Ginza would be the closest location to your hotel. I have never made a reservation at Toriyoshi and don't even think it is possible to. Even though they are popular there is usually little or no wait as they are relatively large yakitori restaurants. I guarantee you will enjoy yakitori at toriyoshi for a casual dinner. You can order what you want from the display, or order omakase. A yakitori meal can be as light or as filling as you want:).

Website seems to be 100% in Japanese - but here are some pictures and a bit of history:

http://serenphemera.typepad.com/musi...matsubara.html

We'll be making all our reservations through the hotel concierge desk (it did an excellent job on our first trip - the detailed maps for each restaurant were very useful too).

You are of course correct about the proper etiquette - especially not taking apart food. At Kozasa Sushi - I did 1/2 sashimi and 1/2 sushi on a smaller lunch menu - which worked out fine. Note that not only did we make reservations through the hotel concierge - we also ordered the specific menu we wanted in advance through the hotel concierge as well (many restaurants have 2-3 or sometimes more options).

FWIW - I ran across this looking up some sushi restaurants that have been mentioned:

http://www.luxeat.com/blog/30-sushi-...tabelog-users/

Good for people like me who can't make any sense out of Tabelog.

I pretty much enjoy eating all kinds of fish and seafood - even if I don't know what they are. I only get into trouble with large quantities of food.

I've found the Michelin Guide very useful for basic information at your fingertips. Like the general part of town where a restaurant is. What kind of food a restaurant serves. What the hours are. Whether credit cards are accepted. And - for example - that Mikawa seems to be a "no shoes" restaurant :) - and that its interior sounds like it's lovely.

OTOH - perhaps that is a different "Mikawa". The one in Michelin is "Mikawa Zezankyo in Koto-Ku. Same restaurant or different restaurant? Robyn

So because it doesn't serve shark's fin (whether they serve it or not is neither here nor there, I actually don't think it tastes anything special), the service is very good (not disputing that, actually, but that's to be expected, at the Peninsula in Tokyo), and you're not particularly price sensitive, you're happy to have a sub-par food experience? Suit yourself.

The Peninsula hotels worldwide aren't known for their Chinese restaurants. Even the Hong Kong flagship restaurant, Spring Moon, is widely considered a "must miss" by the foodie crowd in Hong Kong. The one in Tokyo is no exception.

And if I had 6 or 7 nights in Tokyo or whatever, like our esteemed OP, I certainly wouldn't recommend Chinese food in Japan, and least of all Hei Fung Terrace. Even I am not that mean-spirited.

Tempura Guide in Eater
 

http://eater.com/archives/2012/09/27...s.php#pointmap

This answered some of my questions. Robyn

I am not a self described "foodie" - whatever that means - although I do take food very seriously. When in Hong Kong I tend to eat at the hotels where I stay, whether that means Man Wah at MO, Lung King Heen at the FS, or Spring Moon at the Pen. Admittedly I prefer the former two to the latter, but I have never had a bad meal at Spring Moon.

I am highly confident in my choice of restaurants, and don't need to be told by anyone what I should or should not like.

Anyway, enough about Hei Fung Terrace. Instead of criticizing my recommendations or those of others, would you possibly care to share any of your restaurant recommendations?

btw just to clarify re shark's fin - I support the restaurant because I am morally opposed to the inhumane killing of sharks for their fins to be used in Chinese cuisine. As you, in your infinite wisdom have pointed out shark's fin has no taste. This is not just your opinion. Shark's fin, like other ingredients, is used in Chinese cuisine for its texture.

While I thoroughly enjoyed Tsunahachi in Shinjuku after a recent visit there I'm not sure it warrants inclusion in the 'higher end dining' category of Tokyo restaurants. Even the description in the linked blog notes:

"the main shop in Shinjuku is a great choice if you don't want to break the bank"

My take in this whole list-driven discussion is that many, if not most, of the restaurants being talked about in this thread are fine establishments, and you can't go wrong with them. I've been to many, but not all of them, and have opinions about the ones I've been to.

There are also hundreds of restaurants not on some list or another, some of which are even better than those on the lists. I've been to a fair number of those too. Just as a data point, note robyng's link to tabelog's top 30 sushi joints, of which only 10 are on the Michelin "guide" and the "temple" of them all, Jiro, barely makes the top 50.

Specifically, of those 30 sushi joints, I've been to pretty much all of them, and most of them involve picking up the phone a couple of days in advance and making a reservation. No theater, no drama, no hand wringing, no endless discussions with people you don't know and don't know you about what you're going to like or not, and whether you should start dialing at 9:00 AM first of the month. Couple of them, the ones which specifically overlap with some of the more "famous" mis-guides or bloggers or whatever floats in the cyberspace, are a biatch to get in, most likely because of said excess of attention. Frankly, is Saito better than #21 on the list, or whatever? In some ways, yes, in most ways no.

If people here and elsewhere want to establish a theater-like atmosphere about going to some restaurant or another which is, in the end, a subjective decision and not really differentiated enough to somebody who hasn't tried enough of them, that's just fine by me. In general, I have no issue with most of the restaurants being discussed, even if I may have a preference for some place not being mentioned. But I don't think there is enough material difference to provide an alternative to somebody who probably wouldn't know the difference anyway, so let them go with the well-known and hard to get in great restaurant instead of the not-so-well known and easier to get in great one.

Where I do draw the line is at places like Hei Fung Terrace or whatever, where the experience is certainly not worth a damn, and I have no problems saying so. Of course, to each his or her own, but sometimes a point needs to be made.

I don't think I've ever been to any restaurant listed in this thread so far, and I still enjoy the Japanese food experience. To generalize one point, however, I avoid Chinese restaurants in Japan because the ones that I have tried haven't been very good, even by my local SF bay area standards.

The curious standout in foreign cuisine in Japan is Indian restaurants. They're consistently decent and sometimes quite good. Driving to Mt Iso in a rental car in Kyushu, one of my kids was impulsing it through FourSquare and found an Indian restaurant we were coming up on that had a few check-ins, although we couldn't read them since no one in the car knew Japanese. We stopped and had a really good lunch for about Y1400 each.

I also don't care about lists or rankings. I had not been to Jiro until I once met his son, Mr. Yoshikazu Ono, while dining at a restaurant. It turned out he was close friends with the chef at the restaurant, with whom I also have a very good rapport. We started talking a bit about sushi, and ever since I have had nothing but wonderful experiences at Jiro, and am always warmly welcomed at the restaurant. For me the experience of eating at Jiro has nothing to do with its ratings or Michelin stars.

Shin is another sushi restaurant that I enjoy so much that, apart from Jiro, I never go elsewhere unless I am invited by someone. I have never had a problem making a reservation, and when dining alone can often reserve with very short notice.

One and the same - this is the same location to which I posted a link in you other thread. I highly recommend this restaurant and hope that you will try it. Mikawa Zezankyo and Mikawa in Roppongi Hills are the only places I eat tempura (usually am at the Roppongi location several times a month). Do go^.

My regular Indian restaurant in Tokyo is Diya at Roppongi Hills. This restaurant is used extensively by the Indian and Saudi embassies for entertainment, and many Indians who live in Tokyo are regulars.

For regular customers and those who appreciate authentic Indian food, they can produce very authentic dishes. With advance notice they can produce spectacular indian food for parties of at least three or four people (because homestyle indian food often needs to be cooked in volume and takes hours to prepare). The service is excellent, which is no surprise since several of the managers have experience working at some of the best Taj hotel properties in India.

You made some good points (at least they're points I agree with :)) - and I'll go somewhat further by linking this:

http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/20...an-restaurants

An article I agree with almost 100%. Perhaps the only exception - and it is somewhat dependent on countries for me - is the "tasting menu only" concept. In Japan - I found myself sticking to a lot of "omakase" or "fixed plates" (the latter found in many "plastic food restaurants") because I honestly could not have picked out the better/best stuff myself (that's kind of hard to do when the staff speaks little or no English - you only speak a little Japanese - and the menus are only written in Japanese and you can't read Japanese ;)).

I was thinking of having 2 threads here - one for higher end dining - and one for more casual dining. But there's obviously a blurry area in the middle - and there's no reason we can't get into that. The only things I'd like to avoid here are "fast food" type experiences (the Korean BBQ I had at the "old village" attraction at the Osaka Aquarium was pretty good - but that's not the kind of restaurant I'm trying to find here) - and places where you can't make reservations and/or have to wait on line.

Which of the sushi restaurants on the Tabelog list that you've been to recently did you like the best - say the top 4 or 5? Ones that to the best of your knowledge serve lunch and take credit cards (I can look that up if you don't happen to remember).

FWIW - there is one thing I am going to try hard to avoid on this trip. And that is going to restaurant after restaurant where I am greeted by a counter full of 30-somethings from countries outside Japan who think that because they know how to take a picture - they're competent to write a blog about food. This wasn't a problem during our first trip to Japan in 2006 - because Japan wasn't really on the food radar screen back then. But it's on *everyone's* food radar screen today - and I don't like restaurants that are "tourist attractions" (I especially dislike being surrounded by people who spend their entire meals taking pictures). Note that I am not a total curmudgeon - but am pretty close to it when it comes to restaurant stuff I don't like. Robyn

+1. The picture taking is very irritating. I tune it out while at Jiro because I am focused on the food. Incessant photography bothers Mr. Jiro and Mr. Yoshikazu very much.

They should ban it. Lesser chefs than they are (e.g., David Chang in some of his restaurants and Cesar Ramirez at Brooklyn Fare IIRC) have banned it. When you have a restaurant that is almost impossible to book - what's the harm? Moreover - most of the pictures are terrible (because it's hard to photograph food).

Note that I have zero objection to a "family photo" at a restaurant - perhaps with the chef if you're lucky. Or perhaps one like this:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/1050556...7605907606503/

Especially if it's a special occasion for someone. It's like joining in if people are singing "Happy Birthday" (we were once serenaded on the occasion of my husband's birthday by some very friendly Dutch tourists when we were having afternoon tea/dessert at a good place in New York - their native "Happy Birthday" song in their native language - in full harmony!! - really fun).

OTOH - why everyone thinks they have to take a picture of everything they eat? Well got me. Perhaps they're scared of getting Alzheimer's and forgetting their meals :D. On my part - I remember the truly memorable stuff even now - 5-10-20-30-40 years after the fact.

And I do like photography - just not when it might possibly bother anyone else - or interfere with a meal I'm eating. My favorite subjects are flowers and butterflies :) - close-ups of familiar things so they wind up looking like abstracts - and golf pictures taken at my local PGA tournament (the Players - tune in next week and watch - I'll wave to the blimp :D).

FWIW - I have found that the best way to meet chefs "up close" and to have personal experiences with them is to smoke (which I do). I've had many interesting chats with chefs and chef owners while ducking into alleys outside a restaurant to "grab a smoke" between courses (usually between the main(s) and dessert). One of the few times in life when smoking is an asset. Robyn

Just FWIW - the name of the head concierge at FSM is Akhil Tiwari. Which sounds like an Indian name to me (not sure). Although I have no idea where he comes from (could be a dozen or more places).

I'll also note that I have no intention of eating Chinese or Indian or any similar non-Japanese food during our trip. It's only a week-long trip - and there is so much Japanese food we want to explore.

I kind of envy you people who spend a lot of time in Japan in terms of food - but I'm afraid that's not in the cards for us. Robyn