi might not like. And I got one of their newer cookies. And this is the cookie monster. The name is like like a mint tea monster or something like that. But isn’t that cute? M. The texture is perfect. It’s a soft cookie, but not too soft. And the baker adds a little bit of salt to counteract the sweetness. So, it’s a really well balanced cookie. If you don’t mind, I’m just going to take a bite of the eye. M the cookies here are always good. My drink is iced coffee. I always drink coffee. If we drink one cup of coffee, they donate to charity that feed the hungry. Nice van. Good taste. M. My cookie is red cookie. I like this color. M. Very nice chocolate flavor outside. Nicely crispy. I really recommend this. Thank you for coming. Thank you so much. Bye. So, right next door to Monster Sweets is this household goods store called Inaga. It is one of our favorite stores. Uh this is a type of stores that we used to see all over Japan, but they are disappearing. This is a retro old-fashioned type of neighborhood uh household goods store that we love. Then you can find a lot of things here. For example, you can buy shape ice machine like this. This is made in Japan, the penguin style. And these are traditional tawashi, which are like scrubs. Uh very good. Yeah. You don’t really see this anymore. This they’ve been making this for over a hundred years. They look like this. And you can use this to wash the bathtub. So these are uden steamer. It’s very useful. Then you got some really nice Japanese fans here. So, this is for soba noodles or udon noodles. Okay. And a lot of you guys ask us where you can buy uh pots for nab. Here are some options here. That’s a really nice one for a family. And the price is super reasonable. You have a smaller one for 1,480 yen. This corner ta it’s very beautiful. Traditional Japanese. Look at this. You got mubo a chopstick holder. Look at that. It’s very cute. Yeah, it’s very cute. And these are for matcha. Yes, I have this. This is to scoop the matcha. And that is the whisk. And also this one traditional Japanese pot. Yes, it’s beautiful. So these are tea canisters to store your tea leaves. And if you come here and say hello to shop owners, they will give you this origami. So many things in here. It just reminds me of my childhood days. Oh, look at this. You hardly see this anymore. You guys know what this is? This is a rice mode. So you put in your rice here and then you uh put this on a plate so it looks beautiful. That’s to make sushi. You have a rice paddles here. Yeah. So many things. I love this. I love this. Oh, look at this. We have this at home. So guys, definitely stop by and say hello to the nice owners here. When you visit Coi, this is a must visit place. So we are on our way to one of our favorite places. Uh it is going to be our fifth time visiting this place. We love it so much. But you know, one thing that we recommend you do when you come to Coen is walk underneath the railway tracks. This is underneath the railway tracks. And you have this whole other city or town or I don’t know what you call it. Super retro. Reminds me of like Showa era. Yes. It’s like 40 or 50 years ago Japan. Yeah. Like there’s like bars, there’s like restaurants. Um most of the bars are very small and homey looking. um some unique ones as well, but um really fun to just walk walk here. Just walking. It’s entertainment itself. So, the lights are coming on in Coen Gi. And I love this particular street. Look at all the lanterns above us. It’s so beautiful. Anyway, our favorite sake bar is located on this street. It’s located on the basement floor of here. It’s called Sake Bar Kokon. It’s right here. Yes. You have to go down these steps here. A little bit hard to find, but it’s right here. Welcome to Sake Baron, our favorite place. So, welcome to Kokon, guys. Check this place out. The modern interior. He is the owner of the place. Thank you for having us again. We always order the nomi kurab set the sake flight. Maybe you don’t know what sake is good for you. In that case, please say your preference. The owner will select the best things for you guys. Have you seen sake like this before? I mean, just looking at the bottles excites me. Look at the designs of the bottles. Okay. So, I’m going to try the shiji first and then I’m going to go libram and then I’ll end with the akiake. Oh my goodness. It’s very sweet. It’s a sweeter sake. Yeah, you can taste the rice. But you know what this reminds me of? This kind of reminds me of like a sparkling almost like amazake flavor. I love it. You can really taste the the rice in this one. It’s very refreshing but also sweet. This is Libram. This is the craft sake. Oh, this one is stronger. It has a punch. This one has a very strong character, I have to say. And I finally got it. I got the hint of basil. Wow. This one is unique. Finally, this is aki sake. Autumn sake. Oh, this one is uh more like the sake that I’m used to drinking. It has a more traditional sake flavor. You know, you can taste the rice. It’s smooth. This one is not too sweet. Yeah, I like this one, too. I just love that each one is so different. First is from Kyoto. This one, this is clear one. Korea one. This is very tasty and Korea sake we drink usually. The flavor is close to that. The next one is Shina from Guma Prefecture. Sake is made from rice. The rice is grown in the rice field. But this one is not in the rice field. It’s grown on farm farm. So not rice field. The ka this one ka is little yellow. M totally different flavor. kind of like the mixture of regular Korea tasty sake and white wine. The third one, the cute bottle. It’s called shu using hop. So kind of like beer. Mysteriously the color is pink. Why? I don’t know why. Ah. Wow. Very nice fruity drink similar to strawberry. Maybe because it is a kind of red color. So my eyes is saying it is strawberry maybe. But fruity. This one is very unique. I love this. This one is from Ningata Prefecture. I especially like uh this one, the shiji and libram, the craft one. The Akiaki is good. Uh this one um I I think um it would pair well with like Japanese food, but I think these two I could just drink them as like uh apperatives or cocktails. We ordered the seasonal shi tofu mixture. But this one is not only tofu. The owner used mascar ponet cheese. It’s mixed with pear. Japanese pear. Msteriously matches with this these flavors. Sweet of course and it’s combined with tofu taste and cheese taste. Mascar pony cheese. It’s very nicely. All right, we got one more dish. We got the seasonal grilled vegetables with sardine sauce, zucchini, bell pepper, eggplant in there. I also see lotus root and pumpkin as well. M I almost want like a bowl of rice for that. There’s like a soy sauce flavor, but it’s actually quite subtle. And there’s a little kick as well. And this one pairs really well with my Aki sake. And by the way, guys, you know, like we’re explaining to you what we’re having today, but you’re never guaranteed that you’re going to find these sake when you visit because he’s always finding new and interesting varieties of sake. So, you never know what’s available that day. So, don’t worry too much about learning the names of these sake. Uh, just come and enjoy your visit, explore, and discover your own favorites. [Music] So, this bar is a very nice place to learn how to enjoy Japanese sake. Mhm. Yes. Highly recommended. Yes. So, shall we eat dinner? Yes. Perfect time for dinner. Did you know that Kenji is famous for curry? Yeah, that’s right. You can find many, many curry shops around this area. Uh, this place is a little bit hard to find. This place is called Kujira and it’s located in like this um corridor like this old like an old market. Yeah, I think it used to be like a old wet market back in the day. Uh but now it’s full of uh these quirky restaurants but most of them are very very good and this place uh specializes in spice curry. You can choose one curry, two curry, three curry dishes. So I chose two curry dishes, chicken curry and beef curry. This is beef curry. Beef kima curry. And this is a chicken curry. First I want to taste this curry as it is. This is a spice curry. Oh wow. Not only spice taste. It has a vegetable taste like pepper. But rice is basmati rice, not Japanese rice. M. It combines with this curry taste so nicely. Oh, this is shop as a very nice spice mix. It’s different from Japanese regular curry, but I like this combination. It’s tender chicken breast meat combined with this curry taste nicely. So, I got the squid curry, which is quite unique, I think. And then this one is the pork curry. So, this one is the spiciest. So, I’m going to start off with some of the uh the ika curry, the squid one with a chili pepper, I think. Look at that. You can clearly see the squid as well as the chili. M. Oh, that is super flavorful. Not only is it creamy, but it’s also spicy. That is definitely chili in there. Green chili, but it has such good flavor. All right, let’s try this one. Let’s try the u the pork curry. The spiciest of them all. [Music] Oh, I love this one. This is Oh, wow. It’s sour. This one is sour and spicy, but I love sour flavors. And it’s not just sour and spicy, but it has lots of flavor and various spices mixed in. So, it is delicious. I want to try some of their homemade pickles. I think that is I’m not sure what that is. Looks like this. Yeah, looks like it kind of looks like pineapple, too. But most likely, you’re right. It’s daon properly. M. Very nice and crunchy. Not as sour as I thought it would be. Some of the red cabbage here. I really, really love curry. And I’ve been craving curry today. So, this is perfect. M. Nice. Crunchy, sour, and a little bit sweet as well. I’m so glad we tried this place out. This is the only place on this entire video that we’ve never been to. It’s our first time left and I think we’ve discovered a new favorite. So guys, what did you think of Coi? Hope you like Coi as much as we do. This is actually one of our hangouts and we come here like pretty much every single week. And the places we showed you today, many of them are our favorites. Uh we of course discovered a new curry shop which is amazing. Uh, if you are planning to visit Tokyo or if you are in Tokyo and have you never explored Coji before, come on. What are you waiting for? You have to check this place out. We love it so much. Please smash that like button if you enjoyed this video because this is a brand new series. We hope that you are going to enjoy the videos coming up for this series. We’ll be exploring all the neighborhoods in Tokyo. It’s going to be amazing. Where do you want to go next? So, check out the next video. Bye-bye.

Looking for hidden gems in Tokyo? Join us as we spend an entire day exploring Koenji (高円寺) — one of Tokyo’s coolest neighborhoods loved by locals. From parks and shrines to amazing food, coffee, shopping streets, and even a traditional bathhouse, Koenji is full of surprises. Whether you’re here for a few hours or a whole day, there’s so much to do, see, and eat.

👉Here’s everywhere we visited in this video:
📍Koenji Chuo Park
https://maps.app.goo.gl/HMMjcVR3yputUZb17
📍Kisho Jinja / Hikawa Shrine
https://maps.app.goo.gl/gbLPLw3my1FEgYx16
📍Floresta Doughnuts
https://maps.app.goo.gl/2XK6FGB26jw8oiwH8
📍Kosugiyu
https://maps.app.goo.gl/QjMu9vP2jAihYfN78
📍Awajishima Burger
https://maps.app.goo.gl/Z6JLTuTYFvMMYGRX6?g_st=ipc
📍PAL Shopping Street
https://maps.app.goo.gl/cw3cArUPsRvAfKXb6
📍Koenji Look Shopping Street
https://maps.app.goo.gl/JDzSixPv9An5zLYq7
📍Black Mountain
https://maps.app.goo.gl/7TjEPg4BN62JrKBW8?g_st=ipc
📍Monsta Sweets & Ojizo Coffee
https://maps.app.goo.gl/b8WDYWVPSMEf26YM6?g_st=ipc
📍Inageya
https://maps.app.goo.gl/93RGwKd8KR3yBeAy6
📍Under the Tracks
(Walk out of Koenji Station, and walk along the road under the train tracks)
📍Sake Bar KoKoN
https://maps.app.goo.gl/4Pe2W7NzXwzHYMRV6?g_st=ipc
📍Kujira
https://maps.app.goo.gl/3k5Bdz4PNaFXuZLR8?g_st=ipc

Koenji is not just about vintage shops and music — it’s also home to cozy cafés, incredible local food, and some of Tokyo’s best hidden spots. If you’re planning your Tokyo trip, make sure Koenji is on your list!

👉 Which part of Koenji would you love to visit first — the shrines, the shopping streets, or the food spots? Let us know in the comments!

😃Other videos that may interest you
✔️This is our video on our favorite Izakaya in Koenji serving up Yamagata cuisine.
👉https://youtu.be/-6X3ddnMmgY?si=pEP-P9Y07bSCy4zj
✔️Ginza Street Food Tour
👉https://youtu.be/m4TousnG5NM?si=tyxB6f_mqzfv3oUD
✔️Akihabara Street Food Tour
👉https://youtu.be/MCmhBT_CpfA?si=B1DzXasPa5MYFi4n

#Koenji #TokyoTravel #TokyoFood #JapanTravel #TabiEats

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