Although I often identify restaurants in advance that I want to try, I find that more and more we let happenstance dictate where we eat. On our last trip we would consult Google maps and look at what was nearby whenever we were ready to eat. We would then decide based on reviews and what we felt like eating. This has a number of benefits: you can be very flexible, you eat what you are in the mood for and you go with the flow of your day. And being Japa, rolling the dice this way is unlikely to lead to major disappointments.
Two experiences that we enjoyed come to mind. In Tokyo we ate at Tempura Ten-ichi which is a very upscale joint in Ginza (with offshoots elsewhere). I knew about it from research before previous visits to Japan - and decided that it being in the same block as our hotel was A Sign.
. Certainly walkable from the Conrad.
In Takayama our ryokan provided a beef fix each night, but one lunchtime we stumbled upon Soba Miyabi-an
RsV@@݂ ш . The food was really very good and fully deserving of the excellent rating it gets on Google. The service was warm and friendly. They even have instructions on how to eat the meals printed on a laminated card to assist us clueless foreigners.
Sorry that I am not really addressing the OPs question directly, but while I am digressing I will share one more OT idea. Because we are old and usually exhausted after a day of sightseeing, one of our cop-outs is to visit a supermarket in the evening and buy bento boxes for a hotel picnic in our room. You will be astounded at the variety and quality on offer.