Where to eat on a budget in Tokyo
Aug 29th, 2015, 09:36 AM
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Where to eat on a budget in Tokyo
Hi,
I'm going to Tokyo at the beginning of October and looking for ideas re the title, I'm travelling on my own am open to eating most things, am on a tight budget however around £100 for 6 days with 18 meals in total although thinking best bet for breakfast would be a supermarket trip for the basics?
Many thanks
I'm going to Tokyo at the beginning of October and looking for ideas re the title, I'm travelling on my own am open to eating most things, am on a tight budget however around £100 for 6 days with 18 meals in total although thinking best bet for breakfast would be a supermarket trip for the basics?
Many thanks
Aug 29th, 2015, 09:59 AM
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Japan is the least expensive first world country so your budget is ample. If your hotel does not provide breakfast, you can pick something up at a kissaten (coffee shop) for 500Y or so. Don't overlook McDonalds and other western chains--they are good for breakfast. Lunch and dinner can easily be had for under 1,000Y each at any neighbourhood or Japanese chain restaurant (Joyful etc.) serving simple food (udon, ramen, katsu-curry etc.). Combini (7-11, Lawsons etc) sell decent snacks, sandwiches etc. for 250Y.
Aug 29th, 2015, 10:47 AM
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My favorite breakfast venue was Doutor's - usually near a train station.
Also in the early evening the department store basement food markets usually mark down their take-away items. You can have a fine feast like that!
Also in the early evening the department store basement food markets usually mark down their take-away items. You can have a fine feast like that!
Aug 29th, 2015, 11:27 PM
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So £100 is currently around 19,500 Yen.
Let's round that down to 18,000 Yen and assume you have 3000 Yen a day for food.
That's actually plenty to eat well.
You are right that you can pop into konbini (the ubiquitous convenience stores that are on virtually every corner - 7-11, Family Mart, Lawson) for cheap food but do note that, like anywhere else, they are not as cheap as regular larger supermarkets. They're a lot easier to find though and still pretty cheap, but if you're near the supermarket, go there in preference.
You'll be able to buy onigiri (large rice balls with stuffings), sushi selections, bento box meals and of course a whole host of snacks like sweets, crisps and biscuits (aka candies, potato chips and cookies to our American friends), instant noodles, yoghurts etc.
A lot of konbini also sell one or more form of hot fast food ready-heated, very cheap and a few will even have seating space, though that's less common.
There are also a tonne of small inexpensive restaurants, both independent and chains, that will sell a filling meal for 500-1000 Yen.
You can look for the beef bowl places (chains like Matsuya, Yoshinoya, Sukiya etc, or indies), ramen joints (which will usually sell ramen, plus a whole bunch of sides), curry chains such as Coco's or for katsu with curry sauce and rice, or Buta Gorilla, another good chain for katsu, there was a tempura chain I wrote down but never got to, I forget what it was called. In all of these, you'd find filling options for 600-1000 Yen easily.
Depending on how much volume you eat, there are cheap conveyor belt sushi places where every plate is say 100-150 Yen, you could select the dishes that give you more pieces on a plate, I've stuffed myself in one of these places for 1500 Yen and I wasn't trying to avoid the smaller items (pricier ingredients, so less on the plate).
You have Japanese burger chains like Mos and Freshness. I also couldn't resist visiting a Burger King once to try their black ninja burger which was out at the time.
You'll be able to find cheap places everywhere but stations are a good bet, as this is where many Japanese commuters will stop and have a quick meal, often standing up but not always. Again, there are noodle places, ramen shops, curry places and so on.
You can splurge out on a picnic from a department store food floor but that would be fairly pricy, if you can find a supermarket that has departments for ready-to-eat food that'd be cheaper.
There are eat all you like chains, but they aren't as cheap, obviously. However, you could easily spend less than 3000 one day to have more the next day. We mostly did yakiniku this way, but was around 2500 per person.
The biggest expense in eating out is to order drinks with your meal. Drinks in restaurants were relatively expensive, we'd often order food that came to just 800 Yen per person but the drink was 400+. We weren't on such a tight budget but we often chose to just drink the free water or iced tea with our meal and then get drinks / coffee from vending machines or konbini.
You could probably get by with 500 Yen for breakfast, 800 for lunch, 1200 for dinner and rest for drinks.
By the way, Dormy Inn usually include breakfast buffet in the room rate and offer free noodles at night.
Let's round that down to 18,000 Yen and assume you have 3000 Yen a day for food.
That's actually plenty to eat well.
You are right that you can pop into konbini (the ubiquitous convenience stores that are on virtually every corner - 7-11, Family Mart, Lawson) for cheap food but do note that, like anywhere else, they are not as cheap as regular larger supermarkets. They're a lot easier to find though and still pretty cheap, but if you're near the supermarket, go there in preference.
You'll be able to buy onigiri (large rice balls with stuffings), sushi selections, bento box meals and of course a whole host of snacks like sweets, crisps and biscuits (aka candies, potato chips and cookies to our American friends), instant noodles, yoghurts etc.
A lot of konbini also sell one or more form of hot fast food ready-heated, very cheap and a few will even have seating space, though that's less common.
There are also a tonne of small inexpensive restaurants, both independent and chains, that will sell a filling meal for 500-1000 Yen.
You can look for the beef bowl places (chains like Matsuya, Yoshinoya, Sukiya etc, or indies), ramen joints (which will usually sell ramen, plus a whole bunch of sides), curry chains such as Coco's or for katsu with curry sauce and rice, or Buta Gorilla, another good chain for katsu, there was a tempura chain I wrote down but never got to, I forget what it was called. In all of these, you'd find filling options for 600-1000 Yen easily.
Depending on how much volume you eat, there are cheap conveyor belt sushi places where every plate is say 100-150 Yen, you could select the dishes that give you more pieces on a plate, I've stuffed myself in one of these places for 1500 Yen and I wasn't trying to avoid the smaller items (pricier ingredients, so less on the plate).
You have Japanese burger chains like Mos and Freshness. I also couldn't resist visiting a Burger King once to try their black ninja burger which was out at the time.
You'll be able to find cheap places everywhere but stations are a good bet, as this is where many Japanese commuters will stop and have a quick meal, often standing up but not always. Again, there are noodle places, ramen shops, curry places and so on.
You can splurge out on a picnic from a department store food floor but that would be fairly pricy, if you can find a supermarket that has departments for ready-to-eat food that'd be cheaper.
There are eat all you like chains, but they aren't as cheap, obviously. However, you could easily spend less than 3000 one day to have more the next day. We mostly did yakiniku this way, but was around 2500 per person.
The biggest expense in eating out is to order drinks with your meal. Drinks in restaurants were relatively expensive, we'd often order food that came to just 800 Yen per person but the drink was 400+. We weren't on such a tight budget but we often chose to just drink the free water or iced tea with our meal and then get drinks / coffee from vending machines or konbini.
You could probably get by with 500 Yen for breakfast, 800 for lunch, 1200 for dinner and rest for drinks.
By the way, Dormy Inn usually include breakfast buffet in the room rate and offer free noodles at night.
Aug 30th, 2015, 02:05 PM
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Last summer, we were in Tokyo for 7 days (our only trip to Tokyo), and we ate at expensive restaurants. However, interestingly, getting prepared food at the convenience stores (7-11, Family Mart, or Lawsons) was some of the most gratifying. Tasty, convenient, fast, and very inexpensive. I am not sure how their white bread on their sandwhiches is so soft and fresh. Also, we had a convenience store offer to heat (microwave) items such as dumplings for us.
