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Tokyo
Asakusa:
Asadori: Just one street next to and running parallel to the Nakamise shopping street that spans the distance between Kaminarimon Gate and the Sensoji Temple is Asadori, a restaurant that specializes in Kamameshi, a Japanese dish that consists of seasoned rice with various ingredients cooked in an iron pot. Kamameshi is a delicious “one pot” (pun intended) dish that allows you to enjoy the flavors of the toppings (fish, meats, vegetables, individual to highlight seasonal ingredients or mixed for a pleasurable delight) along with the amalgamated flavors that results from the direct cooking of the covered pot, with rice and ingredients, over a flame. Some of the rice that has direct contact with the iron pot will be crispy and a textural delight while the rest of the dish is beautifully steamed and steeped in the cooking juices that emits from the ingredients within the dish. Wonderful to enjoy on all occasions! Reservation through Tabelog. No dress code but please do dress!
Asakusa Gyukatsu: Gyukatsu, or breaded and fried beef cutlet, is a delicious alternative to the better known in the west tonkatsu (pork cutlet breaded and fried). Asakusa Gyukatsu is well known for serving the Gyukatsu with a personal solid fuel fired flat top grill for you to finish the Gyukatsu to your personally preferred degree of doneness (the Guykatsu comes, post fried and sliced, between medium rare to rare). Dipping sauces and a cabbage salad, along with pickels, a generous bowl of lovely rice, miso soup, a wee saucer of mentaiko, and your dessert of mochi are served with the Gyukatsu as a dinner set. You can choose between different sizes of meat for your meal. There are 2 locations!! The first, and always mobbed, sits across the street from the famed Kaminarimon (Thunder Gate). The second location, much quieter and usually does not have a line, is located at Japan, 〒111-0034 Tokyo, Taito City, Kaminarimon, 2 Chome−18 ザシティ浅草雷門 2F. No reservations, no dress code but please do dress.
Denkiya Hall: According to Atlas Obscura, Denkiya Hall, a traditional Japanese Coffee Cafe, first started out in 1903 as a small electronic store before the Russo Japanese War (1904-1905) took their workers away and forced Denkiya Hall to continue as a cafe. For me, the draw was the fact that Denkiya Hall’s founder originated a very unique dish that i’ve never experienced or have seen on a menu anywhere else. This dish is the Omu-Yakisoba. It is like the famous Japanese omurice (ketchup and chicken fried rice encapsulated in an omlette) but the omlette in this case envelopes delicious, Worcestershire Sauce seasoned (like all yakisoba should be, IMHO), yakisoba. Their food menu is typical of traditional Japanese Coffee Cafes, western style (ham, egg salad, and butter) sandwiches, spaghetti Napolitan, and Japanese curry. The omu-yakisoba was simply unique and blew my mind! i am sad that i can not get the same dish again outside of Tokyo. Their curry is also very delicious, it was described as “mild but spicy” and until i tasted it, “mild but spicy” made no sense. After tasting it, i want all my Japanese curry to be “mild but spicy”. i also ordered their oden as it may well be my favorite Japanese dish ever, and it didn’t disappoint! Soft delicious daikon and fishcakes of many varieties in a light delicious dashi that warmed me immediately! NOTE: This restaurant, still family owned, allows SMOKING, like, as it happens, many traditional coffee house/cafe that we came across. No reservation, no dress code but please do dress!
Namiki Yabusoba: Since 1913, Namiki Yabusoba has been delighting the people of Tokyo with soba (buckwheat noodles), specifically, “juwari” or 100% buckwheat noodles. Like many Japanese restaurants, the restaurant serves a limited menu and, not surprisingly, they are all featuring yabusoba! There are 4 cold dipping soba options and 6 hot soba options. For the dipping sobas, soba-yu (the hot water produced after cooking of the soba noodles) is provided to mix with the dipping sauce (i understand it takes multiple days for Namiki Yabusoba to make their signature dipping sauce) to make a hot “soup” to finish the meal. For me, the stand out was the Kamo Namban, a bowl of dark, hot, rich, and ducky broth containing Namiki’s fantastic soba topped with slices of duck breast meat, a meatball of (a loose meatball or rough ground duck meat both lean and fatty that is just a delight to sink one’s teeth into and enjoy the explosion of that distinct ducky flavor and the soup that has infiltrated into the meatball itself), and a lovely handful of long cuts of green onion that has been cooked down. No reservations. No dress code but do dress. Two types of seating available, table and chairs or the raised tatami platform in the restaurant with low tables for a traditional Japanese experience (make sure you take off your shoes before stepping up please).
Takematsu Chicken Shop: They do have an IG presence that gives opening and closing information as far as i can tell. The “Chicken Shop” is a butchery that specializes in fresh chicken butchery and also sells cooked chicken in a variety of formats. Their yakitori chicken wings are sold per 100g (3-4 wings) and a by far the best snack, personally, i had in Tokyo. The sauce they use to grill the wings is packed with delicious flavor and the wings are meaty and moist. Looking through their case. all the chicken goodness were just mouthwatering inducing!! It is down the street from Denkiya Hall and the offerings are so delicious that, though stuffed from the oden and curry and omu-yakisoba, i still couldn’t resist the wings and regretted being too full to sample everything else! No reservations, take out only!
Unagi Irokawa (Hirokawa): This 14 seat 160 year old restaurant (this is the second location, where the restaurant moved to 80 years ago) has only three things on the menu. 1) Regular unagi (charcoal grilled eel) donburi (rice) consisting of 2 fillets of unagi, sauced with tare, over tare soaked rice, 2) Large unagi donburi consisting of 3 fillets of unagi, sauced with tare, over larger portion of tare soaked rice, and 3) Unagi neck skewer (has hard bones, essentially the head of the eel. Fair to say that if you are not a fan of unagi and rice, this is not the restaurant for you. However, if you are, boy are you in for a treat! The unagi donburi has sustained this restaurant (now helmed by the 3rd generation of operators) for 160 years for a reason. This same reason is why the restaurant can operate comfortably while only open from 1130 to 1400 (or earlier if the eel runs out). The eel is fluffy, tender, and delicious. The tare used here is light, not overly sweet, and allows the flavor of the eel and the rice to shine! No reservations are accepted, the line moves efficiently but there IS only so much space. Whilst in line, one can enjoy the smells of the unagi being grilled as the exhaust fan vents right onto the street! It is appetite inducing and invigorating indeed! No dress code but please do dress! English is spoken by the hostess/proprietress, who is also 50% of the staff of the restaurant (the other half being the brilliant obasaan who womans the grill so brilliantly!
Hamamatsucho