Food in Tokyo

September 2016

The food in Tokyo is mostly served in a manner where very little human interaction is required. Tokyo is definitely a high-tech city, where machines are utilized whenever possible and they take over most of the interactions. One can argue that while it makes things run more efficient on a business standpoint, the people eventually feel more alienated.

In this photograph, you can see my mother and my friend lining up behind her to place their order and pay before even sitting down. Once the order is complete, the machine spits out a ticket that instructs the cook of the order when we hand the receipt to the waitress. We grab seats, and are served fairly quickly. Tea and condiments are all conveniently placed in the small space in front of you.

Udon

Chicken flavored curry on chicken cutlets – best food ever

They have Beard Papa in Japan too! Their chocolate filled cream puff was amazing.

This is the restaurant (Gonpachi) where they filmed parts of Kill Bill. It took us more than an hour to track this place down with limited internet and geographic knowledge. The food was pricey, and just alright. The location where they filmed the Kill Bill fight scene was this patio that just had stacked chairs, and was the unused portion of the outside of the restaurant. Coming here was not worth it.

Soba

We went to this 1 star Michelin Restaurant. During lunch hours, it was extremely affordable, so I had to check it out. It was a small little restaurant that had a really long wait. The food was more salty that I’d prefer, but good. It consisted of all seafood and egg. It was different and definitely an experience.

Matcha flavored soft serve

Best crunchy cream puff stick ever. I had a couple of these since they were so delicious. You can smell these a half a mile away when walking through Harujuku.

Rainbow cotton candy

The most gigantic grapes ever. They’re pretty good. They taste richer than the regular sized grape, and had 2-3 seeds per grape.

The most expensive Kobe beef ever. This was $68. It was cut into 4 small slices, so that brings you to $17 per small cube. It was extremely good, and melted in my mouth. Do not eat this when you are hungry unless you’re prepared to burn a huge hole in your pocket.

Grilling sixty-eight dollars.

Trying not to burn $68.

I was so hungry, I ordered filet mignon. This was about $40+.

I was still hungry, so I ordered this fried rice, which was also insanely pricey.

This is what it mixes out to. It tasted burnt, and that made me sad.

This was a restaurant (Yoshiba) that served a dish that sumo-wrestlers eat (chankonabe). Their diet is rich and healthy, and chankonabe was indeed delicious. This meal will set you back a pretty penny, and has huge portions, so sharing between two people will be perfect. They finish you off with a scoop of lychee flavored ice-cream. This is a photograph of what the sumo ring looks like. It was placed in the middle of the restaurant.

Their coaster that showed you the dimensions of a sumo ring.

Chankonabe

Flavored mochi dipped in peanut powder. I had the green tea with red bean topping one, and it was just a squishy ball with very little exciting flavor.

Some sort of crunchy matcha flavored pastry. It was okay.

Strongest matcha flavored ice cream in the world (Nanaya Gelato). Extremely long line. $6 for a very small scoop (half a small scoop). You can choose the levels of how strong you want the matcha flavor to be. The dark green one is the best, and the most “bitter-sweet”. I opted for that, and a scoop of sesame ice-cream.

Sweet milk pastry – extremely good.

Pre-packaged bentos in grocery stores. Very convenient to get food.

Mixed colored cherry tomatoes – very good.

This restaurant made their own ramen.

I love the chewiness in the freshly made ramen.

Takoyaki

Gigantic grapes set next to tiny grapes.

Matcha powder for you to mix your own. I put so many scoops. My green tea looked like The Hulk.

Sushi served on a conveyor belt. Just grab the one you want. Different color plates signify different pricing.

I love this restaurant. It is kinda fun. You sit and place your order on a tablet, then within minutes, the sushi shoots out straight from the kitchen on one of the three rows, right in front of you. The tablet then instructs you to remove your order, and indicate that you’ve received it, so the moving serving plate can return back to the kitchen.

I ate soo much. Each plate was about $1-3. It wasn’t pricey, and it was really good. They even had an option for fresh pineapples. It would come as a small chunk off the actual skin, with little separations cut for you to consume it.

More curry. I tried to locate this same restaurant in California. I found it, and was actually extremely disappointed.

Hot pot (Shabusen Ginza Core B2F – Great combo prices)

Had to track this Portuguese egg tart shop down. Small shop that only comfortably fit 1-2 people, so there was a line to purchase this. It was pricey but pretty good.

Stairs up to a bar in Golden Gai. All the bars there comfortably sit about 6-8 people max. They’re all situated either on the first or second floor, and are very small. Each have their own theme. It was raining fairly hard, so we chose the one that didn’t look full.