Asking Salarymen Where to Eat in Tokyo – Cheap, Local Spots!

Asking Salarymen Where to Eat in Tokyo – Cheap, Local Spots!

Today I’ve been challenged to eat a meal with a salary man. I am in Nihomashi, Tokyo, which is one of the business hubs where you can find a lot of salary men. Salary man being the common word used here to describe men who work in offices. And they’re usually known for being able to find a really good, quick, filling, and cheap lunch. So, I’m actually going to hit the streets today and do my best to ask a an actual salary man on the street for their recommendation for a lunch. But I think it’s going to be really challenging because this is not New York and people don’t easily stop and talk to you here. I’ve done street interviews with foreigners before. Now it’s a lot easier. Wo, that’s a lot of sashimi. I cannot believe that this is the appetizer that they give you. Good call, Mr. Salary Man outside. But before we go, I just want to let you know that we’re going to be doing something really special this autumn with by food, where your foodie adventures booked on byfood.com are going to be helping even more children in need and buy them meals in different countries. So, I’ll let you guys know a little bit more about this later. But also, don’t forget to subscribe and I’m going to go find some salary then to interview on the street. So, wish me luck. Let’s go. [Music] challen more challenging than I thought it would be. I’m gonna try to ask those guys over there. See if they’ll respond to me. Mhm. Mhm. [Music] Okay, I do. You can speak English? Yeah. Sure, why not? Are you serious? Oh my gosh. Yay. Okay, then I’m going to follow you and go with you for soba lunch today if that’s okay. Let’s go. All right. So nice. This is one. Oh, it is called soba task and I think it’s so famous near here because so many sims working here and they have lunch or breakfast here. So which soba do you normally choose? Yeah, normally it’s so hot. I want to have zaru sobba. It’s cold one. Okay. Cold soba. I also recommend you the hot one. So, so these bowls of soup are usually warm, but I guess in summertime sometimes they make them cold as well. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, okay. I’ve never really seen like cold soup in soba before. Normally in summer, I think zadua is most popular, right? So many people choose this. I think I’m going to try something a little bit different. I’ll do the one that he recommended but cold. We’ll see how it is. All right, let’s give it a try. Shall we go inside? Yeah, sure. Why not? Let’s go. [Music] Okay, so we have our soba. And that was so fast. I think they took about 2 minutes or 3 minutes. No, maybe one, I think. 1 minute. So, I was filling up some water and then already this was out. So, it was incredible. So, this is your zadu. So, yes, cold one. Cold one. So, zadu actually means like a strainer. Zadu usually has these little slats of wood on the bottom to drain the water and you can have a nice cold soupless soba during the summer that you dip. And mine I’m actually really surprised it is also similar to zadu soba but it doesn’t have the wooden part on the bottom. There’s no soup in it. You also dip this one for summer version. And I wanted to ask why is it so cheap here in Nihongash area which is much cheaper than marino here and you can eat fast. That was wise. Do celery men usually like cheap lunches? Sometimes. Yeah. They eat very tasty high lunch. Yeah. Well, normally here cheaper one. Good to know. That’s kind of the characteristics of a salary man lunch. So, let’s give it a try, shall we? I’ve always loved how food brings people together, and sharing has always been at the heart of what food does. Especially in times like these when many people face economic challenges, every act of kindness matters even more. So this autumn, by food is strengthening their food for happiness program where 10 additional meals be donated to children in need on top of what is already donated through each booking on byfood.com. Plus, we’re also thinking about you. If you book more than once during October or November, then bite food will give you a,000 yen off your next foodie adventure. And I don’t know about you, but that’s definitely a journey that I want to be a part of. So, join me in savoring the flavors of Japanese autumn and spread some kindness along the way. All right, back to the video. I guess we should say first, I’ll just try the noodles and see how it is. Those are really nice soba noodles. Nice texture, very simple. They’re buckwheat noodles, so they have a little bit of um less chewy texture, but it still has just the right amount of bite to it. It’s really nice. It goes well with the sauce. And you can add some of these into the sauce, right? Or do you think I should pour here? Okay, he seems to be recommending to pour. Okay, I’ll pour it over. All right, let’s give it a try. It’s really good with the green onions and the grated daon radish. gives a little bit of extra crunch and flavor and texture, but I really want to try the shrimp. But I’ve noticed that you’ve already finished. Yeah, that’s the sign of a true celery man. And it’s gone. Or let’s try a shrimp tempura. M. You can’t ask for much more in a tempura. It’s like a really really crispy and crunchy on the outside with a very large juicy plump shrimp on the inside. They would call puri puddy in Japanese. Really plump and juicy. I’d say solid quality for under a,000 yen. Do you ever go out with other colleagues to eat lunch or do you eat by yourself? Usually I sometimes uh eat out with colleagues. Yeah, many people uh eat out with colleagues, I think, cuz they have fixed lunch time. Usually um 12 to 1. And I’m curious, how many times a week do you think you would normally eat sobba? Normally, uh once a week for lunch, but most people don’t do the same one morning, breakfast, lunch, and dinner, right? Maybe once a day. Okay. Okay. All right. So, this is a really tasty recommendation. Thank you so much. Pleasure. But I need to finish up my noodles quickly so he can go back to work. So I’ll see you guys outside. That was really, really tasty. Thank you for showing me this restaurant. You’re welcome. I was really wondering though because people come in and out so fast. What is the expected amount of time that people should eat their food in time? Must be like 5 to 10 minutes. 5 to 10. Yes. That’s super fast. I mean, you did eat it in about 2 minutes, so that was quite impressive. So, yeah, thank you for introducing me again. This is a lot of fun. And thanks for allowing me to come along with you on your lunch break. Thank you. Thank you. Enjoy uh the rest of your day. Thank you. Thank you. See you. Bye-bye. [Music] All right, let’s try to ask somebody else if they have a lunch recommendation. [Music] We tried and failed. Okay. Do you guys [Laughter] Yes. Yes, we got one. Let’s go. Let’s go eat ramen. Yeah. All right. Let’s buy our our lunch tickets. We’ll get the classic ramen. Okay, so we have our ramen. It looks really good. Smells amazing. And we decided to get Coca-Cola. Oh, okay. So, we can do a compai together. Um, but first I want to ask, that’s pork back fat. That’s going to be really rich. And there’s a lot of green onions on top. I decided to get a an egg like a jammy egg and there’s also chashu and I think bamboo shoots. Okay. All right. Here we go. With the Coca-Cola for lunch time. This is so cute. [Music] Oh, let’s try the soup first. Here we go. There’s a lot of back fat on here. Nice choices. Oh yeah. My [Laughter] Yeah. Sushi. Sushi. [Music] Try the noodles. Yeah. [Music] Yeah, it’s really nice. I think the soup is a little bit thick because of the the pork fat. It’s really thick and creamy. Almost balances really nicely. But I probably would avoid eating eating it every day cuz I think there are a lot of calories in this. So I always get an egg. You can add on at the machine. M. Oh, that’s a really good ramen egg. Actually, it’s got so much flavor. The inside of the egg is actually a little bit sweet, which I’m not used to. So good. All right. So, I’m going to we’re going to finish up our noodles. I’ll let him hurry back to work cuz he’s he actually has to go back to work. So, um I will see you guys outside. Thanks for appearing. Bye. All right. As you can see, it is now a little bit darker. I’ve moved to another part of town called Shimbashi, which is also a business district very close to Nihashi with a lot of salary men. As you can see, there’s a lot of people who seem to have just gotten off work and they’re coming to and from the station. So, I’m hoping to be able to get a recommendation for dinner or an izakaya to get a drink to end the night. So, fingers crossed. We’ll see what happens. And I’m hoping maybe one of them will let me go with them, but we’ll see. Oh no, there’s so many people coming at once. Dang it. Dang it. Oh, okay. So, since they recommended this one, I think I’m going to go in and give it a try and then we’ll see what happens after that. Let’s go inside. Okay, so I decided to start with Nama, which is a draft beer. This is definitely something that people tend to start with when they go out for drinks after work, especially. And then this is the otoshi, which is the appetizer that you don’t order. So, if something shows up at an izakaya, don’t be surprised. That’s normal. I didn’t catch what she said it was, so I’m just going to open it and see what it is. So, here we go. Open the lemon. [Music] Wa, that’s a lot of sashimi for otoshi. I cannot believe that this is the appetizer that they give you. But note the izakaya appetizers are the table charge, but they do give you food in exchange for the table charge, which is nice. That’s very special. Good call, Mr. Celery Man outside. All right, in true celery man spirit, the team and I have all got beers. So, let’s come by. Come by. Let’s get some of this. We’re not finished yet, though. Oh my gosh. There’s something so refreshing about Japanese beers. They come out ice cold. It’s so nice. Oh my. I ordered smashed cucumbers and it seems to have like a salt based sauce on it. The reason I ordered it is because the guys next to me ordered it. So, you know, people are ordering it. It’s probably a good good dish. So, I’m going to try that. And let’s start with the appetizer sushimi. Here we go. Look at this beautiful color. Yeah, it’s really good. I wouldn’t say this is like the highest quality that I’ve had, but it’s fine. Like, I think the main thing about you come here to drink and get a decent value for your drinking and your eating. Okay, let’s try the cucumbers that my neighbors are eating. There you go. M. Those are some good cucumbers. You might be thinking, why would I go to Japan to an izakaya and eat a cucumber? Let me tell you right now, they serve cold tomatoes and they serve cold cucumbers and they’re really nice in the summer. And the sauce on this one is amazing. It’s got this like very light salt based sauce is what we call it cuz it’s not a brown sauce and it just gives it this wonderful like just right amount of saltiness and flavor that makes you want to eat more. And the cucumber is super crunchy and juicy. It’s actually really good. So, I got the kani kurim ko, which is the crab cream croette. I’m going to cut it in half and let’s see. Let’s see how it is. Here we go. Oo, crispy. So crispy. And looks creamy. Oh, that looks so good. Okay, let’s see how it tastes. Here we go. M. That’s really tasty. There’s little tiny pieces of macaroni inside. So, it’s got this really crispy and flaky exterior with a little bit of sauce, which is the Japanese kind of sweet uh barbecue sauce. I enjoy it. Very subtle crab flavor. This is my first time having a crab cream croat with macaroni in it. Okay, so for my last dish here, I decided to order something that was recommended on the menu. It’s tuna and it also is seasoned with ume which is Japanese sour plum and shiso or pilla leaves. Apparently it’s a part of the fish’s head and it’s grilled. So we’ll see how this tastes. This isakaya seems to be known for their seafood and especially their tuna. So let’s see how this one this one is. curious. The ube sour plum really kicks in at the end. This sour plum sauce is really salty and sour. So, it gives it this like nice salty and then kind of refreshing sour kick at the end, but it takes a second to sink in. And the tuna itself is really soft and fluffy. The exterior is like nicely grilled. I really like it. It tastes very like it’s a really nice combination of Japanese flavors. Well, there you have it. Those were three restaurants that a lot of salary men in Tokyo actually go to to eat during the day for lunch or to go get a drink after work. But I will say it was very challenging. I called this video a challenge and it really was because in Tokyo people are not very open to talking to people they don’t know on the street unless they’ve had a few drinks. So, the possibilities of talking to salary men really go up I would say after 7:00 p.m. is kind of the sweet spot. But I would like to know if you guys enjoyed this video and if you’d like to see me try this same challenge in Osaka where people are known to be a lot more outgoing and willing to talk to each other. So, let me know if you’d like to see a part two challenge of this in Osaka. Also, if you want to eat and drink like a celery man, we actually have a couple of celery men and snack bar chores on the BY food website, which are a lot of fun. So, if you’re interested, make sure to check that out on the QR code on the screen. All right, thanks so much for watching and see you guys next time. Off for round four. Let’s go. If you enjoyed this video, click the photos on the left for more and click the one on the right to learn more about buy food and book your own Japan adventures. See you next time. [Music]

Japan byFood is challenging Shizuka to eat a meal with salarymen in the heart of Tokyo’s busiest business district! Known with the busy work culture, salarymen are always on the go – even during lunch break. So, their go-to lunch spot would be anything convenient and quick. Join us to discover them!

🍺 *Experience it yourself to eat and drink like a salaryman with byFood* ➡️ http://bit.ly/47jLpav
🥟 *Like it playful? Hop into an izakaya and snack bar tour with byFood* ➡️ https://bit.ly/4byHx5x

*Timeline*
00:00 – Intro
01:09 – Street Interviews
01:55 – 1st Salaryman Found
02:41 – Salaryman Recommended Restaurant
04:41 – Autumn Campaign
05:22 – Eating Soba with Salaryman
08:09 – More Street Interviews
08:52 – 2nd Salaryman Found
09:19 – Salaryman Recommended Restaurant
09:58 – Eating Ramen with Salaryman
13:49 – Last Chance for Street Interviews
15:02 – Eating At The Recommended Izakaya
19:27 – Outro

*About byFood*
ByFood is a platform that connects foodies with food experiences in Japan, from bustling food markets to serene countryside tastings. Besides exploring Japanese food culture in an authentic way, your booking fuels positive change! For every booking, we donate 10 meals to children in need through our Food for Happiness program. Ready for your next food adventure?

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