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@Home Café
Wanna walk on the wild side of Tokyo's fetish for kawaii (cuteness)? Try being served coffee by girls dressed as French maids! You'll be welcomed as go-shujinsama (master) the minute you barge into this café. The anime-esque staff, decked out in Victorian pinafores, is drowning in kawaii ; titillating, perhaps, but it's no sex joint. Maid cafés are where Akihabara's otaku (geeks) get their kicks. Dishes like curried rice are even topped with smiley faces. Seconds, anyone?
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Akiyoshi
If in the mood for yakitori, Akiyoshi is an approachable, ebullient place to partake. The open grill at centre stage ignites a festive, sociable space. The chefs work quickly to help move traffic along, but that doesn't mean you can't sit comfortably through several small courses and at least one conversation. There is no English menu, though ordering is simple with the picture menu.
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Asakusa Imahan
It's fitting that the original branch of Imahan, the city's most famous chain of shabu-shabu restaurants, is located at the heart of Shitamachi. While sitting at low tables on the tatami mats, you can get happy on sake while letting your meat and seasonal vegetables simmer away. Although it's certainly an expensive affair, a meal at Imahan is the most dignified way to enjoy this much-revered Japanese culinary treat.
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Birdland
Commanding legions of yakitori -loving followers, Birdland is something of a destination for anyone in need of some seriously gourmet grilled chicken. Although yakitori comes in all shapes, sizes, colours and organs, you won't have a difficult time ordering here - simply choose from one of several set courses and experience first-hand how many different ways there are to cook up a bird.
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Botan
Botan has been making a single, perfect dish in the same button-maker's house since before the turn of the last century. Sit cross-legged on bamboo mats as chicken nabe (鍋; meat cooked in broth in an iron pan with vegetables) simmers over a charcoal brazier, allowing you to take in the scent of prewar Tokyo.
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Christon Café
Irreverent in the most orthodox sense of the word, this cathedral-like izakaya fetishises the Catholic aesthetic and turns this dining experience into something your inner goth will love. Reservations are definitely required to feast on small plates to share with your brethren under gigantic altars and doleful images of the pietà.
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Dada Café
This retro café, which is housed in a 70-year-old tenement building straight out of the Shōwa Era, is a charming spot to reminisce about a Tokyo most of us have never known. While taking tea and noshing on immaculate spreads of honest Japanese cooking, take a moment to reflect on the Zen-like beauty of your surroundings.
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Echikatsu
Within the exquisite environs of a grand old Japanese house, take in the beautiful ambience with your sukiyaki (thinly-sliced beef, vegetables and tofu cooked in broth at your table) and shabu-shabu (thinly-sliced beef and vegetables cooked in broth and dipped in vinegar and citrus sauces). Many of the tatami rooms overlook small gardens. The staff don't speak English but will make a genuine effort to communicate; reservations are recommended.
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Gompachi
The Glien Passage theme-park is home to every conceivable type of restaurant, though this traditional izakaya gets top marks for its sweeping views and delicious robatayaki (grilled skewers). There is an English menu here, though with wafting aromas of roasting meats, chickens, fish and seafood filling the air, it's not necessary to look at a menu to figure out what you want to eat.
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Gonpachi
The Edo-village décor and festive buzz in the air makes Gonpachi a great place for celebratory dinners, but do you really need a reason to thrill your palate with half a dozen exotic and untried Japanese morsels? Upstairs, you can order everything on the menu, plus sushi. Book ahead.
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Ibuki
Ibuki is an excellent initiation into the pleasures of cooking your own sukiyaki (thinly-sliced beef, vegetables and tofu cooked in broth at your table) and shabu-shabu (thinly-sliced beef and vegetables cooked in broth and dipped in vinegar and citrus sauces). As they're accustomed to foreign visitors, they accept credit cards, have an English menu and host guests in a friendly and traditional atmosphere.
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Imahan
Upstairs from the huge Takashimaya Times Square branch of Tōkyū Hands department store, Imahan is all about beef. Apart from the house specialities of sukiyaki and shabu-shabu, Imahan serves such delicacies as fugu , marbled beef sashimi and scaled-down kaiseki dinners. Come with comrades, as this cookery is meant to be shared for maximum merriment.
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Inakaya
Once you're bombarded with greetings at the door, the action doesn't stop at this old-guard robatayaki (a place that grills food that goes beautifully with booze). It's a party, it's joyous, it's boisterous - and that goes for the profusion of toothsome dishes as well as the attitude one must have when the bill arrives. Live large!
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Ippūdō
Nationally famous, this rāmen shop specialises in tonkotsu (pork broth) noodles. While the akamaru rāmen (rich pork broth with red seasoning oil) is tailored towards the Tokyo palate, the shiromaru (milder, 'white' pork broth) is pure Kyūshū (grate fresh garlic over it for authenticity). You'll have to queue at peak periods and, as a courtesy, should take no more than 20 minutes to eat, but it's well worth it.
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Irokawa
Irokawa serves some of the best, most beautifully-grilled unagi (eel) around. Try the unaju (broiled eel on rice). The restaurant has a humble, traditional-looking exterior, with plants flanking the entrance, and is a friendly neighbourhood spot to try unagi with the locals.
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Isegen
From early autumn to mid-spring, this old Edo-style restaurant dishes up monkfish stew in a splendid communal tatami room. The rest of the year, when monkfish is out of season, expect the same traditional surroundings and a menu offering fresh river fish. Although there is no English menu, the communal surroundings mean that it shouldn't be too hard to point out what you want to eat.
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Izu-ei
Izu-ei specialises in unagi (eel), which you can take in two ways: in a bentō (lunch box) that includes tempura and pickled vegetables, or charcoal-grilled, sauced and laid on a bed of steamed rice, as unagi purists might insist. Try to get seated near an upstairs window for the best views of the large lily pads of nearby Shinobazu-ike. Although there is no English menu, there is a picture menu of sliced up eels to help you choose.
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Kado
If you haven't had the privilege of eating dinner inside a Japanese home, a meal at Kado is a close approximation. Housed in a Shōwa-era house built in 1950, Kado reveals a rare glimpse of what life was like in Tokyo prior to the economic miracle that transformed the capital in the second half of the 20th century. Dishes, which emphasise traditional Japanese recipes and seasonal produce, are enhanced by the incredible service and familial ambience.
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Kaikaya
This friendly izakaya is a little tricky to find, but once you're there you'll be rewarded by its friendly atmosphere and excellent, seasonal fish dishes that use fusion elements without losing too much of the food's essential Japanese strengths. Also, happily, this place has an English menu. Walking along Dōgenzaka away from Shibuya station, turn right at the police box and ask for directions.
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Kanda Yabu Soba
A wooden wall and a small garden enclose this venerable buckwheat noodle shop. When you walk in, the staff singing out the orders will be one of the first signs that you've arrived in a singular, ageless place. Raised tatami platforms and a darkly wooded dining room set the stage for show-stopping soba .
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Keika Kumamoto Rāmen
The Kyūshū-style tonkotsu rāmen (pork-broth-based noodles), is worth queuing for at this nationally famous rāmen shop. You order and pay as you enter; try the chāshū-men ( rāmen with sliced pork). There's no English sign, so look for the large, multicoloured cartoon mural of a chef and pigs on its exterior.
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Kisso
In a contemporary, urban-style setting, Kisso is doubtless the most accessible place in Tokyo to sample Japan's traditional haute cuisine , kaiseki ryōri , presented in gorgeous lacquer and ceramic ware. It's best to order omakase (chef's choice) and put your dining fate into the hands of the chef. Lunch is a great deal, but dinner will feel more serene.
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Komagata Dojō
The sixth-generation chef running this marvellous restaurant is continuing the tradition of transforming the humble river fish called the dojō (something like an eel) into various incarnations: grilled to miso-simmered to stewed. The open seating around wide, wooden planks heightens the traditional flavour.
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Kujiraya
We'll leave it to you and your dinner companions to debate the ethics of this surprisingly popular restaurant, which serves nothing but whale meat. Conservation, environmentalism and morality aside, there are few places in the world where you can sample whale sashimi, fried blubber and fin steaks, though you're going to have to leave your politics at the door.
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Kushiya Monogatari
The Tokyo branch of this popular Osaka chain specialises in kushiage, which are deep-fried skewers of grilled meats, fish and vegetables. For the bargain price of only around ¥2500 , you have up to two hours to fry up at your tabletop as many skewers as you'd like, though this is one of the few Japanese foods where it's probably best to go easy and consider your waistline.
