From Kobe beef A5 to premium sushi to street food hole in the walls and generations old noodle shops, Tokyo is one of the world’s greatest cities for food.

On my latest trip to Tokyo, David from The Hungry Tourist invited me to come on his high-end deep foodie Best of Tokyo Food Tour.

For a week, our group ate through a carefully researched selection of restaurants, most of them on the higher end side, with a few ramen and gyoza shops along the way.

In this blog post I’m going to share with you my personal highlights of the tour.

Kobe beef
Kobe beef at Wagyu Mafia

Kobe Beef at Wagyu Mafia

Wagyu Mafia is a group of Kobe and premium Wagyu beef specialists. They buy and source the beef themselves, do Kobe beef popups sometimes, and now have a flagship restaurant in Tokyo.

For our opening night of the tour, we had an insane Kobe beef meal, that included steak, sukiyaki, Chateaubriand steak sandwich, and not forgetting Kobe beef gyoza. It was an unforgettable meal.

Nakahara
Yakiniku at Nakahara

Yakiniku at Nakahara

Nakahara was probably my favorite meal of the entire tour, a restaurant that’s rated as one of the top Japanese yakiniku restaurants in Tokyo.

The Hungry Tourist had arranged for us to eat at the chef’s counter and the owner / chef cooked each bite of beef in front of us. One of his specialties are all parts of the wagyu tongue which was excellent, but the skirt steak and perfect wagyu cutlet sandwich were the courses that really blew me away.

Shima Steak

We went a little overboard on Japanese wagyu beef, and I’m very ok with that.

One more beef meal I just have to share with you is Shima Steak. At this unassuming family run basement restaurant in Tokyo, you’ll find premium Japanese beef, served western style, and it’s amazing.

You can either order the fillet or the sirloin, I got the sirloin, and the chef trims your steak and grills it in his personally designed one of a kind steak oven grill.

The steak is unbelievable!

best food Tokyo
Uni tempura at Motoyoshi

Tempura at Motoyoshi

One of the best things about high-end Japanese food is that you really do get the best of the best – in terms of quality of ingredients, skill of the chef, and perfection of the product.

At Tempura Motoyoshi, the chef pursues perfection, and his tempura is literally flawless, using the best vegetables and seafood, and frying each item perfectly. He’s even so meticulous about the oil for deep frying, and changed it a number of times throughout our meal.

The best bite for me was a fried shiso leaf, topped with uni.

Sushi Arai

On my previous trip to Tokyo, I tried a lot of amazing Japanese street food at Tsukiji fish market, but I didn’t have a chance to visit the inner market fish auction.

But on this tour with The Hungry Tourist, one of the highlights was having the amazing opportunity to go to the Tsukiji fish market tuna auction.

The next evening we ate sushi at Sushi Arai, a highly rated sushi omakase restaurant in Tokyo. It’s one of those sushi restaurants that only has 8 seats, and reservations are extremely hard. Chef Arai was an amazing chef, and his hands literally danced as he assembled perfect balls of rice and attached them to fish with the right balanced amount of wasabi.

Piece by piece, made right in front of you, it was one of the most memorable sushi meals I’ve ever had.

Sushi Namba
Friendly chef at Sushi Namba

Sushi Namba

Another premium sushi restaurant we ate at was Sushi Namba, another extraordinary restaurant. The self taught sushi chef is not only very friendly, but he really demonstrated skill and creativity in the sushi and courses we ate.

All his nigiri were spectacular, and I also enjoyed a course of rice mixed with sea urchin and topped with caviar.

ramen
Sake ramen at Kazami

Sake Ramen at Kazami

One day we went on a ramen tour, going to three back to back ramen shops in Ginza. Along with chicken ramen and hand-made noodle ramen, one of my favorites was sake ramen.

While some Japanese food doesn’t have much room for experimentation or change, ramen being a modern, relatively recently added Japanese food, it is culturally appropriate to create new styles and flavors. For this bowl at Kazami, sake is used in the broth, which was more like a thick gravy. It almost had the same effect as a wine sauce, but with that wonderful undertone of sake.

gyoza
Gyoza overdose!

Gyoza Gaudí

Yes, named after Antoni Gaudí, there’s a small izakaya gyoza shop in Tokyo’s Shimbashi nightlife district that serves incredible gyoza. On this night during the best of Tokyo food tour, we walked around eating with the Tokyo Fixer, who knows some seriously hidden gems of Tokyo.

This gyoza spot was exactly my style – friendly environment, and crazy good home-made gyoza. You can choose from about 15 different flavors or so, and we thought it would be a great idea to try them all. It was!

sushi in Tokyo
Sushi at Sushi Namba

There’s no other country that takes such care in the quality and perfection of food like Japan.

I’m really a spicy food, curry, full on flavor, kind of guy. But Japanese food is one cuisine that is so fresh, and so balanced, that little seasoning is needed.

Being on the best of Tokyo food tour with The Hungry Tourist was a once in a life opportunity and the meals were extraordinary.

NOTE: Thank you to The Hungry Tourist for inviting me to be a part of this tour. I didn’t pay for the food in this blog post. Check out The Hungry Tourist on Instagram and Facebook.

57 comments. I'd love to hear from you!

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  • vishal kaushik

    3 years ago

    Wow….Amazing article. You’re great guys!

  • sankar singh

    3 years ago

    nice blog post and amazing video

  • Elijah

    3 years ago

    I don’t know how you have created this much content. You’re amazing

  • Nischay

    3 years ago

    Tokyo Food! l just liked it! tenali raman stories

  • VapeSpring

    3 years ago

    Love your blog.

  • Subrato

    4 years ago

    Wow!! Just amazing. The photos must attract the food lover, as like as me.

  • Keiran Potter

    5 years ago

    I want to go to Tokyo so bad and seeing posts such as this has amplified that exponentially. I’m yet to venture over to the continent of Asia but I’m hoping to in 2020, if funds allow. To try the best dishes in every country seems like such a dream, you are definitely living it! Thanks

  • Vishal

    5 years ago

    Keep it up man.

  • Vishal

    5 years ago

    Its awesome. yummy….

  • Kendrick Kotter

    5 years ago

    Great Article!
    I am planning to come to Tokyo this summer and I am starting to read more about the food culture there.
    Keep up the great work!

  • Juan Ovalle

    6 years ago

    I’ll be in Tokyo in a few months and I would definitely be in search of that steak sandwich!

  • Daspalla Hotel

    6 years ago

    Hey markweins,
    you are so amazing person.I would like to thank you for this information.

  • Frequent Travelers

    6 years ago

    Looks amazing… the post reminds me of the movie “Jiro Dreams of Sushi”, about an 80+ year old Sushi chef in Japan who works relentlessly to perfect his craft… so cool.

  • Eating Adventures

    6 years ago

    What is the chef from Sushi Namba holding in the photo?

  • Andras Jokuti

    6 years ago

    Have you tried Ramen Kagari with the amazing tori paitan (creamy chicken)? A top place!

  • Andras Jokuti

    6 years ago

    Kentaro Nakahara is truly an amazing guy and his food is so delicious! I always start my Tokyo foodie trips with his yakiniku place!

  • Alice Teacake

    6 years ago

    Oh my this fooooood looks so good! I love how the Japanese strive for perfection in their food – everything is just so delicious. I’d like to go around Tokyo’s Shimbashi with the Tokyo Fixer to find some more of that gyoza 🙂

  • Gerry the Meat Smoker King

    6 years ago

    Japanese Steak looks soooo good! I wander how would it go in my offset smoker. I think it’s time to find out!! Thanks for the tip!

  • Jamie

    6 years ago

    YUM! I especially appreciate the featured photo – anyone who likes their meat that rare is a friend of mine!

  • Android App Development

    6 years ago

    Mouth Watering Steaks ! Made me Hungry again. These Delicious Delicacies are the reason why I am living on Planet.

  • Serhat

    6 years ago

    I get hungry each time i browse through your blog. Man! these things are delicious. Plus the vivid photos are making them almost real! Good post, thank you for the great share.

  • Gogotrip

    6 years ago

    Hye i have read your blog and found informative for tour related queries

  • Carine

    6 years ago

    Are reservations necessary for Shima Steak? If so, do we have the possibility to do it online? I’ll be in Japan in a months time. Thanks!

    • Danny Lau

      6 years ago

      Reservation is highly recommended. You can call them since they speak English. I used used Skype. The night I was there, a couple walked in without a reservation and the restaurant was fully booked, but they go lucky
      and got seated after a wait.

  • Ely Valendez

    6 years ago

    Fooooooodddddsssss!!! Thank you for sharing them with us. Now, I’m hungry! LOL.

  • Marianne

    6 years ago

    What an incredible collection of food! I love doing food tours when I visit a city, such a great way to get to know the culture of the place (and fill your tummy of course!)

  • Patti

    6 years ago

    The food looks amazing. I have visited the Tsukiji fish market but did not make it early enough to see the tuna auction. I would love to join a food tour next time I visit Tokyo.

  • Nikki Turner-Chaplin

    6 years ago

    Every time I read your articles I end up with a rumbling tummy!! The Sake Ramen look amazing!

  • Marty Rogers

    6 years ago

    My mouth is watering, damn you! That beef looks amazing.

  • Scarlet

    6 years ago

    It is so fun look at all your amazing suggestions. I was in Tokyo for a day when my daughter was 14 months and she wants to go back and see it again now that she is older and I want to go back and stay longer. I will pin this for our next trip!

  • Tim

    6 years ago

    Wow ! Japanese food seems awesome ! I’ve tried it various countries, but never in Japan. I have to go there ! Maybe next year 🙂

  • Ricky

    6 years ago

    Looks fantastic Mark. I’m going to Japan in the next few weeks too and want to try a few of those places. I note that they are hard to book. Did you have to book some of these? Any tips?

  • Emily

    6 years ago

    All the food looks amazing!! …except for the beef… but that’s just me, I hate beef 🙂

  • Randa

    6 years ago

    WE enjoy your YouTube’s.. SO MUCH

  • Chris Fabian

    6 years ago

    I’m salivating Mark! What would be the best way to make reservations for these restaurants? We will be stopping in Tokyo jan 31 to Feb 2nd before continuing to the Philippines. We must try Shona!

    • Chris Fabian

      6 years ago

      Shima*

  • Izy Berry

    6 years ago

    It’s past midnight and all I can think about is having a Kobe steak sandwich

  • Constance

    6 years ago

    Wow, I am speechless! First off, I love your photos. That Kobe looks SO AMAZING, that marbling looks so melt in your mouth! Secondly I’m so jelly of all the foods you had in Tokyo, I will definitely need to consult this when I go. Thank you for sharing!

  • Jill

    6 years ago

    The family run basement restaurant in Tokyo with the fantastic sirloin steak sounds like a perfect place for our family of 6 to visit. Your descriptions made me want to visit Tokyo right now! We are putting Tokyo on our bucket list for sure!

  • Justin

    6 years ago

    Awesome photos… shame you can’t really get TRUE Kobe in the U.S. Most of what they sell is something else entirely – have to go to the source, I suppose!

  • Penelope

    6 years ago

    Everything looks so delicious. Gyoza is one of my absolutely favorites. You’ve added a new destination to my bucket list.

    • Mark Wiens

      6 years ago

      Thank you very much Penelope, glad you love gyoza. Hope you can visit Tokyo soon!

  • Tikva

    6 years ago

    It is really nice to read an article about Tokyo and food that isn’t jut talking about the fish market. Unfortunatly I didn’t have the budget for kobo beaf but next time.

  • Cheryl

    6 years ago

    Thank you for sharing this with us! I really enjoyed watching your visit to the Shima Steakhouse. My family and I really love everything Japanese, so we’re trying to plan a trip soon, possibly next spring. I’d really like to check out some of these awesome restaurants! Look forward to seeing more of your videos!

    • Mark Wiens

      6 years ago

      Awesome to hear that Cheryl, and thank you for watching. Hope you and your family can visit Japan and eat some amazing Japanese food.

  • Victoria

    6 years ago

    It was difficult to find vegetarian food when we were at Narita, Kyoto and Tokyo a year ago. Sounds like you had fun. I’d go for the gyoza and the ramen (minus the meat and the sake) . They do look yummy. I like how they brown the gyoza and the ramen broth looks delicious.

    • Mark Wiens

      6 years ago

      Hey Victoria, thank you very much, that sounds delicious too!

  • Erin

    6 years ago

    Japan really does have exceptionally high-quality food – we didn’t have a bad meal during our recent two-week trip there. I love food tours but we didn’t do one in Japan as we’re vegetarian. We did manage to find some amazing places to eat though including vegetarian-friendly tempura, ramen, soba, and okonomiyaki. All so good!

    • Mark Wiens

      6 years ago

      Hey Erin, glad you found some amazing vegetarian food when you were in Japan. The quality, and care of food in Japan is always one of the highlights.

  • Daniel Cowen-Rivers

    6 years ago

    Lucky you got to go to Tokyo. I always wanted to go and the food looks lovey making me hungry.

    • Mark Wiens

      6 years ago

      Thanks Daniel, hope you can visit Tokyo in the future!