13 Best Restaurants in Beyond Central Tokyo, Tokyo

This small, friendly roastery and café in a repurposed warehouse across from Ando Gallery serves excellent espresso, flat whites, and cappuccinos, plus simple snacks like cookies and toasted sandwiches. There are some seats inside, but if the weather is nice get a drink to go and walk a few minutes east to Kiba Park; a lovely green spot to while away an hour.

Kamasho serves the signature dish of the old Fukagawa area, Fukagawa-meshi: short-neck clams and green onion cooked in a miso broth and poured over a bowl of rice. You can order just a bowl of Fukagawa-meshi or opt for a set with a side serving of pickles and miso soup. If you are really hungry, the largest set also comes with some sushi. There’s beer and sake on the menu if you want something to wash it all down with.

Located in a 120-year-old former merchant house on Ichibangai shopping street, this eatery is good for a quick snack on the go or a sit down lunch. It's known for its skewers of soy-basted dango (rice dumplings) and decadent parfaits, but also serves bowls of more filling somen noodles and udon noodles.

The culinary specialty of the Narita area is freshwater eel (unagi), and there are plenty of places to try it along Naritasan Omotesando. Close to Naritasan, Kawatoyo has been in business for more than 100 years, serving a classic called unajo, chargrilled eel slathered in a savory soy-based sauce and served over rice. Tradition says the dish is good at fighting fatigue. Because nothing is wasted, you can also order eel liver soup and deep-fried eel bones.

In business for more than a century, Toraya is best known for its skewers of sweet kusa-dango rice dumplings, which come topped with red-bean paste and are a popular snack for visitors on route to Taishakuten Temple. If you want to stay for lunch, you'll also find a more substantial menu, with ramen, udon noodles, and tempura on rice.

This specialty roaster now has several branches in Tokyo, including this small stand (with limited seating) near Naka-Meguro Station. The baristas here are extremely knowledgeable and brew up great espressos, hand-drip coffees, and lattes. As for the name, it's not a misspelling of omnibus, but a playfully unusual mix of oni (devil) and bus.

This microbrewery produces a core lineup of six ales and lagers in Daikanyama, which explains the large brew tanks you can see as you eat and drink. But this is not just a place to drink; the menu also features a good range of burgers, pizzas, and grilled meats. Helpfully, the food menu comes with beer pairing suggestions. They also brew seasonal and limited releases, such as an 8% Belgian “gran cru” and a 6.5% hop-heavy IPA. 

While you may or may not typically seek out Starbucks while traveling, this super-fancy Starbucks Reserve Roastery is especially inviting during sakura (cherry blossom) season. You'll be able to get sakura-flavored drinks like cream soda sakura (only available seasonally), and the second-floor terrace is a wonderful spot to view the blossoms.

A converted warehouse on the waterfront houses this restaurant, known for its grills, California-Asia fusions, and craft beers. Don't miss the wheat ale steamed clams, Thai-style gai yang chicken sate or the Indian spice marinated lamb chops. True to its name, T.Y. Harbor brews five of its own year-round beers (plus seasonal specials) in a tank that reaches all the way to the 46-foot-high ceiling. The best seats in the house are on the bay-side deck, open from May to October. Reservations are a good idea on weekends.

A family joint, Tonki is a success that never went conglomerate or added frills to what it does best: deep-fried pork cutlets, soup, raw-cabbage salad, rice, pickles, and tea. That's the standard course, and almost everybody orders it, with good reason—it's utterly delicious. Just listen to customers in line as they put in their usual orders while a server comes around to take it. Then go ahead and join in; the wait is only about 10 minutes, but the line continues every night until the place closes at 10:45.

This intimate counter-only sushi restaurant in Naka-Meguro’s backstreets serves omakase courses based on what the owner-chef sources each day from Toyosu Market, so you never know exactly what you will be served; just that it will be incredible. While fish takes center-stage, herbs and vegetables are also incorporated into Udatsu’s often modern take on sushi. Taking that a step further, there’s also a vegetarian sushi course (that needs to be reserved at least two days in advance). Like many sushi restaurants, opting for lunch rather than dinner will make Udatsu a far more affordable experience; though if you are going to splurge at night, this is one place well worth it.

This classic izakaya epitomizes the casual yet lively nights out of a down-to-earth district like Fukagawa. Opened in the 1950s, the four floors here include counter-only seats on the first and second floors that are ideal for watching and chatting with the chefs, and then tables for larger groups on the third and fourth floors. Wherever you sit, the focus is mostly on seafood, with the fresh cuts of sashimi (of whatever fish is sourced that day), especially good when paired with one of the sakes on the menu. The only challenge is ordering if your Japanese isn’t up to scratch, as the menu is handwritten in Japanese on the walls. However, this being Fukagawa, the friendly staff will find a way to get you well fed, even if that means pointing at other diners' dishes. Or you could ask for what they recommend (osusume wa nan desu ka?) and go with the flow.