31 Best Restaurants in Tokyo: Where to Eat in the Capital

Tokyo. The largest and safest city in the world, and the city with some of the best restaurants (including the most Michelin Star restaurants). There’s always exciting things to do, see and taste.

While exploring Tokyo can seem like a daunting task, we’ve put together an ultimate three-day itinerary for first-time visitors, which covers the most popular must-see spots and attractions. 

Food lovers from near and far flock to Tokyo to try some of the top-rated food the city has to offer, from street food stalls to local izakaya bars and vending machine restaurants to Michelin-starred establishments.

If you’re craving it, Tokyo has it. From sizzling wagyu beef on a teppanyaki grill, to piping hot tonkotsu ramen, to the bustling chatter and clinking glasses of a raucous izakaya pub, any gourmet in Tokyo will never find themselves lacking options — least of all with our handy guide. 

Tokyo has over 130,000 restaurants across its 23 wards and surrounding areas, so this list of just 20 is by no means exhaustive. Still, it’s a good place to start!

If you want some of the best omakase “chef’s choice” sushi in Tokyo, you surprisingly won’t have to search for long. Ajuta is ironically in one of the most accessible parts of Tokyo — Harajuku, Tokyo’s fashion and pop culture mecca — but it’s secreted away in a basement. 

If you manage to find it, though, one of Tokyo’s best sushi experiences awaits. Chef Ajuta Hiroki is one of the most experienced sushi chefs active today, having trained at some of Tokyo’s finest, including several on the Michelin Guide Tokyo. 

His expertise has earned him the respect and partnership of some of the most prolific producers in Japan, like tuna wholesaler Yamayuki, or conger eel supplier Ueken. It shouldn’t be any surprise that these go into his signature dishes. 

Above all, Chef Ajuta’s rice is flawless — an extremely carefully curated combination of domestic rice, four types of vinegar and two types of salt that emulsifies the fat of the fish that’s placed atop it. This is omakase sushi at its finest. 

Find out more: Affordable Omakase Sushi Restaurants in Tokyo

It’s ironic that Sushiroku Roppongi claims to be a restaurant that aims to make traditional Edomae-style sushi more accessible, and then greets its guests at the door with a robot. 

This paradox aside, the quality of its sushi is without question. Each fish is prepared in the Tsumoto style, a type of bloodletting that keeps the fish as fresh as possible throughout the traditional Edomae aging process. 

What’s more, the rice is chosen by a certified Rice Meister, and then treated with a blend of rare Yohei red vinegar. There’s only one menu at this omakase sushi restaurant, but what a menu it is — it was conceptualized by a chef who trained at the three-Michelin-starred Joel Robuchon Restaurant. 

The restaurant is also wonderfully intimate; the decor is immaculate, with red and green bonsai adding a blaze of color to a monolithic central counter, all in black. The perfect place to try traditional Edomae sushi with just a little creative touch.

Diners enjoy delicious and traditional hand-shaped sushi 200 meters above the streets of Tokyo, where even Mt. Fuji is visible on a clear day. At Sushi Misuji, beautiful Edomae sushi is served with a selection of wine and champagne that has been expertly chosen to pair with each dish.

Imakoko, meaning “now here,” is one of the finest kaiseki restaurants to grace Tokyo, specializing in cuisine from the Noto Peninsula in Ishikawa Prefecture. It’s headed by Ishikawa native Chef Okado Kimihiko — an incredibly accomplished chef who famously received a special award from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for his work in the kitchens of the Embassy of Japan in Bolivia. 

Ironically, the more Chef Okado traveled, the more he grew to appreciate Noto cuisine, and it’s because of this that he sources almost all his ingredients from the Noto Peninsula. 

From seafood, to vegetables, to condiments, and even the floral decorations that garnish his plates, everything is carefully chosen and harvested at the precise moment that best shows the ingredient’s flavor.

Why “almost all,” though? Because Chef Okado’s reputation has netted him the privilege of being one of the very few chefs to serve Katsube beef — a type of wagyu beef from Shimane Prefecture of which less than 50 heads of cattle are sold each year. 

Find out more: Kaiseki Ryori: Japan's Traditional Multi-course Meal

Nihon-ryori (literally “Japanese cuisine”) as a culinary style is one that requires an incredible attention to detail. Tsunokamizaka Koshiba, just outside the center of Shinjuku, is widely recognized as one of the best at showcasing the hyper-seasonality of Japanese cuisine.

At Tsunokamizaka Koshiba, the menus change with what would be alarming frequency to the uninitiated; like the best nihon-ryori chefs, Chef Koshiba Takeshi pays particular attention to the Japanese micro-seasons called ko, of which there are 72 in every year, and uses the most appropriate ingredients for that specific season, taking into account even the temperature and humidity of the environment.

Chef Koshiba is a disciple of the Kansai style of nihon-ryori, bringing a distinctly different approach to the Kanto style that dominates the kaiseki and kappo scene in Tokyo. His hassun platter, in particular — a selection of small dishes early on in the order of service, and widely regarded to be the heart of a kaiseki course — is extremely well-regarded, as are his charcoal-grilled dishes, which are cooked over binchotan white charcoal.

You can’t argue with 30 years of experience — and that’s precisely what the head chef of Aoyama Gyusai brings to the teppan grill. There are probably few living chefs who are as at home behind the grill as he. 

And such a long time in the business means that over time, he’s built up a network of suppliers who furnish him with nothing but the best: fishermen in Kanagawa’s Miura Port send him their finest kuruma-ebi tiger prawns, ise-ebi spiny lobsters and abalone. 

Meanwhile, northern Ibaraki Prefecture ranchers give him the choicest cuts of Hitachi beef, descended from the original Tajima cattle that also gave rise to the vaunted Kobe beef.

Teppanyaki is always a special occasion — it’s a truly multisensory experience, watching expert chefs lay premium ingredients out on the grill in bright flashes of orange flame, hearing them sizzle and feeling that mouthwatering smell fill your nose. It’s practically the go-to meal for celebrations. 

And frankly speaking, there are few better places to celebrate than at Teppanyaki Sanjo.

Located in the Shinagawa Prince Hotel’s Ajikaido Gojusantsugi, a collection of seven premium Japanese restaurants, Teppanyaki Sanjo offers a spectacular show of culinary skill from its chefs, who prepare ise-ebi spiny lobster, fresh scallops, abalone and of course the highest quality wagyu beef right before your eyes 

Being 38 floors up, Teppanyaki Sanjo offers beautiful views of the Tokyo skyline, with all its glittering city lights. Yet the interesting thing is that Teppanyaki Sanjo and all the other restaurants in the Ajikaido Gojusantsugi are just as popular at lunch as they are at dinner. 

Why? If you’re lucky and the weather conditions are just right, diners can actually see the iconic sight of Mount Fuji’s snowcapped peak in the distance.

Indulge in a fine dining teppanyaki experience at Teppanyaki Icho, based in Grand Nikko Tokyo Daiba, where breathtaking views of Tokyo Bay accompany your glamorous meal.

Highlights of the menu include enticing Waoh meat from Kumamoto Prefecture, a rare delicacy in Tokyo, and the abalone that is bought live daily to ensure its freshness.

Seasonal specialties paired with a melange of Japanese and Western influences inspire the delectable menu at Katsura Steak House. Wrap-around seating ensures that diners all have the best seat in the house when observing the chef’s stunning cooking techniques.

Only tempura of the highest quality is served at Tempura Ten Soso Roppongi Hills, made from fresh and seasonal ingredients. Chef Keita Sato is very particular about ensuring the tempura is light and white in color, and does so by making it without any eggs.

Celebrities flock to atelier Morimoto XEX in Roppongi, founded by one of Japan’s Iron Chefs, to feast upon delectable creations of Edomae sushi and expertly grilled culinary bites on a teppanyaki counter. 

Spanning three floors, this luxurious establishment includes a private teppanyaki counter, perfect for more intimate events and gatherings.

Stunning views of the Tokyo skyline function as the backdrop at XEX ATAGO GREEN HILLS / tempura & sushi An, a tempura and sushi restaurant established by the legendary Masaharu Morimoto, the Michelin-starred trailblazer of Japanese fusion and Iron Chef. 

Ingredients and the chefs themselves are only of the most elite quality.

With its super-modern decor and head chef that’s a part-time DJ, the Michelin Bib Gourmand-awarded Ramen Break Beats’ appearance belies its highly traditional ramen broth. 

Ramen Break Beats prepares its broth in a style called yobi-modoshi, which like a perpetual stew, simply adds more broth as the existing supply depletes, resulting in the flavors of the previous batch carrying over to the new one — a technique from Kyushu that Chef Yanase Takuro keeps alive. 

But his background in French and Japanese cuisine makes the rest of his culinary choices wonderfully daring. Fried enoki mushrooms as a topping make for an interesting textural contrast, while thin-sliced chicken breast adds a different dimension from the usual chashu pork. 

Hail to the King. While it no longer has its Michelin accolades — it once held the Michelin Bib Gourmand two years in a row — King Seimen still receives regular pilgrimages from ramen devotees. 

A restaurant by legendary ramen restaurateur, Mizuhara Hiromitsu, King Seimen distinguishes itself from the usual shoyu soy sauce, miso and shio ramen by specializing in niboshi broth, an umami-laden stew of dried sardines, clams and kelp seasoned with a healthy amount of pepper to give it a fiery aftertaste. 

But it might be the wontons that steal the show — thick, satisfying wrappers filled to the brim with a generous serving of minced pork and prawn. 

A trip to King Seimen is a pilgrimage in a truer sense of the word than a visit to most ramen restaurants: it’s located in Oji, which is in the far northern part of Tokyo. However, like all pilgrimages, the devoted will receive their just rewards — in this case, a full belly and an immense sense of satisfaction.

One of Japan’s most famous experts in wagyu beef is distinguished by his ostentatious dressing style, signature thick-rimmed round glasses and boisterous manner. This is Chiba Masuo, known all over Japan as the Niku Ojisan, or “Meat Uncle.”

But he’s not all flash and no substance. Mr Chiba is the pioneer of the famed Kanzaki Aging Beef, four-time consecutive winner of the NikuFes Championship, Japan’s biggest meat competition, and the inventor of the wildly popular “uniku” sushi: a gunkan-style sushi roll, but with a slice of wagyu beef where the typical nori seaweed would be, then topped with a heaping dollop of uni sea urchin.

At Kakunoshin Roppongi, Mr Chiba’s Kanzaki Aging Beef is presented in wildly innovative ways, such as cooked via the Water Balloon Method, where the outside of the meat is seared on high heat to form a crust that seals the juices in. When the cooking process continues, the trapped juices expand, causing the meat to expand like its water balloon namesake. 

That’s just the surface of what Kakunoshin and Mr Chiba’s brilliant culinary mind have to offer. Find out more by making a reservation to try it for yourself. 

Read our full review: A Review of Kakunoshin Roppongi

Now here’s a restaurant that really takes exclusivity to the next level: Yakiniku Kokonomi is a yakiniku restaurant in east Shibuya that serves the extremely rare Takenotani-tsuru beef. 

Wagyu beef already has an air of exclusivity, being conferred only to certain cattle from specific bloodlines raised under very specific conditions, but Yakiniku Kokonomi claims an even purer lineage for its Takenotani-tsuru cattle, with its bloodline never once crossed with foreign breeds. 

In fact, less than a dozen cattle are sold on the market every year — It’s why the restaurant is called Kokonomi, meaning “only here” — because good luck trying to find Takenotani-tsuru anywhere else in Japan, let alone the world. 

In stark contrast to the incredibly fine marbling and buttery flavor of modern wagyu beef, Takenotani-tsuru is significantly leaner and has a much stronger “meaty” taste. It’s something that has to be tried to be believed, and now you know just the place to do it: Kokonomi.

With its first restaurant established in an old speakeasy in New York City in 2015, the flagship Tokyo YAKINIKU 37west NY projects the same ambiance.

A patented “owners meat system,” a method of selecting, freeze drying, aging and scrutinizing the atmospheric conditions of the meats for optimal flavor, ensures satisfaction for each and every customer.

Unparalleled views of Tokyo Bay greet diners at Yakiniku Toraji Param Caretta Shiodome, a luxurious yakiniku dining experience in Shiodome. 

With a mindset of the thicker the slice, the better the flavor, Yakiniku Toraji serves all of its meat in solid and hefty slices, from skirt steak to even the highest A5-grade wagyu beef. Flavor rules supreme at this lavish establishment.

With a scant few exceptions, yakitori grilled chicken is by and large seen as an izakaya food, an accessory to be enjoyed with several highballs and lemon sours. 

That’s where Chef Inoue Koichi is changing things by elevating this food to an entirely new level. The wildly popular Yakitori Ginza I (pronounced “ee”) is based around the concept of pairing premium yakitori with wine, even those as premium as Gevrey-Chambertin Pinot Noir. 

Premium yakitori? This is perhaps best embodied in Chef Inoue’s signature dish, a tsukune — chicken mincemeat — skewer with foie gras. High in fat, the foie gras melts seamlessly into the minced chicken, making every bite an explosion of flavor. 

Beautiful wines deserve beautiful foods, and Chef Inoue provides both in equal measure. 

When it comes to eating fish, we intuitively know the differences between them: the melt-in-your-mouth fattiness of otoro tuna belly, the satisfying firmness of swordfish, the lingering oily taste of mackerel.

So why not chicken? That’s the philosophy of Yakitori Kita, a yakitori specialist just west of Shibuya. Poultry of all kinds is on display here, from Aomori’s Shamorock to the Ogon-Shamo from Nagano Prefecture. But arguably the most popular dish has to be those made from the famed free-range Kasumi duck from Nishizaki Farm in Ibaraki. 

Each has its own texture and taste that lends itself best to a particular dish or cooking style. Head chef Nakamura Yosuke is better versed in poultry than almost any chef in Japan, and his trained eye never misses when choosing a specific type of chicken. 

Uredori chicken from Iwate Prefecture is considered one of the best, and at Higonoya Omotesando, several different parts of the bird are served and available. 

Grilled over charcoal and smeared generously with spicy yuzu kosho (pepper) paste, this yakitori joint is considered one of the best places to eat in Tokyo.

If Ginza and Roppongi are the omakase sushi havens, and Kagurazaka is Tokyo’s French quarter, Nishi-Shinjuku — specifically the Nanachome area — is widely recognized by Tokyo locals as the izakaya battleground.

It’s here that you’ll find Marudori Ruisuke, a very literally-named restaurant. Marudori means “whole chicken,” and that’s exactly what its signature is: a whole Daisen chicken from Tottori Prefecture, marinated for 11 hours in the restaurant’s special sauce, then deep-fried whole at 180°C for a beautiful crunch and extraordinary texture. 

Marudori Ruisuke is also especially proud of its vegetables, which come straight from the Miura Peninsula in Kanagawa, a famously fertile coastline that yields sweet, firm produce. Paired with the restaurant’s wide selection of shochu and sake, these all come together for a night to remember.

Horse meat, or ba-niku (sometimes called sakura-niku for its pink color), is a Japanese specialty that is often associated with the rolling fields and gentle hills of Kumamoto Prefecture, far from the glass and steel skyscrapers of Tokyo.

But you don’t have to travel quite so far south to try this regional delicacy. Uma-Cha Sangenjaya is one of the rare places to try it in Japan’s capital city, in the maze of alleys that is the district’s collection of shopping streets and izakaya. 

Using top-quality horse meat shipped directly from Kumamoto Prefecture, Uma-Cha’s chefs serve up a dizzying array of dishes, from horse steak and grilled horse tongue to horse sashimi — the most popular way to eat it in Kumamoto.

As for how it tastes, it’s remarkably similar to beef or venison, with a slightly firmer texture. But don’t take our word for it — try it yourself at Uma-Cha Sangenjaya. Who knows? It might just become your favorite new meat. 

Enjoy a good time with or without alcohol at THE 5th by SUMADORI-BAR, a welcoming, sleek space in Shibuya. The aim of the bar is “smart drinking” – where adults can interact and enjoy themselves and some deliciously crafted drinks with the option of low or no alcohol content. 

The 5th is a place to relax and enjoy yourself without the pressures of a traditional drinking culture.

Enter the Showa Era at the nostalgic izakaya of Yoyogi Milk Hall, hidden away in the outskirts of Shinjuku. Enjoy fried food, retro drinks and a blast into the past as you indulge in escapism and retreat to a lost time.

The menu at tonkatsu restaurant Tonkatsu Fujiki Ningyocho is pretty wide, which is amusing because the vast majority of visitors go there purely for the signature dish, made famous on social media both in and outside of Japan: a huge bone-in tomahawk-style pork cutlet made with pork from Ibaraki Prefecture, so huge it barely fits on the plate. 

Coated in panko breadcrumbs and slow-fried at 175°C for 15 minutes, every bite is the perfect combination of crunchy batter giving way to a soft, juicy interior. It’s only made better with the signature sauce: apples, onions, soy sauce and a bevy of other secret ingredients, left to sit for 24 hours to draw out the flavors.

Of course, you don’t have to eat it right off the bone. The staff are used to people posing with the huge tomahawk before helping them cut it into a more manageable size. Still, since you’ve already got it, you should go all the way and sink your teeth into it as-is; meat off the bone just tastes better.

Find out more: All About Tonkatsu, the Japanese Crispy Pork Cutlet

Chef Arai Hitoshi is one of the world’s foremost experts on tempura, having made it since 1977. He regularly travels worldwide to evangelize the greatness of Japan’s most famous fried food, having gone from the United States to Milan, Warsaw and even Paris.

For such a well-traveled individual, Chef Arai’s restaurant in Kagurazaka is wonderfully traditional; step through a sliding wooden lattice door and walk through a beautifully manicured garden to find two tempura counters. 

Both are often full, but it’s the one with traditional tatami seating that’s the first choice for many. 

Fittingly for someone so well-versed in the culinary form, Chef Arai is extremely particular about the details of his tempura, from ingredient freshness to frying time to oil temperature. But above all, it’s the hospitality here at Kagurazaka Tempura Tenko that makes it taste that much better. 

Indulge in Chef Shimura Koichiro’s omakase tempura menu at Tempura Ono, where guests enjoy a personalized set of 10-13 dishes created from seasonal ingredients sourced throughout Japan. 

Dietary restrictions are taken seriously and the chef can even recommend sake pairings that complement each diner’s omakase meal.

Beneath the train tracks of Hibiya resides Itamae Bar LIVE FISH MARKET - Hibiya Gourmet Zone, a seafood restaurant filled to the brim with fish fresh off the boat and ready for consumption.

The seafood is prepared in a multitudes of ways – from traditional Japanese methods to diverse European styles of cooking. At the bar, the highlight of the drinks menu is the white wine from Yamagata Prefecture, which is rumored to pair perfectly with the establishment’s selection of seafood.

The southwestern neighborhood of Sangenjaya in Tokyo’s Setagaya Ward plays host to this hot pot restaurant, extremely popular among locals for celebrations and drinking parties. 

The highlight is the kurobuta black pork, colloquially called the “wagyu of pork.” The free-range conditions that they are raised in and the pigs’ special diet results in an incredibly flavorful meat that produces no scum when boiled. 

Enjoyed with a heaping pile of green onion and some homemade ponzu sauce for that citrusy kick, this pork is what keeps locals coming back over and over again for more. The all-you-can-eat plan lets hungry diners scarf down as much as they want in 90 minutes. 

But don’t forget to savour such beautiful meat: Shabu Shima is one of the rare cases in which there’s quality and quantity in equal measure. 

This Kodemmacho restaurant has more than 150 years of history under its belt; throughout the rapidly changing landscape of Nihonbashi, it has continued to delight customers with homemade warishita broth, which has remained an in-house secret for generations. 

And just like the warishita, everything else remains almost exactly the same as it has over the ages, even seven generations later. The sukiyaki is still cooked in an iron kettle over charcoal, and the beef is still hand-cut by staff for that extra precision. 

The main difference? The use of far higher quality beef than there was back then: Iseju’s use of A5-grade kuroge wagyu black beef makes its sukiyaki especially mouth-melting.

Iseju was first founded in 1869 by Miyamoto Jubei to boost his father’s ailing health with beef’s nourishing properties. Those same restorative properties are still present in Iseju today; take a seat at the traditional sunken kotatsu seating for a refreshing, re-energizing pot of sukiyaki. 

Home to thousands of delicious restaurants, it can be overwhelming trying to choose where to eat in Tokyo. From ramen to sushi to tempura to yakiniku, hopefully this list of some of the best restaurants in Tokyo can provide guidance.

Hungry for more of the best foods in Tokyo? Discover decadent wagyu beef in Tokyo, join the best food tours in Tokyo, or tick off a few of the city’s must-see attractions with our 3-day Tokyo itinerary.

Editor's note: The original article was written by Malia Ogawa and updated by the byFood team in November, 2024.