TOKYO Guide

Updated Feb 11, 2020
Key
★ = Worth a stop
★★ = Worth a detour
★★★ = My top picks
Bakeries, Pastries, Desserts

  • Tarui Bakery (sourdough, croque monsieur, lunch pitas, and so much more)
  • Bergamot (for premium fruit sandwiches)
  • Viking Bakery F (unique fruit sandos)
  • Gomaya Kuki (if you're obsessed with sesame desserts)
  • Kuya (for quality monaka)​
  • Suzukake (mochi in Isetan depachika. try their ichigo daifuku)
  • Échire (butter croissants if you get there early enough)
  • World’s 2nd Best Melon Pan Ice (warm melon pan with ice cream)
  • Afterhours (lemon tart)
  • Sunday Bake Shop
  • Suzumeya (for dorayaki)
  • Taiyaki Hiiragi 
  • Unceclef
  • Yanagi-Chaya (matcha tiramisu)
  • Path Restaurant (croissant, dutch baby, etc)
  • Cacao Store (great selection of chocolate bars, especially Fu Wan from Taiwan)
  • Bricolage Bread & Co (great pain au chocolat, croissant, nut baton, etc)
  • ★ Vaner Bakery (sourdough loaf)
  • ★ Nata de Cristiano’s (fantastic Portuguese egg custard tarts)
  • ★ Mont Blanc Style (get there two hours early, get a number, and come back for some magnificent mont blanc)
  • ★ 365 Bakery (try anything, esp their signature breads)
  • ★ Centre The Bakery (for their shokupan. wow)
  • ★ Dans Dix Ans Bakery (try anything here, but especially their cashew bread and other nut breads)
  • ★ Boulangerie Sudo (savory tarts & much more)
  • ★★ A Tes Souhaits (unbelievable pastry including their famous mont blanc)
  • ★★ L'atelier de Plaisir (top-notch fruit/nut breads, among the best I've ever had)
  • ★★ 氷屋ぴぃす (AKA Kooriya Peace for unbelievably good seasonal kakigori / Japanese shaved ice)

Noodles​
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  • Misoya Hachiro Shoten (try the spicy miso with burnt garlic oil)
  • Udon Shin (try their butter/egg/pepper udon)
  • Udon Yamachou (try their soy milk udon)
  • Kagawa Ippuku Kanda (get the kamatama udon with butter which comes with a raw egg)
  • Udon Maruka 
  • Honmura-an (uni soba)
  • Dosanjin (sudachi soba)
  • Gold Scorpion (soupless sesame tantanmen)
  • ★ Kikanbo (spicy/numbing ramen with fantastic chashu)
  • ★ Kageyama (another delicious tori paitan ramen. add butter)
  • ★ Warito Ramen (thick tsukemen)
  • ★★ Itto Ramen (a special tsukemen)
  • ★★ Ginza Kagari (order the special tori paitan, a creamy chicken broth)
  • ★★ Ginza Hachigo (get there 30-60 minutes before open. fantastic)
  • ★★ Tsuta (shouyu with added egg)
  • ★★ Nakiryu (mala tantanmen ramen. make sure to get the side dish pork, it's essential)

Tonkatsu & Katsu
  • Tonkatsu Maisen (get their rosu katsu set)
  • ★★ Zuicho (fantastic katsudon aka fried pork over egg over rice)
  • ★★ Butagumi (sophisticated  tonkatsu)
    
Curry
  • Tenma Curry (try the カレーパン, essentially a curry donut)
  • Boulangerie Shima (for their fresh curry bread)
  • Spice Post (try pork curry)
  • Curry and Rice Yukimasa (get their beef curry)
  • ★ Curry Bondy (Japanese curry)
  • ★ Spicy Curry Roka
  • ★ Kyuyam-Tei (spice curry in Shimokitazawa)
  • ★ Spoon (Japanese/French curry. the French curry special is delicious)
  • ★ Yogoro (chicken spinach curry is amazing)
  • ★★ Land (Japanese curry)

Pizza

  • Pizza Strada
  • ★ Don Bravo (try margherita & four cheese pizza at lunch)
  • ★ PST – Pizza Studio Tamaki (try the classics)
  • ★★  Seirinkan Pizza (get the marinara)
  • ★★★ Savoy Pizza Azabujuban (this is my favorite pizza shop on the planet. get the marinara.. then get another!)


Other Food

  • Deli Fu Cious (fried fish burgers)
  • Ohitsuzen Tanbo (try the grilled salmon / ikura rice bowl)
  • Kanekoya Hannosuke (tempuradon)
  • Tokyo Doujiang Life (Taiwanese breakfast & soy milk)
  • 上海焼き小籠包 吉祥寺本店  (crispy xiao long bao on the street in Kichijoji)
  • Cafe Aaliya (french toast)
  • ★ A Happy Pancake
  • ★ Onigiri Asakusa Yodoroku (onigiri specialist, the oldest in Tokyo. try their salmon onigiri)
  • ★★ L'effervesence (you need this lunch at least once in your life)


Coffee

  • Chouette Torrefacteur Coffee
  • Switch Coffee
  • Iron Coffee
  • Glitch Coffee
  • Cafe Obscura (plus tarts)
  • Café de l'Ambre
  • Light Up Coffee
  • Megane (coffee plus their sando/desserts)
  • Koffee Mameya 
  • Coffee Wrights
  • Dixans Jimbocho (plus desserts)
  • Heart's Light
  • Sanjikken
  • Chop
  • Rostro
  • Kayaba (coffee + made-to-order tamago sando)
  • Chai Break (grab a chai & walk around Inokashira park)
  • Dotcom Space
  • Noriz Coffee (plus desserts)
  • Turret Coffee 
  • Coffee Elementary School

Art & Museums
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  • Ghibli Museum 
  • Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography
  • Ukiyo-e Ota Memorial Museum
  • Nezu Museum (for the garden)
  • ★ National Art Center 
  • ★ Tokyo National Museum

Depachika / Dept. Store​
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  • Shinjuku Takashimaya (28 restaurants, access from Shinjuku station, rooftop picnic area)
  • ★ Hikarie (bottom floor for desserts)
  • ★ Mitsukoshi Ginza (head straight for the bottom floor)
  • ★ Isetan Shinjuku  (bottom floor with endless food & desserts. buy stuff & head to the rooftop picnic area)

Highlights