4 Best Restaurants in Fukagawa, Tokyo

An outpost of a New Zealand roastery, this small, friendly café serves excellent espressos, flat whites, and cappuccinos, plus simple snacks like cookies and toasted sandwiches. It occupies a repurposed wooden warehouse with indoor seating, but, if the weather is nice, grab a to-go drink and a slice of banana cake and walk a few minutes east to Kiba Park, a lovely green spot to while away an hour.

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.

Dating back to the 1950s, this classic izakaya is a casual and lively place, where the third and fourth floors have tables, and the first two floors have only counter seats that are ideal for watching and chatting with the chefs. The focus is mostly on seafood, which pairs well the nihonshu on the menu. The only challenge to ordering might be your language skills, as the menu is handwritten in Japanese on the walls. However, this being low-key Fukagawa, the friendly staff will find a way to ensure that you're well-fed, even if that means pointing at other diners' dishes. Or you could inquire what they recommend ("osusume wa nan desu ka?"), and go with the flow.