Cool Places to Eat & Drink in Tokyo

23 places you must eat and drink at in Tokyo.

Vampire Café

A taste of the macabre Tokyo's ritzy shopping district.

Omoide Yokocho

Colloquially known as “piss alley,” this narrow street filled with tiny bars and barbecue stands looks like it was pulled straight out of “Blade Runner.”

Zauo

The freshest fish here are the ones you catch yourself.

A ninja waitress

Ninja Akasaka

A restaurant modeled after feudal Japan, where the waitstaff are trained as ninjas.

8bit Cafe

Transport yourself to the 1980s era of video games at this themed restaurant and bar.

Detective Bar Progress.

Detective Bar Progress

The bartenders at this crime-fighting theme cafe are actual private detectives by day.

Kojo

This subterranean spot might be the epitome of Japan's baroque, retro coffee houses.

Vowz

Drinkslinger is an unlikely vocation for a Buddhist monk, but at this Tokyo bar the enlightenment is served in a martini glass.

Harukor

Tokyo’s only Ainu restaurant serves Indigenous food from northern Japan.

An array of ekiben.

Ekibenya Matsuri

A railway station takeout shop sells boxed meals in containers shaped like trains and snowmen that hold the country’s abundant regional delicacies.

Kiha

It's bad manners to eat and drink on the subways of Tokyo, unless the train is this bar.

Tokyo Metropolitan Building Staff Cafeteria

The tallest city hall in the world offers an excellent bento box.

Chankonabe Shinzan

Sidle into a side alley for a taste of sumo wrestlers' traditional hot-pot soup, in a tiny restaurant founded by a former competitor.

Koytili hamsei, or sheep tongue salad.

Silk Road Tarim Uyghur Restaurant

Sample specialties from Xinjiang at this Shinjuku neighborhood gem.

Peering into the café.

Kissa Laundry

Run a wash cycle while sipping a latte at this community-oriented café.

Koguma’s “Showa-retro” interior.

Koguma

This cozy café is housed in a repurposed pharmacy originally built in 1927.