The World's Best Food Cities: Tokyo

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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