As defined by me, of course, so your mileage may vary. Eh, you get what you pay for. You’ll note that there may not be 27 great restaurants below. It depends how you count. I just note that everyone and their brother has a big post on ‘The XX Best Restaurants In Tokyo’ and it inevitably includes a bunch of chain restaurants and Roppongi-area hot-spots. Faced with that kind of foreigner laziness, I can’t help but make my own list. You should also look at the Tokyo izakaya list or the junk food page for more cool ideas.
Kakuuchi No one noticed, but I enjoyed making every sentence of the review start with a different letter, in sequence from A to O. A fun technique the breaks your standard writing patterns.
Matagi The only post I’ve written in Japanese, and a pretty funny one at that.
Kappabashi one, two, and three Trying to be useful to tourists for a change, as well as showing some fun things that even locals don’t often know. Hey, I made a Kappabashi 4: How to Buy a Japanese Knife.
The eel series: five days in August where I ate nothing but eel for lunch, all at places in Kanda. Mostly I think these are funny because of the lyric quotes at the beginning and end. To wit, Kametomi, Izumoya, Marusho, Izumoya (no relation), Tamai (anago; please don’t quibble, it’s good), and a special bonus at the really lovely Sasahana in Ginza, where I attempted to have a relaxing dinner on Saturday at the end of the week but was served eel three ways instead! In case you’re wondering, the no-relation Izumoya was the winner.
Pitman I know this blog is about Tokyo, but when I look at pictures of hoagies or cheesesteaks or calzones, I tear up a little. God DAMN that’s good food.
Yonemura I just think the photography is good in this one. Food wasn’t bad either!
Piatto Piatto This seemed funny at the time since I loaded it up with hyperlinkz, and it was hard as hell to find again, so I’m putting it here even though it’s not so funny in retrospect.
Merveille Just being my favorite restaurant doesn’t entitle it to a post, but a 3-hour lunch with a departing friend plus some really good photos does. Maybe this is a little less useful since the restaurant is closed now.
Hannosuke My first flame! I’ll always treasure 2the memory of the Canadian who went nuts when I deleted his previous comment along with the one-line temporary post it was on. The review was sorta funny too. And good tempura! In a really weird twist, this place is STILL tremendously popular in Tokyo, but there’s also a branch location in the Japanese supermarket in Chicago, and it never has a line. People don’t know.
Kikanbou is a delicious ramen, but I go back and read this post once in a while just because I’m so happy with my applications of the terms “evil, sentient lava” and “malevolent magma” to the thick, spicy soup.