Dan and I first visited Tokyo for my 30th birthday back in 2014, and we totally loved it. It turned out to be one of our favorite trips! So, when we vacationed to Korea over Thanksgiving last year, we decided to add on a long weekend in Tokyo, basically to eat!!

While we had a lovely and delicious trip back in 2014, one thing that we found difficult was eating at quality restaurants and knowing what to order (aside from the above pictured Kobe beef – 100%). If you are not in tune with Japanese culture, restaurants, many of which are tiny, lack English menus, and specialize in one type of food, can be very daunting. We definitely figured it out, but this time we wanted something a little more “put together,” especially on such a short trip. Thus, we joined a food tour with Ninja Tours! We found Ninja Tours and choose them because the tours and times offered fit our schedule. We opted for the Izakaya Night Tour and added on the Tokyo Sake Tasting. Ninja tours turned out to be quite easy to communicate with and I would recommend them with out hesitation.

Since we did both tours, our even started on the early side with a sake tasting at a tiny little bar in Shinjuku – Tokyo’s skyscraper district. We didn’t drink a lot of sake on our last trip to Japan, and we hardly ever have it in the US (except the rare Japanese steakhouse, of course!). So this time, sake was high on my list of food to try. After getting lost and arriving 15 minutes late (whoopsie!), we started our sake tasting, albeit a little faster than normal, at the cutest bar called Sake Bar Doron in Shinjuku, about 15 minutes from Shinjuku Station. During our tasting, we learned that sake is a old beverage that is experiencing a resurgence amongst the youngsters (what isn’t) made with rice and yeast. We tried no less than 7 sakes (!!), from super traditional to modern takes on the classic version. Our tasting, which lasted a little over an hour, was paired with a few bites of food. We even learned how to “read” some information on sake bottles (which I have since forgotten…).

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At the end of our sake tasting, we set out with Gulia, our tour guide for our food tour and also our sake tasting guide, to meet the rest of our group for a food tour though Shinjuku. Our group consisted of a very fun Australian family transiting to London for the holidays (for like a month – jealous!), a solo traveler from the US on a hiatus from his job and traveling the world (yes, I was again super jealous), and a solo ski instructor en route to instruct in Hokiado. What a fun and diverse group – we had a great time with them! All their cool situations also made me question what the hell I am doing with my life… But I digress… On to the food!

The first restaurant on our tour was a tiny, whole-in-the-wall place (which is actually a chain): Garakuta. And by tiny, I mean tiiiiny. Not even room to keep your coat at the table. The eight of us piled into two booths in the back of the restaurant. Garakuta is a typical Japanese bar and its well known for yakatori, or generally, grilled meat on a stick. As is apparently typical in Tokyo bars, our food sampling began with a complimentary appetizer of lettuce and cabbage salad topped with an orange and mayonnaise sauce. Everyone also selected a beverage of choice. I drank a classic Japanese, beverage “Hoppy.”  Hoppy is a beer-like drink without alcohol. Its typically mixed with sohchu (a rice based liquor) and drank in a bar setting, very similar to drinking beer in a pub! Its good and not too strong. Other options for diners were plum wine, tea, and water.

After receiving our drinks and salad, out came the food specialties of the restaurant! First was fried chicken in a slightly sweet sauce. This chicken was ridiculously good and well fried. This was my favorite dish at Garakuta. Immediately after the fried chicken, we were served chicken yakatori, or grilled chicken on a stick, and a second, odd cut of yakatori (I skipped this one), but the regular chicken yakatori was quite good. Even if you don’t take this food tour, you should absolutely have yakatori in Japan. Its a classic and honestly, not too hard to find. Albeit not of this quality!

The tasting ended with rice and a miso soup, as we learned is customary to end a meal at a Japanese bar! Full from the other food, I largely skipped these last two courses and quickly finished my drink before we moved to our next stop. On our way out of Garakuta, I noticed that the bar area is super small, but looked SO fun. I would love to return on my own and have a leisurely meal at the bar (I spied English menus!). 

The next restaurant we visited was another local spot, this time with a total focus on seafood. Seafood is extremely popular in Japan and you can find some of the best and most interesting seafood in the world here. This particular restaurant is called Takamaru and was located in a slightly circular building about a five minute walk from Garakuta.   Takamaru is one of three restaurants, and is apparently a restaurant and a fish store, with a menu changing daily based on the catches of the day. Takamaru was also quite small, but we did have a bit more room than at Garakuta. 

Like at Garakuta, Takamaru started our tasting with a complimentary appetizer of seaweed, carrot, potato, and fish and honestly, this was the sole dish on the tour that I did not like. But then again, I am not a seaweed fan. So there you go. We also again had our choice of beverage. I drank sake at Takamaru.

According to our guide, Takamaru is owned by a worker at Toyosu Fish Market and he brings in fresh seafood daily, so you can find very fresh, high quality seafood here. You can also find “weird” hard-to-find things, many of which are totally not weird in Japan. This is definitely the place to try to strange looking seafood (but note that while popular, seafood is not cheap in Japan). The first tasting at Takamaru was of Sea Grapes with a side of soy sauce. Sea grapes were described to me as a seaweed but in my opinion they lacked a strong taste (definitely not a seafood taste) and were very fun to eat. I really enjoyed these and would absolutely order these again. 

Our next tasting was a Japanese take on one of my very favorite foods – crab cakes! These crab cakes were stuffed with all crab meat in a light mayonnaise-y sauce and only the outside of the cake was lightly fried. They tasted similar to crab cakes I have had in the US, but with less bread. 

The crab was served with one of my favorite Japanese dishes, tuna! Tuna is very popular and pricey in Japan, and also of the highest quality. A popular way to order tuna in Japan is sashimi style, or fresh and uncooked, in a series of fattiness, light, medium, and the classic fatty tuna (my favorite!). Tuna is usually served with a small bit of fresh wasabi and oh man, if you have not had fresh wasabi, its everywhere in Japan and its so much better than the pre-packaged stuff. As expected, the tuna was excellent. 

Our meal ended with a fresh fish head, of what type I have no idea. Since this was toward the end of our tasting, I was pretty full and only had a bit of the fish, though it was quite good and I would eat it again. Side note – I am not a huge fish person aside from some mild white fish (like cod!), so I was happy to pass on this in favor of something later in the tour. Our guide explained to us that the fish eye is one of the best parts of the fish and an honor to be chosen to eat it at the dinner table. The youngest member of our tour, who is (or was) not a real foodie (according to his parents), stepped up and ate the eye! I was super impressed, and he said he liked it. What a sport!!

And it turned out to be a good thing that I skimped on the fish head because the next stop was an izakaya for one of my very favorite foods, gyoza! Izakayas are casual bar/restaurants that are all the rage in Japan; kind of like a pub in Ireland. And this izakaya, Dandadan, just happens to be known for its pork dumplings (gyoza!). Our group had to wait a few minutes before being seated on the second floor and brought our choice of drink. The first food that we tried was a type of grilled pork that was delicious! It was paired with a spiced sprout salad.

And then the main event, the gyoza! I could have finished the entire dish below. As expected the pork gyoza were fabulous and the perfect top off to the savory portion of our meal.

After so much food, the next leg of our tour was spent walking off our dinner through the Shinjuku area. We passed the famous (er, infamous) robot restaurant, took a stroll down the famous bar street Golden Gai (where I really want to return), and walked down Omoide Yokocho, or what’s commonly referred to as Memory Lane!

The last stop of our tour was inside Shinjuku’s enormous Metro stop for ice cream. Yes, ice cream in December! If you have never been to Tokyo, you should know that matcha, or green tea, flavored things are super popular, especially of the sweet variety, and ice cream is no exception. This particular shop, Chano Ikedaya, is a family business that has been around since 1945 serving all things green tea, including matcha soft serve and a combination of matcha and vanilla soft serve. Dan went all matcha, one of his favorite flavors, and I opted for a mixture of matcha and vanilla. Even though I was totally stuffed and chilly, this soft serve hit the spot, and its rumored to be some of the best in Tokyo! Don’t miss it if you are in Shinjuku and happen to walk by it.

Our tour ended after the ice cream, and we took the metro back to our hotel. We really enjoyed our food tour and eating our way through Shinjuku was a great way to spend our last night in Japan (saddddd!). As mentioned above, since Tokyo is expensive and not the easiest restaurant scene to navigate for non-natives, joining a food tour is a great way to try delicious food without doing much leg work. If you are interested in a Tokyo food and/or sake tour, definitely check out Ninja Food Tours!

STEAL OUR TRIP

Ninja Food Tours: We did the Night Tour: Best of Izakaya at 9,500 JPY per person, all drinks and food included. We also added on the Tokyo Sake Tasting, which can be done with or without the food tour. The cost for the Tokyo Sake Tasting was 7,500 JPY er person, including several samples of sake and some small bites.

Sake Bar Doron: 7 Chome−19−21, Nishishinjuku, Shinjuku, Tokyo. Small and very cool sake bar in Shinjuku.

Garakuta:  7 Chome-9-5 Nishishinjuku, Shinjuku, Tokyo. English menu. 

Takamaru: Exclusively seafood. 7-15-13 Nishishinjuku Shinjuku Tokyo. There are a few locations; this is the one we visited.

Dandadan: 1 Chome−26−3 TC第29歌舞伎ビル2階  Kabukicho, Shinjuku, Tokyo. Dandadan is a chain with numerous locations in Japan, but this is the one we visited. There are pictures on the menu (common in Japan) if they don’t have an English menu.

Chano Ikedaya: 1 Chome−1 Nishishinjuku Shinjuku Tokyo. Part of Odakyu Ace.

ON A BUDGET

While this tour is pricey, a lot of things in Tokyo are pricey, making this tour much more reasonable as it includes a lot of quality food. If you are looking for less expensive Tokyo food, try some subway station restaurants. There are some GREAT ones at decent prices. And stay away from sushi unless you know the price. That can be quite expensive.