The Best Restaurants in Tokyo

Incredible experience Den by Chef Zaiyu Hasegawa doesn’t need a review. Everyone knows it is incredible. Preplan your trip to Japan and book a meal here. Thank me later…

Great scape from the busy city life of Tokyo.Chef Daniel knows what he wants. Best sea urchin dish ive had in years, great wine list. Incredible friendly staff. I would definitely go back if i find a table. Book book book.

Just the best Yakiniku in Tokyo…Of course, Nakahara-san became world-famous for inventing the wagyu Sando… but first and foremost, he’s a master butcher and his cooking is enriched by this rare skill among chef. He’s the best for selecting the best beef, the best cuts and grilling the meat with an unmatched precision. Perfection.

Modern dishes with Italian soul and Japanese perfection by Luca Fantin.(Bulgari il Ristorante Luca Fantin). No chef embodies Italian soul and Japanese perfection quite like Luca Fantin. There is focus and quiet intensity in the cuisine, which never strays from the palate of Italy into the realm of fusion. While Fantin is strictly locavore in his approach to sourcing, you won’t find yuzu, soy sauce, or shiso in any of the dishes at his restaurant. Instead, he uses ovoli mushrooms from Mount Fuji, caviar from Miyazaki, and olive oil from Kumamoto to create modern dishes that are “100% Italian in flavor while reflecting the seasons of Japan.”

Chinese-Japanese fusion dishes by Chef Tomoya Kawada.Chef Tomoya Kawada, the chef-owner of Sazenka, thinks that Chinese cuisine is 'fire' and oil based, and Japanese cuisine is 'water' based. He combines both culinary perspectives and curates beautiful dishes which capture the best moment of the ingredients.The dishes have modulation, a spicy dish is followed by a clean water based dish, so it never gets boring.

Beautiful Japanese / French counter dining.Loving the setting at this very dynamic counter with very minimalistic cooking focusing on local ingredients. Excellent vegetable dishes.

Masamichi amamoto san masters the art of sushi. In his 8 seat counter restaurant. Service, friendly chef, perfect techniques and the best ingredients from all over Japan. The food is so elegant, especially his otsumami courses, even Tho his nigiris are immaculate.

Some of the most coveted counter seats in Tokyo, but worth the trouble.Chef Daniele Casone perfected the art of pizza and brought stellar heights. The dough is one of the best out there, the tomato sauce superb and topings are just of outstanding quality.Pure happiness.

Peruvian food with Japanese ingredients.Japan is widely known for having the best ingredients in the world and when paired with the creativity of Virgilio and head chef Santiago the combination is impressive. 80% of the ingredients are sourced directly from Japan while signature ingredients are still imported from Peru. Adapting a vision of a restaurant to a new country cannot be easy but the transition is well managed. On the menu there are naturally some dishes that are more Japanese than others and having lived 3 years in Peru I was of course nostalgic about the dishes with the strongest Peruvian flavors. Hence they impressed me the most. The menu does also stand on its own without trying to be a copy of Central but a creative Peruvian restaurant in Japan. It’s succeeds with that vision so next time I will be in Japan I will surely return.

Edomae sushi counter awarded with the gold award from Tabelog since 2017.This was probably the absolute best meal in our entire life. Right away when you enter this place, it already feels so special, as if you already know something amazing is about to happen. Then, the counter is beautiful, a 9-seat counter made of Hinoki, perfectly clean, and behind the kitchen you can see chef Takaaki Sugita starting to prepare everything for what we consider the most perfect meal we’ve had, with so much precision, purity, and so calm. Now, focusing on the menu, we had about 8 otsumamis, 11 nigiris, a clam soup, tamago and 3 extra pieces we ordered, and some of those dishes were the following:* Chawanmushi with anago.* Ankimo in sugar, shoyu, sake and mirin.* Kohada nigiri.* Tako.* Chu toro nigiri.* Kuruma ebi.* Bafun uni hokkaido.* Anago.* Tamago.This doesn’t even include some of our favorites, mainly given the poor photo quality (because we are bad photographers and we tried to max take 5 seconds taking the pic of each nigiri), but honestly each and every time we put a nigiri in our mouth it was like touching heaven, we can’t really put it into words.

Tokyo is without a shadow of a doubt the best place in the World to have sushi. The mix of respect for traditions, an insane focus on perfecting skills and naturally also the best seafood in the World has led to this. Because of this, the style of sushi is simple and uncomplicated but impossible to copy unless you have been raised in the World. Hakkoku is among the temples for sushi not only in Tokyo but the entire World. As a sushi novice, I don’t have other high-end sushi places to compare to. They did however impress me. The purity of flavor is amazing and as did the simplicity of the presentation. An end to end impressive feast from the very first otoro hand roll to the last piece of incredible egg “omelette”.

The Hotspot for Edomae style sushi.The hotspot for Edomae style sushi. Very militaristic approach to cutting + creating forms. Great with (a lot of) sake.

Sushi omakase served by chef Kimura, known as the “father of aged sushi”.This was definitely one of the highlights of the entire trip and truly eye opening for us. At this small counter you get served around 10 otsumamis, 12 nigiris, tamago and one dessert. The chef, Koji Kimura, is lovely and fun, offering a more relaxed vibe than perhaps other sushiyas where it’s a bit more serious. Koji Kimura, as mentioned, is known as the “father of aged sushi”, aging some fish up to 50 days, like his famous swordfish nigiri, and this is probably the main characteristic that makes this sushiya different from the others.Now, let’s show you some of the dishes we had:* Nigiri of Aori Ika from Mie aged 1 week.* Ankimo, peanuts & chili.* Smoked Hokkigai and a pinch of salt.* Shirako risotto & pepper.* Watarigani marinated in brandy and its inners for 6 weeks, sishito and sancho pepper.* Nigiri of Shima ebi from Hokkaido aged 3 days.* Nigiri of Needle fish (sayori) aged 1 week.* Nigiri of Sujiko aged in soy sauce 10 days.* Nigiri of Iwashi aged 1 week.* Nigiri of Swordfish (makajiki) aged 55 days.This was our first sushiya of the trip and it really left an impression on us, we can still remember pretty much every bite, the more intense shari, the perfect temperatures, just a once in a lifetime experience for us.

High-end and fun Izakaya-counter with great sakes and natural wines.Sowado was one of our favorite and most fun experiences without a doubt, and for this one in particular we want to thank Alex, and also Hoze (who pretty much organized our whole trip), for making this happen. The place was probably our favorite when it comes to the interior, deco and atmosphere, which as mentioned was very fun, and even though the place kind of felt high-end, it was still super casual, just a perfect balance.Focusing on the food, some of the dishes we had were the following:* Chawanmushi with kue (grouper), dried sea cucumber & nanohana.* Tofu.* Chu toro sashimi with nori.* Pot with shirako, crispy rice and shiitake.* Turtle egg soup.* Unagi.* Fried chicken.The whole menu is a la carte, and we ordered the most items possible, and we really enjoyed our experience here. On top of that we had some great wines and sakes, actually some of the best of our trip.Definitely a place we want to come back in our future trips to Japan.

Neapolitan Pizzeria in the Ebisu neighborhood.A part from, of course, Japanese cuisine in all its different ways, the pizzas are also famous in Japan for being some of the best, so during our trip, we tried a couple of different ones. The first one was Marumo, Chef Yuki Motokura’s own place after working at Savoy for three years. We ordered four different pizza’s which were the following:* Pizza marinara.* Pizza Margherita.* Pizza “Red Hot Chili”.* Pizza “Japanese Umami”.We really enjoyed all of them, with our favorite being the Margherita, but we thought the Japanese Umami was a very interesting and unique one worth trying as well.Definitely a place that’s at the level of the more hyped pizza places in the city.

Eating shoulder to shoulder and sharing ochoko of warm sake in this tiny hole in the wall seems a world away now, but it was the inspiration for my restaurant, Okra Hong Kong. The simple menu that changes every day based on the days’ best ingredients cooked simply, either fried, grilled, roasted or raw without any long preparations or black truffle shavings or caviar, leaves you with a warm sense of being as you stumble out into the back alley of the entrance into a night with endless possibilities.

Place with the most crispy and the thinnest gyoza possible. And very juicy. As praxis you could get them fried and steamed, and of course a lot of cucumber dishes to go with them. Icecold japanese beer in abundance.

Great ambiance and the best tuna collar I've ever had. The best tuna collar I've ever had. Also ebi mayo was amazing. The chefs screaming "Irasshaimasen!" when you walk in. The ambience is one of a kind. You need to go there. It's great.

Farm to counter concept bar in the heart of Tokyo.Run by the owner bartender Hiroyasu Kayama. In Saitama prefecture, 90 mins train ride from the bar, he has his own farm formerly owned by his father. He grows herbs, spices, and fruits and makes his own liquor. You can enjoy it straight, but also in the cocktails where he's using these liquors.

Fantastic ExperienceJambo Hanare branch on the counter is a great way to have yakiniku. The meats are fantastic and it is all cooked for you to perfection. I would say it was our favorite yakiniku this past trip to Tokyo. Make sure to pre order the beef rice. It is incredible. I have posted a photo of this dish.

I'm a Japanese living in Italy so when I go back to Japan one of the first things I want to do is to eat sushi. Being in front of Jiro-san's counter is one of the moments that excites me the most. His daily life, his obsession, professionalism and humility. Every bite there makes me feel more than a thousand years of history and evolution in my mouth. So every time I come back that is one of my must go places.

Italian dishes made with Japanese ingredientsL’Effervescence received their 3rd Michelin star in Dec 2020. They carefully select artisanal products (including caviar, cheese, brandy etc.) from all over Japan (from Hokkaido to Okinawa!) to create their dishes. Impeccable service - especially seeing matcha prepared in front of us was very special. About 8 dishes, 2.5-3h

When fashion meets food.A dinner at Été is the most personal dining experience I have ever had. Natusko greets you at the entrance, pours the water, selects the wine, serves the food and naturally prepares it as well. Hence the experience is end to end an expression of her personality.The food is really delicious and prepared with proper craftmanship, but what really makes this stand out is everything else. The presentation are like no other and the intimate and private atmosphere is second to none. It is also one if the hardest restaurants in the world to book, and for good reason

Dim sums with Japanese execution.Always on point, worth the money, fast and tasty. My favorite tim ho wan, even better than the ones in Hong Kong . Go for the whole menu.

Famous pizza spot in Tokyo.The pizzas here were probably the best pizzas we’ve tasted in any restaurant worldwide, just perfect size, texture, temperature and the perfect amount if ingredients. We went to the location in Azabujuban, where they have a small counter that works without reservations, but if you come early and during the week it shouldn’t be a problem to get a spot.We ordered the following pizzas:* Pizza Marinara.* Pizza Margherita.* Pizza Bianca.We loved all three of them, but our favorite was the Marinara, simple and perfect!It’s a place we look forward going back, both because they are the best pizzas we’ve had and because it’s good for a break of Japanese food during an intense food driven trip.