Where to Eat in Japan: Every Restaurant I Tried

One of the hardest things for me to figure out when I’m traveling internationally is where to eat. I want to try the local specialties, but I don’t want to go someplace especially touristy, or a place that’s just not good. But it’s hard enough to parse what reviews are real at home, let alone in a different place that might not speak the same language.

Consider this your starter pack of restaurants to eat at in Japan. This is just a list of everything I ate in Japan, and whether or not I would recommend it. I did the barest minimum of research prior to arriving at each destination, so most places are those that we chose on a whim, or because the food displays looked good, or because it was by our hotel. This strategy worked fairly well, as it seems that Japanese food as a whole is delicious.

As I mentioned in my post about planning your trip to Japan, if you want to go to a mildly popular restaurant that takes reservations, you should look to book those as soon as you can. Two weeks or a week beforehand will not be enough time!

Where to Eat In Japan

Where to Eat Around Tokyo

A Bientot (Hotel Breakfast)

This is the restaurant at the top of the Shibuya Excel Hotel Tokyu where we stayed in Tokyo. When I booked the hotel I paid for a package that included breakfast in the price. This was the only hotel I did that for in Japan, partially because I thought it was reasonably priced, and partially because I know that breakfast is the meal where I am least likely to try new things. Especially for the first couple of days when we were really jetlagged, it was nice to just be able to take the elevator to the restaurant instead of figuring out where we needed to go to eat.

The breakfast itself was really nice. Not as large as some hotel breakfast buffets I’ve experienced, but there were a lot of options across a few cuisines, so I think everyone would find something they would eat there. Also, the view was pretty stellar.

Kura Sushi (Conveyor Belt Sushi)

I first heard about Kura Sushi from this YouTube video where someone… well, went to a Kura Sushi location. If you’ve never had conveyor belt sushi, I would highly recommend it, it’s a really fun experience to grab random things off of the conveyor belts. At Kura, you can also make special orders and they’ll zip out to your table on an exclusive fast conveyor belt.

Everything was done electronically – signing up on the waiting list, ordering, paying, etc. It’s super easy to navigate. Using the kiosk you can also sign up for a little gachapon-esque game where for each five plate you return, you have the opportunity to win a little gachapon toy. We won once, and got a little pin with some animated characters I don’t recognize.

The food itself was incredibly cheap – 3550 yen (~$22 US) for both my husband and I to eat a full meal’s worth of sushi. It’s not the highest quality of sushi, but it’s better than your grocery store type sushi in the US.

Oreryū Shio Ramen

Oreryū Shio Ramen was legitimately one of the best things we ate in Japan. Seek this place out – it’s a local chain, so there’s several locations around Tokyo. We ate at the Harajuku location when we were exploring that area. You order outside at a little vending machine with buttons and photos of the choices that will print out a receipt of what you ordered, then you hand that to the server when you take a seat.

My husband and I both got the Oreryu Otokomori-Ramen, which is the “My Own Style Manly Ramen” that comes with fried chicken, pork, and eggs. (It was highlighted on the vending machine as the special / favorite choice – I don’t know if I realized it was “Manly Ramen”). Oh my goodness, it was amazing. The broth was delicious and layered with flavor. The chicken was amazing by itself – having just a dish of the chicken alone would have been one of the best things we ate in Japan. We loved it, and would one trillion percent go back and eat more.

Yakiniku

Yakiniku is another fun Japanese dining experience that I would recommend for anyone who’s a meat eater and who has never done it. Essentially you order a bunch of raw meat and vegetables and you cook them yourself over a grill that is in the middle of the table. Once your food is cooked, you dip it in a sauce of your own creation and chow down!

There’s a ton of yakiniku restaurants in Japan, we happened to go to one in the Shinjuku neighborhood (that has no English name or website, but it’s on the map). We ordered one of the pre-curated meat platters and some vegetables. It’s hard to judge the food because it was cooked by ourselves, but the ambiance of the restaurant was nice. Although, to be expected, the grill radiates a lot of heat, so be prepared to be toasty if you’re sitting close to it,

Kaiseki

Kaiseki is a specific type of Japanese dining that involves a set menu of small plates. It’s commonly a part of a ryokan (Japanese style hotel) stay, which is where we experienced a Kaiseki meal. Very similar to a multi-course menu at a high end restaurant here in the US – the plating and visuals are just as important as the food quality and taste. And everything tasted excellent, although even with a translated course listing, we weren’t always sure what we were consuming. But that’s also part of the fun!

Kaiseki represents a perfect example of pictures being worth one thousand words, so here’s a selection of the courses we ate. I’d highly recommend seeking this out while you are visiting Japan and your budget allows.

Bento Boxes

I think the concept of Bento Boxes has gone mainstream, or at least I’ve seen bento containers for sale in a fair number of spots here in the US. Essentially, it’s a pre-prepared meal with several different foods placed in individual compartments. You can find them in a lot of stores in Japan, especially by long-distance train stations.

We ate bento at the bullet train station in Mishima on our way to Kyoto. We had just under an hour before our train left at 1pm, so it was perfect timing to see what we could find. There was a selection of probably 12-15 different varieties of boxes at the one store inside the station, so it was a matter of looking at photos and descriptions and figuring out what sounded good.

I didn’t take any photo of the packaging, so I don’t remember what any of this food was. I do remember it was autumn themed, and it had some vegetables compared to other options that were just protein and rice. It was good!

Where to Eat in Kyoto

Sumika

Our first night in Kyoto we had just gotten back from a late night jaunt to the Fushimi Inari Shrine and were very hungry. We ended up striking out in a direction from our hotel and were drawn in by the menu photos outside.

The photos outside did not prepare us for the interior – you go into a basement, which has fake stone and thick wooden tables giving it a weird castle / dungeon vibe? Definitely not what we were expecting, but otherwise Sumika seemed like a regular izakaya, or Japanese bar.

We ordered a selection of small plates and skewers and were happy with what we got. A memorable dish was the bacon and cheese wrapped mochi, which did not seem Japanese in the slightest but was delicious.

Kijurou

Deep in my planning notes for Japan I have a bullet point that just says “Kyoto = Wagyu”. I’m not sure where I read it, but someone online was like Kyoto is the best place to try Wagyu so I jotted that down with no source. Anyway, that led me on a different search for restaurants known for wagyu that would have online reservations that weren’t already booked. And that’s how I found Kijurou.

Kijurou is on the Arashiyama side of Kyoto, which meant we were in the area for lunch time. I think we arrived right around noon and there was a line of ten or so people sitting on the benches outside. The line moved quickly, but by the time we were seated there were at least twenty people behind us, so if you’re there for peak lunch hour be prepared for a wait.

Kijurou serves set boxes of various types – there’s several different choices of meat quality and different sides for you to decide between. My husband and I went for the largest and highest quality meat (it’s vacation!), which came with tofu and other smaller dishes.

It was delicious, I would definitely return if I ever got the chance. It’s a little expensive for lunch, coming out at about $40 US. But it’s not expensive when you consider what you’re eating, and it’s also a fairly large amount of food. Seriously, looking at the above photo is just making my mouth water.

CoCo Ichibanya

Prior to dining at CoCo Ichibanya, I had actually never had Japanese Curry. Not necessarily for any reason, I had just never opted to get it anywhere that had it on the menu. CoCo Ichibanya is apparently a prolific chain, with some locations even in California, but I don’t think we knew that when we chose to eat here. Actually, quite a few restaurants on this list are chains, but I don’t think that means they’re necessarily touristy or terrible quality like a lot of their American counterparts.

Ordering was super simple, you order entirely through a tablet at the table, and can customize the amount of rice you receive and the amount of spice. IIRC my husband got 7 or 8 out of 20 and said it was quite spicy, and he’s an insane person for spice, so be warned.

We took no photos of the curry itself because we just inhaled it, but it was quite delicious.

Karafuneya Coffee

After a day of extensive walking around Kyoto I wanted a little dessert treat to end the day. Karafuneya was close-ish to the hotel, and I thought it would be a quick stop for a snack.

It was way more intense of a dessert place than I expected. I kind of expected more of a takeaway or counter service establishment (because I thought Coffee equals Cafe). It was more of a full on dessert restaurant with a menu with many pages of giant parfait desserts. It took me quite some time to finally choose one, but I chose some strawberry and chocolate concoction that was amazingly delicious. A ton of ice cream. Would very much recommend if you have a sweet tooth, but just make sure you’re hungry enough for a meal’s worth of dessert.

Where to Eat in Osaka

Kamukura Soup With Noodles

Kamukura is another chain restaurant, although I think we knew this one was a chain because we had seen it several times before. But whatever, when the soul craves ramen it craves ramen.

It was probably the least notable ramen we had during our time in Japan. The broth was lighter than the other bowls of ramen, and I think I just prefer other types of broth more than this. It also in no way was bad, it just wasn’t literally the best ramen we’ve ever had, which is a high bar to eclipse. Still, worth it to fuel a day of sightseeing.

Shinsekai Kushikatsu Ittoku

This was one of the meals that was more of a letdown on this list. Kushikatsu is a specific type of fried, skewered meats and vegetables that originated in the neighborhood of Shinsekai. We figured that we should get the neighborhood’s specialty while we were there. We also supplemented it with an okonomiyaki as well.

The Kushikatsu was just okay. I mean, it was fine, it’s hard to mess up fried things on sticks, but it wasn’t amazing. The okonomiyaki was similarly just okay – we had a much better one from a random food stand the next night. I suspect it was this specific restaurant that wasn’t great which is a shame.

Mochizen

Okay technically this is in Nara, but I didn’t want to make a whole heading just for one place. Mochizen served nice little set lunches which made for a great lunch before taking the train back to Osaka. No photo of anything besides the exterior because sometimes you’re so hungry you don’t think of the content until after you’re done. This list is largely chronological, so maybe you can tell by the lack of food pics that we were getting more and more tired as the trip went on.

Koi Thé

I actually had Koi Thé two nights in a row. Wandering around Osaka and eating random street food made me really want a dessert to finish the night. I love bubble tea, so it was a match made in heaven. Seriously, when it’s humid and you feel sweaty and you’re ready to go back to the hotel and pass out, bubble tea is so beautiful.

Kappa Ramen Hompo

Kappa Ramen Hompo was our last meal outside of the airport in Japan, and of course it had to be ramen. I think this one of the few restaurants that didn’t have a lot in English, but honestly you don’t need much if you have Google translate and can look at photos. Super delicious bowl of ramen, I would highly recommend and gladly return. It looks like there’s a few locations in the Osaka area, ours was close to our hotel so that we could eat before taking the train to the airport.

Japanese Snacks You Should Try

This is the catch-all category for, well, everything that’s not a full meal. Pre-packaged snacks, random desserts, fresh convenience store food, random beverages from vending machines – you get the picture.

Snacking at Japanese Convenience Stores (Konbini)

If you’re an American, you’re probably very confused why anyone would suggest eating at a convenience store. The image of a lonely hot dog or taquito rolling around under a warming light for eight hours probably comes to mind. Japanese convenience stores – yes, even the 7-11 ones – are nothing like that. They have a really large selection of grab-and-go fresh food that is more reminiscent of a good grocery store deli than a convenience store. Think sandwiches, sushi, noodles, even fresh slices of cake at some stores.

What makes it great is, well, the convenience. These stores are everywhere, especially in the larger cities. They’re great if you’re low on energy or time and need to figure out where to eat in Japan. As for specific brands, the big chains seem to be 7-11, Lawson, and Family Mart. There might be differences between them, but I personally didn’t notice any. Especially not enough of a difference to walk another block to get to a different store.

Onigiri

These little triangles are the best. Essentially just seaweed, rice, and choice of filling, they are so basic but also so delicious. They were a great snack to pick up in the morning and tuck into a backpack for later when sightseeing. Or, just eat for breakfast, as my husband and I did multiple times.

Egg Sandwich

I watched a bunch of random Japan trip content on YouTube before traveling, and was told that the Egg Sandwiches are elite. I was skeptical because… I don’t know, white bread and eggs sounds kind of dry and boring. Reader, it was bizarrely delicious. The social media content creators nailed this one, you should go seek it out.

Bottled Drinks

Vending machines are everywhere in Japan, even more common than the convenience stores. In the more dense parts of the city, it’s strange if you have to walk a block in order to find one. The selection in them is kind of random, so sometimes you have to hit the jackpot to find exactly the drink you want at the machine you’ve found. But there’s water, Coke, Pepsi, various coffee and teas (some are served hot from the machine!), electrolyte drinks, energy drinks, sometimes alcoholic drinks. If you can drink it, it’s in a vending machine somewhere.

We actually found it more useful to not carry our water bottles with us, and instead just have change on hand to buy water bottles from vending machines as we traveled. Not a lot of places have public water fountains or places to refill the water bottles. It’s kind of strange, as I mostly use my reusable bottle here in the states, but it’s much less weight to carry if you just buy as you need (and the water is guaranteed to be cold the whole day).

So, I drank a lot of bottled water and Coke Zero, but these are the ones that I documented that were uniquely Japanese.

Street Food

This is a comically large category to try to talk about. You can find all sorts of things being sold at kiosks or food stands. Okonomiyaki, takoyaki, various meats on sticks, fruit, ice cream, you name it. And if you include the pastries and other grab-and-go snacks around the train stations, this category becomes infinite.

Just like street food in America, it can be hit or miss depending on the exact stand. We definitely had to pivot when the skewered meats for dinner weren’t as satisfying as we had planned. But, that just meant we got to try more things overall.

General Tips For Eating in Japan

Honestly this post just scratches the surface of all of the delicious food and drink you can have in Japan. We stuck to fairly touristy areas and still had amazing meals. I’m sure if you did any research at all, literally any, you would find some incredible restaurants off the beaten path.

My main tip would be to be open to trying different things. There are a lot of unique flavors and ingredients that don’t get much, if any, Western exposure. If you’re a picky eater there’s still a lot of options that don’t involve something raw or strange, but if you have an open mind you’re going to be able to try some really delicious things you can’t get back home.

Also, don’t be on a strict diet. Eat as much matcha soft-serve as you want. Eat the random snacks from the bakeries. Try whatever looks tasty at the convenience store. The worst that can happen is you have a fun new story about how you tried that weird Japanese snack.

What did you eat that you enjoyed in Japan? Do you have any experiences with these restaurants, or something you would recommend for the next trip? Let me and others know in the comments!