363 Best Restaurants in Japan

In addition to its elegant decor, plush sofas, and outdoor patio, the lobby lounge at the Palace Hotel also offers one of Tokyo's best afternoon tea experiences, featuring both Japanese and European sweets; an extensive menu of unique, high-end teas; and several set-price options for tea and/or sweets. In the evening, cocktails take center stage.

A good option for lunch, dinner, or a quick bite smack dab in the middle of Inokashira Park, Pepa Cafe Forest cooks up Thai staples such as green curry, pad Thai noodles, and tom yum kung soup. Other Southeast Asian options include fresh spring rolls, Vietnamese coffee, and bottled beer. Don't miss the tuk-tuk casually parked in the corner.

This could be considered a drinking establishment, thanks to its wine selection and its surprising variety of mostly Belgian and craft beers, but its range of meat plates, tapas, and appetizers also makes it a great place for a full meal at lunch or dinner. It's housed in an unimposing building at the far end of Shinjuku Station's outdoor Southern Terrace.

Swing open the door to Pizza Salvatore Cuomo and you'll catch a rich aroma wafting from the wood-burning oven—the centerpiece of this homey, spacious restaurant. As with Cuomo's other branches around town, the chefs here adhere to traditional Neapolitan methods, while updating recipes with dough infused with spinach, herbs, and even squid ink. Lunch courses are filling, affordable (around ¥1,000), and quick. Though seating space is ample, expect a full house on weekdays. For dinner classic antipasto dishes such as Caprese make for an authentic Italian meal. Branches are found throughout the city.

A hip hangout on the fringe of Amerika-mura, Planet 3rd is perfect for a quick snack or a full meal. The food is tasty—consisting mostly of sandwiches, curries, and sweets—and the atmosphere is cool and laid back. The café serves breakfast from 7 am. The computers at the front are free for customers to use.

An adventurous menu sets this restaurant inside a 150-year-old town house apart from its competition. The chef here goes to the market daily and improvises based on what's fresh. Charcoal-color walls, wooden staircases, and a great view of the Kamo River provide an elegant setting for dishes like sea urchin in wasabi broth, grilled river fish, and the ever-popular kami-nabe, a hot pot made of treated paper and cooked on an open flame at your table: it's mesmerizing and tasty. Deck seating is an option during the summer.

Nestled along the atmospheric Pontocho Alley, this establishment's black-and-white latticed storefront with a lantern above the door conceals a vegetable lover's paradise. The dining area is raised with sunken seating, allowing customers to view the busy chefs in the open kitchen. For a survey of typical Kyoto dishes, opt for the Obanzai course menu. The cooks here bring out the flavors of local organic vegetables, fish, and meats with a conspicuously restrained hand, creating flavors so light they seem to float in your mouth. Suishin, meaning "drunken heart," is a popular chain with other branches around the city.

While Korean food might not be on your list for a town like Morioka, reimen—a dish of clear noodles served cold with a hard-boiled egg, watermelon, and a slice of meat—has become Morioka's signature dish. It is often served in a set with Korean-inspired items such as bibimbap (rice in a hot stone bowl, topped with pickled vegetables, ground meat, and egg) in this airy modern restaurant near Morioka Station. Evening meals feature meat you can barbecue at your table. You'll have to check in at a machine at the entrance and get a number before going in. Ask for help if you need it.

The mellow atmosphere at Raja is matched by the delicious Indian food. The restaurant is now in its second generation; the friendly owner-chef is the son of the reputed first Indian chef in Kobe. Among the home-style curries and samosas, vegetarians can find something delicious. Raja attributes the excellence of the tandoori chicken to using the highest-grade charcoal available in Japan. It's on the west end of Chinatown, near Moto-machi. Lunch is cheaper, but dinner sets are reasonably priced.

Here's a good spot to take a tea-and-sweets break while wandering the stone-laid streets of the Gion district. The house specialty is warabimochi, made from yomogi (steamed and pounded rice and mugwort). The sweet, which has a gelatinlike consistency, is served on a heap of golden kinako, toasted and powdered soybeans. The restaurant also serves ice cream along with other Japanese sweets.

Kaijin shows that ramen doesn't have to be rich and heavy to be satisfying. The shop specializes in a clear shio (salt) seafood-based broth that is both light and flavorful. Think of it as a more nuanced version of the soup in Hong Kong style wonton soups. Instead of the traditional slices of pork, Kaijin tops its ramen with freshly made seafood and chicken meatballs. The thin, chewy noodles, made from two kinds of flour, give the ramen just enough body without making it feel heavy. Expect to line up, but once you sit down service is quick and efficient.

After a long day of sightseeing there is nothing better than a hearty bowl of ramen, and this place is one of the best in Kyoto. Great choice of rich broths (pork, chicken, soy sauce, salt, miso), reasonably priced, plus there's an English menu. Don't forget to order the excellent gyoza dumplings too.

Inspired by the classic food movie Tampopo (1985), directed by Kyoto-born Juzo Itami, this ramen shop's soups are well made and satisfying. The restaurant, part of a chain from Hokkaido, is well located, even offering a view of a rock garden.

Japan enjoys a special reputation for its lovingly raised, tender, marbled domestic beef (Wagyu), and if your budget can bear the weight, Rangetsu serves excellent dishes with this beef as a star ingredient. Try the signature shabu-shabu or sukiyaki course for a primer. Although dinner can damage the wallet, there is also a good variety of lunch sets available for a third of the price.

After a short walk down a narrow alley from Omotesando Crossing, diners squeeze into this cozy bistro, perch on tiny antique school chairs, and order from the daily recommendations (mostly in Japanese) chalked onto blackboards—ignoring the ever-changing printed menu. Specials lean toward French-accented comfort food. Dinners can be pricey; lunches are about a third of the price.

Best known for its steaks, this attractive Kurashiki-style restaurant has been in business since 1909. Kiyutei sits right at the end of the tree-lined Kurashiki River; the entrance is behind a gate across the street from the entrance to the Ohara Art Museum.

The best in Kyoto-style nouvelle cuisine is served in this intimate spot in the center of town. Dishes depend on the chef's whims as much as on what's in season, but the menu might include buttery, risotto-like rice pilaf topped with delicate sea urchin; duck meat and foie gras in bite-size portions; and hors d'oeuvres such as oyster gratin, crab-and-scallop stew, and wild mushroom tempura. The fruit and vegetable salads are exceptional, and for dessert there's a take-all-you-want dessert tray with tarts, tortes, and pastries. With notice the chef will even grant special-order requests.

Seasonal delights like pungent Matsutake mushrooms are packed into the take-out bento (box lunches; from ¥2,000) and more indulgent eat-in courses at this traditional eatery, which has an open-air terrace and a glass-walled interior. A few blocks southwest of Zenko-ji, it's attached to the sake factory and warehouses of the famous distiller Yoshinoya. From 9 to 5 you can tour for free, ending with a sampling of fresh sake.

Try it for yourself and you'll see why people come here from all over Honshu for a cup of the ringo no reisei supu (cold apple soup topped with crusted baked apple skins). The totally organic "miracle" apples that farmer Kimura raises and the dishes chef Yamazaki prepares keep attracting customers. The restaurant's cuisine leans toward the French with a bit of local color, hence all the apples. 

The huge darkened beams and white plastered walls of the former farmhouse this Italian restaurant occupies create a sophisticated rustic atmosphere, known as wabi, the Japanese love. A kimono merchant moved the structure here from Nara a generation ago. The set menu changes with the season and sometimes the month, but from simpler pasta courses to more elaborate meat and fish dishes, the food is always fresh, flavorful, and skillfully presented.

The Roastery serves up some good single-origin coffee. Tucked away along Cat Street, a shopping street connecting Omotesando to Shibuya, it offers outdoor seating, giving you a place to watch the shoppers stream by.

Off a main shopping street, one of Shimokitazawa's many curry shops has a cute entrance, table seating, and a couple of counter seats so you can watch the cooks at work. Unlike most Japanese curries, those served here tend to be heavy on the vegetables. You can also customize the spices and toppings to make your own curry. 

Satisfying the need for light, healthy food that is neither raw nor fried, this airy but rather nondescript bakery and café in the ultra-trendy Dover Street Market serves up a tasty selection of salads, quiches, vegetables, and other deli-style dishes. Although the interior's rows of tables and blank white walls can feel a bit too much like a hip reinterpretation of a school cafeteria, Rose Bakery is a good bet for a quick lunch or pastry while out wandering the Ginza area.

Tokyoites love unique dining experiences and their own history—they can revel in both in this eatery, which is a tribute to Ryoma Sakamoto, a young hero who died while helping overthrow the feudal Tokugawa Shogunate in the 1860s. When you enter from the ultramodern streets of Shinjuku, slide off your shoes, stash them in a wooden locker, and walk by a statue of the sword-wielding Sakamoto as you step into the Japan of the past. You can sit in the main dining hall, which resembles a bustling historic inn, or you can phone ahead to reserve a private tatami-mat dining room. The cuisine also harkens back to the traditional rural cooking, popular before Japan opened up to the West. The house specialty is seiro-mushi, a bamboo box filled with carefully arranged seafood, poultry, or meat, steamed over a pot, served piping hot, and quickly shared with everyone at the table.

On the south bank of the Saigawa River close to the Sakura-bashi Bridge, this refined restaurant serves Kaga specialties. Dinner in a private room overlooking the garden is a splurge but worth it. In traditional Japanese style, the meal finishes with rice, pickles, and soup; in autumn the broth is clear, with herbs and a shrimp dumpling. If you want to experience the food without the high price of dinner, lunch sets start at half the cost of dinner. It's a fancy place, so you'll want to dress up a bit, and you'll need a reservation at least three days ahead.

Sagoro will serve you a full dose of some outstanding Yonezawa and Yamagata beef. It will be difficult to forget the beef's impossible tenderness. Although most dishes are pricey in the evenings in this sophisticated, upscale setting, there are some real bargains at lunch.

This lively izakaya on a corner of Hoppy Street's main intersection, a few blocks west of Senso-ji, gets consistently high reviews. Take your pick between the indoor and outdoor seating, then order a chilled beer or some sake to go with the classic izakaya fare on the English menu—perhaps starting with some grilled Atka mackerel or green peppers stuffed with miso-flavored minced beef, before trying the more acquired flavor of the raw beef heart.

With more than 100 varieties of sake from all over Japan, Sake no Ana (literally, "the sake hole") has a sake sommelier who can help you make a selection. Though most sake-specialty restaurants are open only for dinner, this one is also open for lunch, and the food is classic izakaya fare. At lunchtime there are hearty donburi dishes, large bowls of rice topped with seasonal sashimi or beef simmered in a sweet soy broth.

At this restaurant specializing okonomiyaki (a savory pancake made with egg, meat, and vegetables), you choose the ingredients and cook them on the teppan (grill) yourself. Flipping the pancake can be challenging—potentially messy but still fun—and, fortunately, you're not expected to wash the dishes. Unlike at most Okonomiyaki joints, you can experiment with your own recipe or opt for one of the house specials such as sakurayaki (with pork, squid, and onions).

This café between Hisaya-odori and the Science Museum is as hip as it gets in Nagoya. It combines a second-floor street-fashion boutique, with a minimalist first-floor café, where you can pick up a good espresso or latte along with doughnuts, cake, and cookies.