That was a fun GTG at Gonpachi, HT! We always have good luck in that area and the adjacent area behind the B Hotel; so many little (and large) restaurants to choose from. When are you going next?
[PS. HT--Were you at 3660 tonight, HT? We almost went, but just couldn't get motivated enough!]

I do like Gonpachi. I ate there when I was in Tokyo in 2015. The food is surprisingly good, but it's very touristy, so it may not be what the OP is looking for. You do have to make a reservation a few days in advance.

Yes we did go to 3660 last night lcuy haha. They are having their 26th anniversary and 30% off any bottle of wine lol. Ken and Jackie dropped in on us there last week. Was great to see them again. They are in Tokyo today btw....true fodorites.

Aloha!

Good to see you posting, HT. Please give our love to Ken and Jackie when you see them!

Great to see you up and ready to post again Kathie. Will give your love to Ken and Jackie when we see them soon.

Aloha!

CannonSj: Are you totally set on The Palace? I ask cause there are certain concierges who have reputations for being able to get guests into hard-to-book tables. Some of these will take bookings only on the first day of the month prior to the desired date. If you are totally set on a couple of restaurants, it might be worth asking around or even reaching out to one of those concierges. If they could help you, would you consider changing hotels? There is lots of chatter on this topic on more food-focused forums. Again, I still think that this is one city where the standard is so high that you will be pleased at many alternatives, but if you are so deadly set, there still may be a way....

I second questioning the hotel choice. While there are almost certainly some places that prefer to not serve foreigners (and a few that don’t take reservations from concierges at all), I find it hard to believe the concierge if that is the excuse for everywhere you asked about. If they didn’t offer reasonable alternatives then I’d definitely question if it is the concierge and not the restaurants.

Depending what level of places you are looking for, try Pocket Concierge.

For high-end sushi, while I understand Jiro can be a curmudgeon (and dinner is FAST), his younger son couldn’t be nicer, so that is an option. Sawada is also great (he is a big baseball fan if you want to break the ice). Taku is also good and they have English-speaking chefs.

We were in Tokyo two years ago and got reservations at Jiro's son's place for lunch (comparatively reasonable) through the govoyagin.com site, after our concierge said it was booked when we emailed him about a month prior to our visit. You have to pay in advance, but it was worth it for the experience and hanging with the chef. Booked Inakaya West through our concierge (celeb robatayaki spot, food is awesome and the prep is like performance art...go with a group - could be the most fun I've had in a restaurant). On another trip we booked Seryna (wagyu) through a concierge, and Gonpachi through Amex Platinum, when both of those places were tough tickets.

We're going back again in March and I'll be getting together a list soon, if anyone has suggestions. I think being spontaneous works some of the time, but Tokyo is one city where it pays to pull strings.

Great that you saw Ken and Jackie!!! :) They have been on my mind. I think I last e-mailed them last year. I'll have to e-mail them again soon. We need to plan another, mini dinner in Honolulu and hopefully they will be back in Honolulu then.

Happy Travels!