Michelin Bib Gourmand Tokyo (2025): 21 Best Affordable Tokyo Restaurants

With the release of the Michelin Guide Tokyo 2025, we’re excited to give you an update on the best affordable Bib Gourmand restaurants in the capital — all food critic-approved and downright delicious.

This year, 110 Tokyo restaurants have earned or maintained their Bib Gourmand distinction, with the city freshly adding 13 establishments to the list, including the charming French bistro Ma Poule, the tonkatsu shop Fry-ya or the humble ramen shop Shiosoba Jiku.

So, give your wallet a break and check out one of these Michelin Guide Tokyo 2025 Bib Gourmand restaurants on your next outing!

Here are the top Bib Gourmand restaurants in Tokyo to try for different Japanese foods!

1. Narikura
2. Ma Poule
3. Wokotote
4. Sushi Mikata
5. Tachiguisushi Sushikawa
6. le bistrot des bleus
7. Audace
8. Ramen Matsui
9. Le Nougat
10. BRASSERIE POISSON ROUGE
11. Hakodate Shioramen Goryokaku
12. Les six
13. Arrocería Sal y Amor
14. Mejiro Zorome
15. Fry-ya
16. Shio-soba Jiku
17. Gottsu
18. Hassho
19. Abe Honten
20. Ogawa
21. Asakusa Yadoroku

Currently holding the number one spot on Tablelog, Tonkatsu Narikura is a Bib Gourmand restaurant in Tokyo that serves some of the best tonkatsu (deep-fried pork cutlet) in Tokyo. Despite being the priciest option on this list of Bib Gourmand restaurants, Narikura is definitely worth it, as they serve up some of the best pork that Japan has to offer.

When you first arrive you'll be greeted by a line of people eager to get some of Narikura's tonkatsu, so it can take up to two hours to be seated. While you wait, you'll have the chance to order from either the set menu or, for a bit more, you can have your choice of meat from four different breeds of pigs and your choice of cut.

Once you take a seat, your meal will arrive promptly and you can see for yourself how juicy and tender the meat is, cutting it with just your chopsticks. Without the slightest hint of oiliness, the tonkatsu at Narikura is without a doubt the best in Tokyo.

Ma Poule is chef-owner Tetsuya Ichioka's love letter to Jura, a small, distinctive wine region in France. The quirky, petite eatery, freshly nominated as a Michelin Bib Gourmand restaurant in Tokyo, directly faces Tokyo University and exudes dining room charm with its floral wallpaper, dark wood cabinets and shelves lined with French wines. 

Linen-covered tables become the playground of Jura recipes, with a game plan that involves chicken liver gateau, pan-fried foie gras and red wine-braised Arita beef cheek with beetroot sauce. Starters of royale made with comte cheese prelude to the Shinsu salmon terrine checkered with Shine Muscat and cauliflower coulis.

As you progress through the course, you’ll likely notice a subtle theme: everything, from the pastel napkins to the proprietress’s uniform and tablecloth underlays, is tinged with yellow.

Wokotote is built on the concept of connection, with its name comprising four Japanese grammar particles used to connect words and sentences.

With its warm atmosphere, Wokotote is the perfect introduction for anyone looking to try a Bib Gourmand restaurant in Tokyo. Drinking snacks, or “sakana,” such as tiger prawn and rice cake, get paired with warmed sake, served in stunning crockery that guests can purchase from the restaurant’s gallery space.

Dashi is simmered the day of. Seasonal sashimi and bite-sized sushi prelude a closing dish of gently cooked rice in a traditional pot, mixed with root vegetables and in-season protein. 

A relatively affordable Michelin Bib Gourmand sushi store in Tokyo, Sushi Mikata harks back to the time when sushi was an uncomplicated hawker food.

No detail is overlooked when it comes to the sushi at Sushi Mikata. The chef seasons the sushi rice with white vinegar from Kokonoe in Wakayama Prefecture and sources wasabi from Iwataba to ensure top-quality ingredients.

A standout specialty is the chef’s wife’s Japanese-style rolled omelet, although diners also note the straw-smoked bonito nigiri and thick-cut fatty tuna as exceptional. 

With only six seats at the counter, customers get a front-row view of the sushi-making process. 

Read more: Best Affordable Omakase Sushi in Tokyo

The word tachiguisushi is Japanese for a standing sushi bar. Located in Shibuya, this Tokyo Bib Gourmand restaurant serves classic, high-quality sushi.

No-frills nigiri are crafted daily by sushi masters, each day featuring a different menu. Guests can choose from various set courses, some accompanied by an array of side dishes.

The seafood, sourced from across Japan, includes marinated mackerel from Kagoshima, fatty tuna from Nagasaki, horse mackerel from Kumamoto and boiled conger eel from Miyagi. 

Located inside Eat Play Works’ upmarket dining hall in Hiroo, French Bib Gourmand eatery Le Bistrot Des Bleus serves home-cooked French dishes supervised by renowned La Bonne Table chef Nakamura Kazunari, who wanted to reproduce the feeling he had when he first encountered the romance of French cuisine. Along the way, his culinary skills earned his venue a Michelin distinction in Tokyo. 

Nakamura embraces a straightforward approach with a menu centered on comforting recipes and hearty staples from across France, like the wine-stewed oxtail, pate en croute, bouillabaisse and choucroute garnie (sauerkraut with sausages). 

Dining is a communal affair at this back-alley Italian eatery in Meguro, where guests gather around a single large table, illuminated by candlelight, with the dining area flowing seamlessly into the open-concept kitchen.

A Bib Gourmand gem in Tokyo since its opening in 2019, the restaurant takes inspiration from Leonardo da Vinci’s famous words: "Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication."

The menu offers both course and à la carte options, with highlights like pork or beef grilled simply over charcoal. For first-time diners, the chef recommends the "Poor Man's Spaghetti," a mainstay since day one, featuring a simple yet flavorful blend of spaghetti, eggs, cheese and freshly cracked black pepper.

For a ramen shop in Tokyo to stand out among the city's many noodle joints and earn a Bib Gourmand distinction, it must be doing something exceptional. Opened in May 2023 near Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden, Ramen Matsui has quickly garnered attention for its silky noodles, folded into a choice of soy sauce, dried sardine (niboshi), or salt-based broths. 

The broth itself is a blend of kombu, shijimi clams and Hokkaido scallops. Ramen Matsui doesn't take reservations, and with lines forming an hour before opening, be prepared to spend some time before enjoying this fast yet unforgettable meal.

Read more: Most Affordable Michelin-starred Ramen in Tokyo

The Bib Gourmand restaurant Le Nougat in Ginza can be set-ready for a French romance film: red bench seating, cloth-draped tables, vintage movie posters lining the walls, and the soft croon of a chanson playing in the background. 

And it’s definitely designed for dates, as the food is portioned for sharing. Begin with a salad — the mushroom and watercress salad comes highly recommended — or, on chillier evenings, opt for a charcuterie or French cheese platter. For mains, the options are just as enticing: bouillabaisse (French seafood stew), duck confit and steak frites. Complement your meal with their superb wine list for the full French experience.

The Michelin Bib Gourmand restaurant in Tokyo is a charming local brasserie dedicated to French cuisine, with no specific region to focus on. At the back of the store, along with rows of wine, are stacks of traditional recipe books. 

Brasserie Poisson Rouge shows that salad nicoise from Nice can be the perfect prelude to slow-cooked cassoulet from Toulouse. Mains are usually some kind of protein, like roast lamb, chicken breast or duck.

Past crowd favorites have included a whole wagyu hamburger perched on a bed of mashed potatoes and draped in rich demi-glace sauce. Scrawled by hand on paper and chalkboards, the menu adds a charming, homey touch to the experience.

In Ogikubo, this Bib Gourmand ramen shop shines with its shio ramen (salt ramen), which the Hakodate native made to convey the flavors of his hometown to Tokyo. While shio ramen is often perceived as subtle in flavor, this shop’s renowned broth delivers depth through high-quality makombu (kelp), dried scallops and chicken bones — all sourced from Hokkaido.

The ramen is still clean tasting and can be topped with a gagome kelp — a moss-colored kelp picked at seas near Hakodate — for an additional price.

Another unique topping that diners would get is the slice of fu, a wheat gluten that turns into a fluffy, spongy morsel once it hits the broth. The noodles are fine and smooth, like the ones you will find in Hakodate. 

Sharing the same building with Azabu’s beloved pizzeria, Buganville Hiroo, Les Six is a cozy bistro helmed by Chef Maruyama Yuta, who trained in the Burgundy region of France before returning to Tokyo to run his own kitchen.

His menu, written on a black chalkboard, features a tight selection of dishes that are classically French, with a subtle Maruyama twist. 

Diners rave about the duck breast paired with a classic red wine sauce and the terrine of eel and scallop mousse. Mains are equally straightforward yet satisfying, including roast lamb, beef cheek stewed in red wine and the beautifully prepared black sea bream. Guests can mix and match entrees, mains and desserts to create a personalized course.

The snug eatery in the stylish, Brooklyn-like Daikanyama is a little taste of Spain in Tokyo that seems like it flies under the radar — but with a feature in the Michelin Guide for nine years in a row, including a Bib Gourmand status in 2025, it simply can’t. 

Crowds gather around the checkered tablecloth table and order from over 15 different types of paella and rice dishes served in clay or iron pots, as well as a spread of straightforward regional tapas. Sal y Amor uses Yamagata Prefecture's Haenuki rice, similar to Spain's Bomba but with the added benefit of Japan's rice polishing techniques.

The result? Perfectly cooked grains that absorb all the flavors. Diners might fall in love with the Valencia-style paella cooked heavy on pork and tomato, or the caldero murciano — a spiced rice dish made with a special stock, shrimp and fish — but stay for piquillo peppers stuffed with white fish and shrimp.

This Michelin Bib Gourmand recipient is only one of 40-plus restaurants across Japan allowed to serve Kyosui unagi, an extremely rare breed from Shizuoka Prefecture. Unlike typical unagi, which is farm-raised in just a year, Kyosui from Shizuoka enjoys stress-free cultivation over 18 months in a near-natural environment. 

For his unagi, Chef Okada makes his sauce from a blend of thick soy sauce, one-year-aged mirin and three-year-aged mirin, which is only applied to the grilled eel at the last step.

Read more: Best Unagi Restaurants in Tokyo

The restaurant's name is a blend of English and Japanese, translating to “fry store,” and it truly lives up to that moniker by serving a delightful array of fried dishes. Highlights include tonkatsu and cutlets, which are expertly fried to order. Depending on the dish, different oils are used, with some items fried in lard and others in fragrant sesame oil. Unlike the deep, golden-brown cutlets typically found elsewhere, Fry-ya’s exterior has a lighter, more delicate hue.

For lunch, diners can enjoy a combo set featuring juicy pork loin, minced cutlets and a variety of seafood. In the evening, the menu expands to offer a multi-course dining experience.

Find out more: 6 Restaurants With the Best Tonkatsu in Tokyo

Inspired by the shio soba (salt-based broth with soba) he discovered during a motorcycle tour with his father, the chef dreamed of opening his own ramen restaurant. Today, that dream has become a reality, earning a coveted spot in the Michelin Guide.

Shiosoba Jiku showcases homemade noodles served in a rich seafood-based broth, garnished with tender Ooyama chicken, succulent pork shoulder chashu, menma and flavorful tsukune (meatball). 

One of the most underappreciated Bib Gourmand restaurants in Tokyo, Gottsu promises a meal you won't soon forget. 

Located in the sleepy town of Nerima where Japanese animation was born, and nestled in the backstreets of the city, that's where you'll find Gottsu.

The broth used here is made with a combination of flying fish and pork, for a rich and complex flavor. Once you're done scarfing down your ramen, make sure to get some of their homemade cheesecake for dessert. It's much more like the thick, creamy American cheesecake than the fluffy and light Japanese version, and is a perfect way to end your meal at this former Bib Gourmand restaurant in Tokyo.

The secondary location of the original famous Hiroshima eatery, Hassho brings Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki to the streets of Tokyo. The difference between Hiroshima and Osaka style okonomiyaki lies in the preparation. The Hiroshima style involves stacking the ingredients instead of mixing them all in.

At Hassho, they layer each of the ingredients over one another in a crepe-like fashion that gives the okonomiyaki a different texture than the Osaka version. With many counter seats that allow you to view the making of your meal right in front of you, you'll be in for dinner and a show when you come to Hassho, another former Bib Gourmand restaurant in Tokyo.

Find out more: 6 Must-Try Restaurants in Okonomimura: Hiroshima’s Okonomiyaki Village

Hidden away under the glitz and glamour of Ginza, you'll find Abe Honten, a treasured former Bib Gourmand restaurant in Tokyo with some of the most delicious tempura in the city. Underneath a seemingly random office building is where you'll find this hidden gem. And once you see the traditional decoration that adorns its walls, you'll feel well-rewarded for finding it.

If you arrive during lunch you'll be able to get a lunch set for ¥1,000 that will leave you stuffed and satisfied. With tempura that seems to evade the oiliness that is typical of fried foods and a variety of sides to pair it with, you'll definitely enjoy the meal you're served at Abe Honten.

When you're out on a night on the town, there's nothing more satisfying than yakitori, and Ogawa is the premier spot to get some. Ogawa can be found in the famous Arakicho district of Shinjuku, which is packed with bars and restaurants that are usually only open to locals. But don't worry because Ogawa is open to all, just make sure to make a reservation.

Ogawa was awarded the prestigious Bib Gourmand seal of approval back in 2019 due to its unique course featuring chicken sashimi, which may challenge even the most adventurous of eaters. It is recommended that you choose the course set in which you are treated to a number of appetizers. Paired with some wine, it makes for an amazing and affordable Bib Gourmand meal.

If you want a delicious meal that you can eat on the go, then look no further then Asakusa Yadoroku. Located in the historic city of Asakusa, Yadoroku sits right behind the famous Sensoji Temple and just like the rest of the city, Yadoroku has some history itself.

Established 60 years ago, Yadoroku is now on its third generation and is still using the same practices and ingredients that it has used since its inception. Though onigiri may be thought of as only a convenience store snack, at Yadoroku they put so much care into their craft that it is comparable to sushi. 

So, if you're in Asakusa and looking for a quick bite make sure to go to Yadoroku, home of the former Bib Gourmand onigiri!

Hungry for more? Check out these 5 affordable Michelin-starred restaurants in Tokyo, or put your wallet and taste buds to the taste at these Michelin star restaurants in Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka!

Tokyo is host to some of the best restaurants in the world. With delicious food around every corner, you never know what you may find in this foodie paradise. You may find yourself surrounded by so many delectable options that you'll want to eat them all, and that can put a strain on your wallet.

Don't worry, though; the Michelin Guide has a list of restaurants that they refer to as Bib Gourmand, a lesser-known honor that is bestowed upon restaurants that serve up high-quality food at low prices.

While it is known as the city with the most Michelin-starred restaurants in the world, Tokyo is also home to the most Bib Gourmand establishments, where you can get some of the best that the city has to offer.

Thirteen new Bib Gourmand restaurants were announced for the Michelin Guide Tokyo 2025.

The Michelin Guide Tokyo 2025 was announced on October 17, 2024.

Bib Gourmand restaurants are popular because they deliver exceptional dining experiences that exceed expectations while remaining affordable.