363 Best Restaurants in Japan

This delightful café-restaurant sits just south of the main drag between Harimaya-bashi and the castle. Choose a table by the window and people-watch on the cobbled lane, or head indoors to the quirky third-floor dining area. The cake, incidentally, is excellent.

At the northern end of the izakaya-lined Hoppy Street (a few blocks west of Senso-ji), this hip Scandinavian-style café serves up sweet and savory Norwegian waffles along with coffee made using single-origin beans. In the evenings, there are craft beers and cocktails on the menu, too.

This stately building just outside the gates of Zenko-ji combines a bar, lounge, café, and fantastic Italian restaurant. The rather formal modern dining room offers prix-fixe or à la carte options featuring high-quality local ingredients, while the bar and lounge serve up light meals in elegant surroundings and the café is a little more relaxed. There is no formal dress code, but the restaurant is something you'll feel like dressing smartly for.

Preparing wagashi (traditional Japanese sweets generally served with tea) since 1907, the main branch (out of six) of Fukagawa Iseya is less than a five-minute walk from Tomioka Hachiman Shrine. Popular choices include mitarashi dango (skewers of small rice balls covered in a sweet soy glaze) and daifuku (mounds of mochi filled with Hokkaido red bean paste). Unlike many other wagashi shops, Fukagawa Iseya has a small café next door.

Kamasho serves the area's traditional signature dish, 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 it or, if you're really hungry, a set meal with a side serving of pickles and miso soup or some sushi. Drinks ranging from beer and umeshu (plum wine) to shochu and nihonshu are also available.

In contrast to the expensive restaurants favored by tourists, residents seek out just-plain-folks places like this fun one. It's a late-night izakaya specializing in robata-yaki, which is to say it's a casual bar-restaurant with a charcoal grill and great selection of meat, poultry, and vegetable dishes. Here it's common to order several dishes to share. If no tables are available, find a seat at the long counter. The restaurant is two blocks north of Shijo-dori in the heart of Gion. Most dishes are ¥390, the drinks ¥450. The friendly men who work here enjoy using their broken English with tourists.

The estate of a former prime minister has been turned into a kaiseki (multicourse-meal) restaurant, and the stroll garden by landscape artist Ogawa Jihei ensures wonderful views by day or night. The century-old traditional structure, between the Kamo and Takase rivers, suits the delicate tasting courses served by kimono-clad women.

Popular with tourists and locals alike, this bustling Japanese-style restaurant in the heart of the Umeda area specializes in sushi but serves a wide variety of reasonably priced set meals, including tempura, nabe (hot pot), udon, and various meat dishes. Service is fast and efficient, ingredients are fresh, and ordering is simple using tablets with ample English.

Amid a sea of dilapidated buildings, thin-crust pizza specialist Garage 50 stands out for its retro camper van equipped with a brick-oven. Numerous toppings—from seafood to ham or chorizo—are available, and all the pies cost the same. The tomato sauce and wheat are imported from Italy, adding an extra layer of authenticity to the no-frills eatery. Seating is limited and all of it is outside, but takeout orders are also possible. 

For a half-century, crispy thin-crust pizza and tasty pasta dishes have been the mainstays at this tiny Italian restaurant in the Shian-bashi entertainment quarter east of Chinatown. From the Shian-bashi tram stop, head two blocks north into the arcade and one block west. It's on the corner.

This lunch-only restaurant not far from the Kabuki-za Theater has received a Michelin Bib Gourmand for its subtle take on ramen. The key is the soup, which foregoes soy for a light broth that takes inspiration from consommé, using vegetables, duck, chicken, and sea salt. The noodles are then topped with juicy slices of chaa-shu pork.

Located in Shibuya's Tokyu Department Store, Tenichi is an accessible and relaxed tempura restaurant. The best seats are at the counter, where you can see the chefs work and each piece of tempura will be served piping hot, directly from the oil. The restaurant's simple, brightly lit interior keeps the focus on the food itself. Choose from a selection of ten-don (tempura served with sauce over a bowl of rice) or tempura sets. The more expensive tempura meals are available at the counter only.

This intimate and upscale, yet friendly, tempura restaurant offers an omakase menu and wonderful service. Try the sake pairing to round off the meal, but make reservations because this is a popular place.

This good choice for seafood and sake offers can't-beat lunch deals. However, it's not all seafood, so rest assured that the Miyagi area, also known for its beef, is ready to show off. The place is very casual and also a great spot to sit at the counter and watch chefs at work.

The menu at this casual spot consists mainly of gourment thin-crust pizzas, homemade cheeses, steaks, and a good selection of wine available by the glass or bottle. There are also course menus with the option for unlimited drinks. Located in the Shimint building just across the road from the Peace Park, it offers a weekday lunch special that includes "all-you-can-eat fresh cheese and bread," useful if you wish to gorge on burrata, mozzarella, and mascarpone. 

The wooden walls of this rustic establishment are full of alcoves holding everything from dolls to farm implements to ancient jugs full of awamori (Okinawan sake made with Thai rice). Partially enclosed tatami-style rooms offer intimate experiences, while the beer-hall-style dining area in front of the stage makes socializing easy. There's live music nightly, and cheap, filling, delicious food. Reservations are essential in summer and around Japanese holidays. 

Traditional kaiseki ryori and pretty bento boxes are served at this restaurant on Route 21, near the entrance to Jochi-ji Temple. While the full kaiseki courses can get expensive, the lunchtime kaiseki taster sets are a very affordable way to try this refined culinary style. Most seating is at tables, but private tatami mat rooms are also available.

This seaside hall serves seafood as well as a huge variety of other foods from pastas to salads that can keep just about anyone satisfied. The soaring rafters are beautiful and the atmosphere is lively. Its spaciousness and conviviality are typical of Hokkaido and, although it's in a tourist complex, even locals like the wide range of seasonal specials from a menu that changes monthly.

Three tables and a counter make up this intimate restaurant specializing in fish from the Seto Nai-kai. Sushi is one option; another is mamakari, a kind of vinegary sashimi sliced from a small fish caught in the Inland Sea. Other delicacies are shako-ebi, or mantis shrimp, and lightly grilled anago, or sea eel. No English is spoken, but an English menu is available, and the owner is happy to help you order and instruct you on how to enjoy the chef's delicacies. Hamayoshi is on the main street leading from the station, just before the Kurashiki Kokusai Hotel. Unlike many restaurants here, it's open on holidays.

Dining at the Swissôtel's flagship restaurant is an elegant escape from the crowds of Osaka. The seasonal kaiseki dinners are presented with exquisite attention to detail, bringing out the flavor of each ingredient. The restaurant offers separate seating at the sushi bar, tempura counter, and even four private rooms. Choose from one of the seasonal set menus, or put your dinner in the hands of the skilled chefs. The staff are also happy to serve Kobe beef from Minami, the hotel's teppanyaki restaurant.

This eatery's kamitsumichi bento box, with a selection of sashimi, fried shrimp, tofu, vegetables, and homemade plum liqueur, is a bargain. Harishin is traditional and quite rustic. You sit in either a large tatami room overlooking a garden or around a large irori (hearth).

Having started as a street stall in Ogikubo in the late 1940s, Harukiya is now a ramenya (ramen restaurant) that often has patrons lining up along the street. The noodles are freshly made by hand every morning, come in a soy and niboshi (dried sardine)–based stock, and are served with a topping of chashu (roast pork).

At this all-you-can-eat buffet restaurant, offerings change with the season to highlight the freshest flavors the country has to offer. Options skew heavily toward Japanese favorites, and you can taste the quality in every bite. Weekends can get  busy, so it's best to come on a weekday at around opening time.

A short walk from the Imperial Hotel, the Hibiya branch of one of Yokohama's oldest and best Chinese restaurants commands a spectacular view of the Imperial Palace grounds from 28 floors up. Call ahead to reserve a table by the window. Much of the clientele comes from the law offices, securities firms, and foreign banks in the building.

Sushi restaurants can be expensive, but a rock-bottom alternative is an assembly line–style kaiten-zushi, where chefs inside a circular counter put sushi on plates color-coded for price onto a revolving belt, you choose what you'd like as it passes, and a staffer counts up the plates and calculates the bill when you're done. It's all about the fresh fish—and clearly not about the interior design—at this bustling branch of a kaiten-zushi chain opposite Omotesando Hills. The cheapest prices are reserved for staples like tuna and squid; you'll pay a bit more for delicacies like high-grade toro cuts of tuna and sea urchin.

Set riverside with fantastic views of Okayama Castle, this small café and restaurant is the perfect place to grab lunch or coffee when exploring the castle and Korakuen Garden. You can also rent a swan boat to paddle around on the Asahi River after your meal. Dishes include conger eel rice bowls, omurice, and ramen.

Perched on the 46th floor of the Carretta Shiodome Building overlooking Tokyo Bay, this seafood-focused izakaya is a nice escape from the chaotic frenzy below. Specialties include grilled fish and house-made tofu. As the name suggests, Suntory's highly rated Hibiki whiskey is also on the menu, along with wines and sake that pair well with the food.