Tokyo must eats?
 

Morning all. Now that my hotel is finally set I'm trying to sort through the huge selection of places to eat. I'm open to two and three stars as well as local..I love Maru. Are there favorites here on the site? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!

Yo! Tekko-ya in Odaiba is an unsung little ramen place, but I've eaten at many, many ramen places in Tokyo and around the world that are both famous internationally and among locals, and I've never had better. That's the one place I make sure to go to on every trip, and I've been going for the last 10 years or so. It's pretty far out of the way, which is probably why it's not more famous, but Odaiba's a fun place to visit anyway for other reasons, so you should go there if you visit for anything else.

Yo! Tekko-ya is a chain with other locations, but like a lot of small chains in Japan, it's really a chain in name only. I've eaten at one or two of the other locations and they were 100% different. The one in Odaiba is the one you have to go to.

You may as well eat sushi at either Daiwa sushi or Sushi Dai at Tsukiji Fish Market. I'm sure somebody here will say they're overrated but I trust my wife, who's from Tokyo, and she was almost literally knocked to the floor by several of the pieces she was served. She was talking about it for weeks afterwards. To be honest I don't 100% remember which one we went to, but I think it was Daiwa. They are both right next to each other and both typically have long lines, but they move quickly. You sit down, you eat, you leave. So you shouldn't be waiting too long.

Great thanks.
Here's what we have booked so far....

Makimura
Antica Trattoria Nostalgica
Fukamachi
H O N M U R A A N Oghikubo, Tokyo

Asking about where to eat in this forum is like ordering the fish in a steak restaurant... can be done but is not the brightest idea. You should check out www.chowhound.com for the view from the food experts, as experts as the people here are about hotels and travel.

My bad

Tabelog is your friend: http://tabelog.com/tw/bestrst/2014/tokyo/

For me Sushi Dai is "ok" for a 1-ish hour queue if you show up super early. If you show up later in the morning it can go up to a frankly ridiculous 3-4 hours. I'd say the sushi there is amazing given the price since other top tier sushiyas are easily 3x-8x more expensive.

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KrisFlyer Miles Redemption Values

I don't know how that's even possible - I've looked at pics of the lines online, and the longest pictures I've seen are about as long as when I went, which was about 12:30PM. We waited maybe 30 minutes. Maybe we just got super-lucky and had the right crowd, but everybody pretty much seemed to be ordering the chef's selection or whatever it's called, and they just ate each piece as it was served and then left. I guess some people might sit and linger, but the place just doesn't seem conducive to that - I feel like you'd really have to be tone deaf to what's going on around you to do that.

I've visited twice, first visit was 1.5hr, second visit 4.5 hours (not even joking the slightest bit). What totally confused me was the 2nd visit queue wasn't much longer than the 1st visit. The only reason I can think of was it was April i.e. Sakura i.e. peak tourist season and so the diners were full of tourists extending the dining time by 2 minutes each piece for photos :confused:

I have a place close to Tsukiji and yes the majority of the issue is in fact tourists - both international and from within Japan - especially during Sakura festival time... I personally much prefer some other places close by and out of the market. The best sushi in Tokyo is IMO not really at restaurants - there are these "private" sushi establishments that are really out of this world. I've been to two of these places and the quality, preparation, and attention to detail blows your mind...

since you seem to be interested in michelin2&3* places, get a michelin guide, even a 1 year old, note the pages of the places of interest to you. take the guide and the list to your concierge the day before you wish to go, and have her call for reservations. have her ask what to expect for wait time.

we get into about 1 or 2 out of the 5 i choose. ask the concierge to make instructions for the cab.

a used, one year old micheline works just fine. a new one, if you can find an english version, will cost over $200us.

Narisawa, Takazawa should be prerequisites if you're a foodie.

Right. Especially if you're using "foodie" as an insult.

Spoken like a true right foodie.

What is your basis, specifically in regards to Takazawa? I've read mostly good things and a friend in Tokyo highly recommends it.

I like Takazawa. Problem is everybody likes Takazawa, and it's on the "foodie" circuit, which means hard to book and your fellow diners are likely to be kind of person you'd rather not be, but are.

Hell is knowing that you're other people.

I tried Takazawa back in 2010 and really liked it!

If you want high-quality sushi and don't care about the name recognition of the source, go to the fish department of a major department store. There is almost always a little sushi bar tucked away in a corner, and the quality tends to be high.

If you like cheap kaitenzushi go to Uobei in Shibuya. You order on a tablet and your food comes on an automated tray that stops in front of your seat. Popular with tourists. If I have visitors I always take them there. Can get crowded around dinner time but the line moves quickly.

We went to Takazawa in October, and it was a dining highlight (among many - Japan is a fertile ground in that department). It's a room with maybe up to ten diners spread around a reasonably large-sized room - so it's unclear to me, other than for snarkiness purposes, how the fellow diners would have impacted our experience (or judgment of ourselves, for that matter).

The chef-owner and his wife (who is the anchor of the front of the house) were wonderfully hospitable, and coincidentally, I had just read about him in a magazine-sponsored culinary competition on the plane to NRT. He hadn't seen the issue yet because it hadn't made it to Japan! It was a nice entry point to conversation, and both of them were very open about their experiences.

The food, too, was interesting and tasty (not necessarily in that order :p ). Is it hard to book? Probably, although our concierge didn't seem to have trouble. I don't think you need to be a pretentious twit (or however "foodie" is being implicitly defined about) to eat there, though (and it probably would dull your experience there, too).

To your original request: must eat? I dunno. Highly recommended, for sure. But to answer the initial query, I'd want to know more about your food priorities. You can get world-class food from so many cuisines in Tokyo (and even from so many Japanese culinary specialties, too, like ramen, tempura, sushi, etc). Is your priority specifically these kinds of Japanese dishes? If so, Takazawa might not make the 'must eat' list. If not, it would be under consideration for me.

Wow. I thought no one was going to post in my thread.

I've been to Takazawa and it was great. I love Maru for a local vibe. But I just stumbled across this gem of a place, Yakumo Saryo. it's invitation only for dinner (I have an in) and open for lunch without.