Skip to content

Top Navigation

Food & Wine Food & Wine
  • Recipes & Cooking
  • Drinks
  • Travel
  • Holidays + Events
  • News
  • F&W Classic
  • Video
  • Lifestyle
  • F&W Pro
  • About Us

Profile Menu

Your Profile

Your Profile

  • Join Now
  • Newsletters
  • F&W Classic Insiders this link opens in a new tab
  • Manage Your Subscription this link opens in a new tab
  • Give a Gift Subscription this link opens in a new tab
  • Wine Club
  • Podcast
  • Food & Wine Books this link opens in a new tab
  • Logout
Login
Subscribe Subscribe
Pin FB

Explore Food & Wine

Food & Wine Food & Wine
  • Explore

    Explore

    • F&W Cooks

      F&W Cooks

      Food and Wine presents a new network of food pros delivering the most cookable recipes and delicious ideas online. Read More
    • Our 22 Best Crock Pot and Slow-Cooker Recipes

      Our 22 Best Crock Pot and Slow-Cooker Recipes

      Looking to amp up your beef stew but unsure where to start? A slow cooker can can take your comfort food to the next level. Read More
    • 50 Affordable Wines You Can Always Trust

      50 Affordable Wines You Can Always Trust

      We’ve assembled a list of 50 of the world’s most reliable, inexpensive wines – bottles that offer amazing quality for their price year in and year out. Read More
  • Recipes & Cooking

    Recipes & Cooking

    See All Recipes & Cooking
    • Chicken
    • Comfort Food
    • Breakfast + Brunch
    • Salads
    • Desserts
    • Vegetables
    • Pasta + Noodles
    • Chefs
    • Meat + Poultry
    • Soup
    • Appetizers
    • Side Dishes
    • Fruits
    • Seafood
    • Special Diets
    • Cooking Techniques
    • Steal This Trick
  • Drinks

    Drinks

    See All Drinks
    • Wine
    • Cocktails + Spirits
    • Coffee
    • Juices
    • Beer
    • Champagne + Sparkling Wine
    • Tea
  • Travel

    Travel

    See All Travel
    • Wine Regions
    • Restaurants
  • Holidays + Events

    Holidays + Events

    See All Holidays + Events
    • Valentine's Day
    • Halloween
    • Passover
    • Hanukkah
    • Christmas
    • Gifts
    • Super Bowl
    • Easter
    • Thanksgiving
    • New Year's Eve
    • Holiday Entertaining
  • News
  • F&W Classic

    F&W Classic

    See All F&W Classic
    • F&W Classic Insider
  • Video
  • Lifestyle
  • F&W Pro
  • About Us

Profile Menu

Subscribe this link opens in a new tab
Your Profile

Your Profile

  • Join Now
  • Newsletters
  • F&W Classic Insiders this link opens in a new tab
  • Manage Your Subscription this link opens in a new tab
  • Give a Gift Subscription this link opens in a new tab
  • Wine Club
  • Podcast
  • Food & Wine Books this link opens in a new tab
  • Logout
Login
Sweepstakes

Follow Us

  1. Home
  2. Travel
  3. The World's Best Food Cities: Tokyo

The World's Best Food Cities: Tokyo

By Food & Wine Updated June 28, 2016
Skip gallery slides
FB Tweet
Ginza Okuda
Credit: Photo courtesy of Ginza Okuda
F&W tapped local experts in five of the world's great food cities—Tokyo, Sydney, New York, Barcelona and Paris—to find the essential restaurants, old and new, that sum up the spirit of each metropolis.—Robbie Swinnerton
Start Slideshow

1 of 10

FB Tweet
Pinterest Email Send Text Message Print

Nodaiwa

Nodaiwa
Credit: Photo courtesy of Nodaiwa

1800 A six-generation family business, this 200-plus-year-old restaurant specializes in one thing: unagi, or freshwater eel. The fillets are grilled over charcoal, basted with a salty-sweet marinade, grilled again until caramelized and served with warm rice. nodaiwa.co.jp

1 of 10

Advertisement
Advertisement

2 of 10

FB Tweet
Pinterest Email Send Text Message Print

Kanda Yabu Soba

Kanda Yabu Soba
Credit: Photo © Tokyo Food File

1880 Even more than sushi, soba (buckwheat noodles) is the quintessential Tokyo food. For more than 130 years, local tradesmen and artisans have come here for freshly made noodles, served with side dishes such as anago (conger eel) tempura or roast duck breast. When a fire burned down the original charming setting, the restaurant reopened to remain a hit. yabusoba.net

2 of 10

3 of 10

FB Tweet
Pinterest Email Send Text Message Print

Ten-Ichi

Ten-Ichi
Credit: Photo © Lisa Macabasco

1930 Before the rest of the world learned to love sushi, most visitors to Tokyo went for tempura—batter-fried pieces of seafood or vegetables. Ten-Ichi’s Ginza branch is a tempura benchmark. Cooked in front of the diner and served directly from wok to plate, each dish is incredibly light and greaseless. tenichi.co.jp

3 of 10

Advertisement

4 of 10

FB Tweet
Pinterest Email Send Text Message Print

Kozue

Kozue
Credit: Photo courtesy of Park Hyatt Tokyo

1994 On the 40th floor of the sleek Park Hyatt Tokyo (made famous by Lost in Translation), Kozue is a modern take on kaiseki—Japan’s traditional, multicourse cuisine. Chef Kenichiro Ooe’s meals reflect the changing seasons, with mountain herbs and bamboo shoots in spring, and the fabled fugu (poisonous blowfish) in the winter. hyatt.com

  • F&W's Tokyo Travel Guide

4 of 10

5 of 10

FB Tweet
Pinterest Email Send Text Message Print

Bird Land Ginza

Bird Land Ginza
Credit: Photo courtesy of Bird Land

2001 Bird Land specializes in yakitori: cuts of free-range shamo gamecock, skewered and carefully grilled over premium bincho charcoal, then lightly seasoned with sea salt, soy sauce, wasabi, yuzu or lemony sansho pepper. Grill master Toshihiro Wada was one of the first to transform this basic blue-collar staple, more often associated with smoky drinking dives. His first restaurant in the suburbs became such a favorite that he moved to the centrally located Ginza. ginza-birdland.sakura.ne.jp

  • A Self-Guided Study of Japanese Food: Understanding Yakitori

5 of 10

6 of 10

FB Tweet
Pinterest Email Send Text Message Print

Narisawa

Narisawa
Credit: Photo © Tetsuya Miura

2003 While Yoshihiro Narisawa has a French cuisine background, his experimental, modern approach has more in common with Nordic chefs such as Noma’s René Redzepi. Before he arrived in Tokyo, local food lovers were making the one-hour trip to his small restaurant on the coast. At Narisawa, he cooks his dishes—edible dirt, black charred-leek-crusted beef—using the freshest ingredients, such as foraged wild vegetables, venison from the Hokkaido mountains and sea snake from Japan’s southernmost islands. narisawa-yoshihiro.com

6 of 10

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement

7 of 10

FB Tweet
Pinterest Email Send Text Message Print

Nihonryori RyuGin

Nihonryori RyuGin
Credit: Photo courtesy of Nihonryori RyuGin

2003 Chef Seiji Yamamoto made his reputation by serving elaborate dishes with a modernist slant, like a strawberry candy that shatters to reveal a powdery frozen interior. That dessert is still on the 12-course tasting menu, but Yamamoto has toned down the high-tech trickery. Now, each dish is exactly what it appears to be, and the wonder is in the complex flavors, as in the musky matsutake mushroom broth or a simple piece of grilled fish—coated in toasted rice kernels and served with radish, persimmon and baby oysters. nihonryori-ryugin.com

7 of 10

8 of 10

FB Tweet
Pinterest Email Send Text Message Print

Sushi Sukiyabashi Jiro, Roppongi Hills branch

Sushi Sukiyabashi Jiro, Roppongi Hills branch
Credit: Photo © Adam Goldberg / A Life Worth Eating

2003 An offshoot of the world’s most famous sushi restaurant, this branch is run by chef Jiro Ono’s younger son. It may lack the cachet of the original, but this Roppongi Hills branch is more affordable, more accommodating to Americans and non-Japanese speakers and still a masterful example of the art of traditional sushi. 6-12-2 Roppongi, Keyakizaka-dori 3F, Minato-ku; 011-81-3-5413-6626.

8 of 10

9 of 10

FB Tweet
Pinterest Email Send Text Message Print

Tofuya Ukai

Tofuya Ukai
Credit: Photo © Tokyo Food File

2006 Though it resembles a centuries-old rural estate, this restaurant is just a few years old and in the center of the city. The traditional menu specializes in dishes that coax incredible flavors and textures out of homemade tofu. When deep-fried, smeared with miso and charcoal-grilled, it becomes the world’s most elegant snack; when simmered in an umami-rich broth, the tofu turns rich and custardy. ukai.co.jp

  • How to Make Tofu

9 of 10

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement

10 of 10

FB Tweet
Pinterest Email Send Text Message Print

Ginza Okuda

Ginza Okuda
Credit: Photo courtesy of Ginza Okuda

2011 Chef Toru Okuda opened Ginza Okuda after finding success at his tiny restaurant, Ginza Kojyu. His latest place serves much the same style of food: multicourse kaiseki meals featuring seasonal, super-high-quality ingredients in a pin-drop-quiet room with just a handful of seats. Okuda himself is not always in the kitchen, but chef Shun Miyahara has proved himself worthy; in his hands, the restaurant has won two Michelin stars. ginzaokuda.com

10 of 10

Replay gallery

Share the Gallery

Pinterest Facebook

Up Next

By Food & Wine

    Share the Gallery

    Pinterest Facebook
    Trending Videos
    Advertisement
    Skip slide summaries

    Everything in This Slideshow

    Advertisement

    View All

    1 of 10 Nodaiwa
    2 of 10 Kanda Yabu Soba
    3 of 10 Ten-Ichi
    4 of 10 Kozue
    5 of 10 Bird Land Ginza
    6 of 10 Narisawa
    7 of 10 Nihonryori RyuGin
    8 of 10 Sushi Sukiyabashi Jiro, Roppongi Hills branch
    9 of 10 Tofuya Ukai
    10 of 10 Ginza Okuda

    Share & More

    Pinterest Email Send Text Message Print
    Food & Wine

    Magazines & More

    Learn More

    • Subscribe this link opens in a new tab
    • Books from Food & Wine
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Content Licensing
    • Accolades this link opens in a new tab

    Connect

    Follow Us
    Subscribe to Our Newsletter
    Sign Up
    MeredithFood & Wine is part of the Meredith Corporation Allrecipes Food Group. © Copyright 2022 Meredith Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policythis link opens in a new tab Terms of Servicethis link opens in a new tab Ad Choicesthis link opens in a new tab California Do Not Sellthis link opens a modal window Web Accessibilitythis link opens in a new tab
    © Copyright Food & Wine. All rights reserved. Printed from https://www.foodandwine.com

    Sign in

    View image

    The World's Best Food Cities: Tokyo
    this link is to an external site that may or may not meet accessibility guidelines.