Place
Tokyo
東京都
55 items
● 47 born here(Abura Soba, Ajitsuke Nori, Anago Zushi, and more) / ● 2 raised here(Tokyo Shamo, Tokyo X) / ● 6 prepared here(Asakusa shichimi, Bettara-zuke, Edo amai miso, and more) / ○ 8 known for it here
Born here47
- Abura Soba油そばBesides shoyu, miso, shio and tonkotsunoodles tossed in oil and soy sauce, no brothNo broth is poured at all — noodles are tossed in a soy-and-sesame-oil tare pooled at the bottom of the bowl, said to have started at shops in the Musashino area in the late 1950s, with vinegar and chili oil stirred in partway through.
- Ajitsuke Nori味付け海苔sweet-soy seasoned toasted noriSheet nori brushed with a soy-and-sugar seasoning and toasted crisp, said to have been devised as a gift for an imperial visit to Kyoto in the Meiji era. Its snap gives way to a burst of flavor and aroma.
- Anago Zushi穴子寿司simmered conger eel sushi with sweet glazeConger eel, simmered sweet and savory, is laid over sushi rice and brushed with a reduced glaze called tsume — a staple Edomae topping from a fish that thrived in Tokyo Bay's nutrient-rich waters, its slick skin demanding a sushi chef's careful hand to clean.
- AnmitsuあんみつYokan and agar jelliescubes of agar jelly with fruit, beans, and bean paste in syrupCubes of agar jelly topped with red peas, sweet bean paste, and dark syrup. Said to have begun when a Ginza sweets shop in the early Showa era added its own bean paste to the simpler "mitsumame" — jelly and peas in syrup — marking a point where wagashi met café culture.
- Chanko Nabeちゃんこ鍋Soy-based & yosenabethe sumo stable's communal hot potChicken, napa cabbage, tofu, and more simmer together in broth — a hot pot born in sumo stables, said to date to the Meiji era, when four-legged meat like beef and pork was avoided since touching a hand to the ground echoed a loss in the ring. Former wrestlers still run chanko restaurants around Ryogoku, keeping their stable's flavor.
- Chuka Soba中華そばthe old Tokyo name for a clear soy-sauce ramen, from the earliest Chinese-noodle dinersThin Chinese-style noodles sit in a clean soy-sauce broth built on chicken and pork stock — a style traced to a Chinese restaurant that opened in Asakusa in 1910, said to be the pioneer of Tokyo's soy-sauce ramen, its old name 'chuka soba' still used by some shops today.
- Ebi Chiriエビチリshrimp in a mild, ketchup-tinted chili sauceShelled shrimp are finished in a thickened sauce that layers ketchup's sweetness over doubanjiang's heat — said to have been created by a Sichuan-born chef who softened Sichuan's ganshao xiaren to suit Japanese palates.
- Ebi Mayo PizaエビマヨピザPizzaEbi mayo pizza — shrimp in mayonnaise saucePizza topped with shrimp coated in mayonnaise sauce. Said to trace to the same domestically capitalized delivery-pizza chain founded in 1987, which describes it as a topping it developed before anyone else in the world, alongside teriyaki chicken.
- Edo SobaそばTokyo's soba noodle houses and their customsBuckwheat flour, kneaded with water and a binder, is cut into noodles served cold with dipping sauce or hot in broth — Tokyo's soba culture is anchored by three old lineages, Sunaba, Sarashina, and Yabu, each known for a different color of noodle, and by customs like eating soba on New Year's Eve for good luck.
- Ozoniお雑煮Edo Zoni — clear soy-based mochi soup with grilled mochiGrilled square mochi is topped with chicken, komatsuna, and other greens, and covered in a clear kelp-and-bonito broth — Edo's own zoni, said to have started miso-based before switching to a dark soy sauce clear broth once soy production took off in nearby Noda and Choshi in the Genroku era.
- Edomae-zushi江戸前寿司hand-pressed nigiri born as Edo street foodNigiri born at Edo's street stalls in the 1820s. Curing tricks for keeping fish — soy-marinated tuna, vinegared kohada, simmered anago under sweet glaze — became the craft itself, called shigoto.
- Fukagawa-don深川丼clam and miso rice bowlFresh clams and leek simmered in miso and ladled over rice, broth included, from Tokyo's Fukagawa district. Thought to have arisen in an Edo-period fishing town rich in clams, as a dish busy fishermen could eat quickly.
- Gunkan-maki軍艦巻きa nori hull built to hold toppings too soft for nigiriNigiri rice ringed on its sides by a band of nori, forming a wall to hold toppings too loose to sit on rice alone. Said to have been devised at a Ginza sushi shop in 1940, named for its resemblance to a warship's hull.
- Hachioji Ramen八王子ラーメンShoyu — soy saucesoy broth under a layer of chopped raw onionSoy broth strewn with chopped raw onion, its sweetness drawn out by the surface oil.
- Hayashi RaisuハヤシライスRice dishesHayashi rice — sliced beef and onion in a demi-glace-style sauce over riceSliced beef and onion simmered in a demi-glace-style sauce, ladled over rice. Said to trace back to a dish Maruzen's founder Hayashi Yuteki served to visiting friends, though the naming itself has more than one story.
- Hoikoro回鍋肉Japanese-style twice-cooked pork stir-fried with cabbage in a sweet miso glazePork and cabbage are stir-fried in a sweet, miso-like glaze — said to have swapped Sichuan's leafy garlic stems for cabbage, easier to source in Japan, and settled into its own form from there.
- Imo Youkanいもようかんsweet potato paste set like yokanSteamed sweet potato is mashed and worked with sugar into a paste set like yokan — said to have been devised in the Meiji era by an Asakusa potato wholesaler and a confectioner as an affordable stand-in for the pricier bean-paste yokan of the day.
- Jindaiji Soba深大寺そばTemple-town noodles once reserved for the shogun's tableSaid to have begun at Jindai-ji temple in Chofu, Tokyo, where tenant farmers paid rent in buckwheat flour that the temple served to visitors. In the Edo period it was even presented to the shogunate.
- Jisuke Imo no Negi Miso治助芋のネギ味噌steamed heirloom potato with scallion misoJisuke potato, an heirloom variety grown around Ogouchi in Okutama for over a century, is steamed and served with a scallion-and-bonito miso — named, it's said, for a man called Jisuke who took home tubers a bride from Yamanashi had brought with her, a crop suited to land too steep and thin for rice.
- Kaminari Okoshi雷おこしDry confectionspuffed rice and peanuts pressed into a bar with sugar syrupPuffed, roasted rice bound with starch syrup and sugar into a bar. Said to have first been sold as a specialty when Sensoji Temple's Thunder Gate was rebuilt in 1795, it is said to have settled in as a confection of the temple's approach.
- Kanpyo Makiかんぴょう巻きsoy-simmered dried gourd rolled in sushi riceKanpyo, dried gourd strips simmered sweet and savory, is rolled with vinegared rice inside toasted nori — a staple of Edomae sushi, said to have become an everyday roll once nori farming spread through Shinagawa and Omori and the paper-making know-how behind "Asakusa nori" made toasted sheets affordable.
- Katsu KareeカツカレーRice dishesKatsu curry — a fried pork cutlet served over curry riceA freshly fried cutlet laid over curry rice. Said to trace back to a Ginza restaurant that opened in 1947 and paired its own curry sauce with a fried cutlet.
- Kinpiraきんぴらburdock and carrot stir-fried sweet-savory with chiliJulienned burdock and carrot are stir-fried in oil, then finished sweet and savory with soy sauce and chili — named, it's said, for Sakata Kinpira, a swaggering hero of old puppet theater, his strength likened to the crunch of burdock long grown in Takinogawa, in what's now Tokyo's Kita ward.
- Kushi Dango串だんごskewered rice dumplings, four to a stickDumplings kneaded from rice flours are boiled and skewered, then dipped in red bean paste, sweet soy glaze, or kinako — the approach to a temple gate stall in Shibamata is a well-known spot for them, and Tokyo's sticks are said to run four dumplings each, one short of the five common in Kansai.
- Mabo Dofu麻婆豆腐Japanese-style mapo tofu, milder and often made with pork instead of beefTofu and ground meat are simmered in a thickened sauce built on doubanjiang and sweet bean paste — said to have been reworked for Japan by a Sichuan-born chef, who eased off Sichuan's numbing peppercorn heat and, later, swapped beef for pork.
- Monjayakiもんじゃ焼きa loose, watery batter scraped hot off the griddle with a spatulaWheat flour loosened with plenty of water, mixed with toppings and cooked on a griddle, then scooped up hot with a small individual spatula — a Tsukishima, Tokyo dish said to take its name from moji-yaki, a griddle-writing game kids once played with the same batter.
- Musashino Udon武蔵野うどんThick, dark noodles from the wheat farms of the Musashino plateauWith little water for rice paddies, the Musashino plateau grew wheat instead, and this udon became a dish served at weddings and funerals. It is dipped in a strong soy-sauce broth simmered with pork.
- Negima Nabeねぎま鍋Soy-based & yosenabetuna and leek hot pot, the original negimaChunks of tuna and leek are quickly simmered in a soy-based broth — a small-pot dish born in Edo, when today's prized fatty toro was considered a lesser cut too perishable to serve raw, and cooking it with leek became the fix. Yakitori's negima skewer is said to have inherited only the name from this dish.
- Noshikomi Udonのしこみうどんmountain-work udon rolled and dropped straight into the potFrom Okutama, Tokyo: udon simmered in a dashi of dried sardines and shiitake, seasoned with sake, salt, and soy sauce. It's said to have taken root as a meal households could serve quickly to men back from work in the mountains.
- Ogikubo Ramen荻窪ラーメンShoyu — soy saucea clear soy sauce ramen from a Tokyo shop rowA clear amber broth built on bonito and dried-sardine dashi with dark soy sauce tare, said to trace back to soba shops that switched trades and carried their stock-making straight into ramen, lifted by straight, medium-thin noodles.
- Okutama Wasabi no TOKYO-X MakiおくたまワサビのTOKYO-X巻きgrated wasabi rolled in TOKYO-X porkThe leftover root of Okutama wasabi, after it's been grated, is chopped and rolled in TOKYO-X pork, then pan-seared with soy sauce and mirin — a newer local dish, born from a 2011 cooking contest win by a group devoted to using Okutama's seasonal ingredients.
- Oyakodon親子丼chicken and egg rice bowlChicken thigh and onion simmered in broth, bound with egg, and served over rice. Said to trace to a Nihonbashi Ningyocho game-fowl restaurant, where diners began binding leftover hot-pot meat and broth with egg.
- Piza ToosutoピザトーストPizzaPizza toast — pizza toppings on thick-sliced breadA coffee-shop staple of pizza sauce, toppings, and cheese on thick-sliced bread. Said to have been created in 1964 out of the idea of standing bread in for labor-intensive pizza dough.
- Sakura Mochi桜もちbean paste wrapped in salted cherry leaf, Kanto styleA thin crepe-like wheat dough is wrapped around smooth red bean paste and finished in a salted cherry leaf — said to have been dreamed up by a man living at the gate of Chomeiji temple while sweeping fallen leaves off the Sumida riverbank, a treat that caught on with flower-viewing crowds.
- Seabura Ramen背脂ラーメンShoyu — soy saucesoy ramen finished with a shower of pork back fatSoy sauce ramen finished with a shower of minced pork back fat that keeps the bowl steaming hot to the last bite, a style said to have taken hold in Tokyo around the turn of the millennium as shops along the Kan-nana ring road competed with each other.
- Shima Zushi島ずしisland-style sushi with soy-marinated fishFish caught around the Izu Islands, tai and tuna among them, are marinated in soy sauce and shaped into nigiri with vinegared rice — said to have started as a way of keeping fish fresh out on the boat, and varying island to island since wasabi wasn't easy to come by, some using hot mustard, others a soy sauce steeped with island chili.
- Shokkara Jiruしょっから汁fermented mackerel-scad soup from the Izu IslandsMinced round scad is salted and left to ferment for about a month into shokkara, then simmered with island vegetables like ashitaba and taro — a soup centered on Mikurajima and shared across the Izu Islands, known on Izu Oshima as enbai-jiru.
- Sukiyaki (Kanto-fu)すき焼き（関東風）Sukiyaki-style (simmered in warishita)Sukiyaki, Kanto style — beef simmered in a sweet soy broth made aheadSukiyaki in which beef and vegetables simmer in a warishita broth mixed beforehand. It is said to descend from the gyunabe that spread through Yokohama and Tokyo, and its dividing line from the Kansai style is whether the seasoning is settled outside the pot or inside it.
- Tamagoyaki玉子焼きthick, sweet rolled omelet, Edo styleEgg beaten with dashi and sugar is cooked thick, with a bit of char, in the Kanto style — a contrast to Kansai's dashimaki tamago, which favors dashi over sugar and no browning; the teahouse Ogiya in Oji is said to have hand-grilled it this way since the Edo period.
- Tarako SupagettiたらこスパゲッティPastaTarako spaghetti — spaghetti tossed with salted cod roe and butterSpaghetti tossed with salted cod roe and butter, a wafu-style pasta. Said to have branched off from the wafu supagetti line pioneered by a Tokyo spaghetti specialty shop that opened in 1953.
- Teriyaki Chikin Piza照り焼きチキンピザPizzaTeriyaki chicken pizza — teriyaki chicken, mayonnaise, corn, and noriPizza topped with teriyaki-glazed chicken, mayonnaise, corn, and nori. Said to trace to a domestically capitalized delivery-pizza chain founded in 1987, which describes it as a topping it developed before anyone else in the world.
- Tokyo Ramen東京ラーメンShoyu — soy saucethe classic soy broth built on chicken and dried fishA soy-sauce broth built on chicken bones and dried sardines. Long called chuka soba, it is the baseline style.
- Tonkatsuとんかつbreaded deep-fried pork cutletBreaded, deep-fried pork served with shredded cabbage. Said to trace to a Western-food restaurant that opened in Ginza in the Meiji era, which took up the cutlet and added touches like shredded cabbage on the side.
- Tsukemenつけ麺Shoyu — soy saucethick noodles dipped in a concentrated brothThick, springy noodles are dipped into a concentrated soy sauce sauce built on sweetness and acidity, said to have started as staff-meal food at a shop in Nakano before being served to customers as an oversized, showy portion.
- Tsukudani佃煮seafood simmered dark in soy sauceSmall seafood — whitebait, nori, shellfish — is simmered down in soy sauce, mirin, and sugar until the liquid is gone, a preserve named for Tsukudajima, the island Tokugawa Ieyasu settled with fishermen brought from Tsukuda village in Settsu; using thick tamari soy sauce from Kishu is said to be what gave it its keeping power.
- Udo no Sumiso-aeうどの酢味噌和えblanched udo dressed in sweet vinegar misoUdo grown light-free in an underground pit is cut into strips, quickly blanched, and dressed with sweet vinegared miso — a Tokyo heirloom vegetable that took root in the Kanto loam soil around what's now Musashino, prized for its aroma and the mildness that comes from never seeing the sun.
- Yanagawa Nabe柳川鍋Sukiyaki-style (simmered in warishita)loach simmered with burdock and eggButterflied loach simmers in a soy-sweet broth with shaved burdock, then is set with beaten egg — an Asakusa dish that also comes as maru-nabe (whole loach stunned in sake) and nuki-nabe (deboned loach), the egg making yanagawa-nabe the mildest of the three.
Raised here2
- Tokyo Shamo東京しゃもthe fighting-fowl bloodline behind Edo's chicken hot potBuilt from a lineage of Edo-era shamo fighting fowl kept by Tokyo enthusiasts, with the cross reportedly fixed by the metropolitan livestock experiment station; said to be reared 120 days or more, nearly triple a broiler.
- Tokyo XTOKYO Xa slow-grown three-way cross bred by the Tokyo governmentA three-way cross of Beijing Black, Berkshire and Duroc, developed over seven years by Tokyo's metropolitan livestock station. Pigs are raised longer than usual before shipping, said to give fine-grained lean meat and fat.
Prepared here6
- Asakusa shichimi浅草の七味Edo's original seven-spice blend since 1625A seven-spice chili blend from a shop tracing back to 1625 in Asakusa's old Yagenbori district, often described as the origin point of shichimi togarashi. The neighborhood's history as a hub for medicinal-herb wholesalers is credited with shaping a blend informed by traditional Chinese medicine, and the shop is known for custom-mixing blends to order.
- Bettara-zukeべったら漬けdaikon pickled sweet in rice malt, a Nihonbashi autumn traditionDaikon salted first, then pickled sweet in rice malt and sugar — said to descend from a lightly pickled daikon once sold at Edo's ebisu-kō market. The rice malt gives it a natural sweetness, and it still headlines Nihonbashi's autumn "Bettara Market."
- Edo amai miso江戸甘味噌Tokyo's short-aged, deep-brown sweet misoA sweet, koji-rich miso said to have been devised to combine the umami of Mikawa's soybean miso with the sweetness of Kyoto's white miso. Its short aging and short shelf life — meaning it had to be eaten fresh — reportedly suited Edo tastes, and it now carries Tokyo's regional specialty certification.
- Fukujin-zuke福神漬けseven vegetables diced and steeped in soy sauce, curry rice's usual companionSeven kinds of vegetables — daikon, eggplant, lotus root among them — diced and steeped in a soy-based marinade. Said to have originated in Tokyo, it's best known today as curry rice's standard side.
- Izu Shoto Shochu (Shima-zake)伊豆諸島の焼酎(島酒)Sweet potatoIzu Islands shochu — shima-zakeImo-jochu made in Tokyo's Izu Islands, also known as shima-zake. It's said to have been introduced in 1853 by a man exiled there from Satsuma, who brought a still and sweet potato seedlings, and using barley koji — a response to the islands' scarcity of rice — is said to be its hallmark.
- Kohada no Awazukeこはだの粟づけvinegared gizzard shad cured with milletKohada, salted and cured in vinegar, is layered with steamed millet dyed yellow with gardenia — the fish is chosen for its status as an auspicious shusse-uo, a species that changes name as it grows, and the vinegar is kept strong enough to hold up packed in a New Year's tiered box.
Known for it here8
- Nigiri-zushi握り寿司hand-pressed sushi, the form that came to mean 'sushi' itselfVinegared rice topped with a slice of fish or other seafood and lightly pressed into shape. So central to sushi today that the word 'sushi' often means this alone, it's said to have spread as late-Edo street food.Tied to the Edo-era practice of curing fish from Tokyo Bay itself and serving it from street stalls — the place nigiri-zushi is said to have begun.
- Tempura天ぷらbattered and deep-fried seafood and vegetablesSeafood and vegetables battered and deep-fried. Said to trace to a Portuguese-style fritter that arrived in the 16th century, with the style that developed in Edo and the one rooted in Nagasaki differing sharply in how the batter itself is made.Against a backdrop of growing rapeseed-oil production and street-stall culture, the crisp, sesame-oil-fried Edo-mae style of tempura, eaten with a dipping sauce, is said to have developed here.
- Takuanたくあんsun-dried daikon pickled in rice bran, Japan's everyday yellow pickleSun-dried daikon pickled in rice bran and salt — the pickle most identified with the whole nuka-zuke family. Widely credited (among other accounts) to the early-Edo monk Takuan Soho, it takes a different shape in each region depending on the local daikon.Nerima daikon, notably pungent and slightly bitter, suited itself to drying, and Edo-period contract farmers there prepared daikon specifically for takuan.
- Tenshinhan天津飯a crab omelette set over rice with a sweet-savory starch-thickened sauceA crab omelette set over rice and finished with a sweet-tangy, starch-thickened soy sauce. No dish in China matches it, and it's said to have been born in Japan — though whether in Tokyo's Asakusa or in Osaka remains an open question.One account traces it to Rairaiken (founded 1910), where a cook brought in from Ginza is said to have answered a regular's request for something quick by laying crab omelette over rice and applying a sweet-and-sour, soy-based sauce adapted from sweet-and-sour pork, shortly after the war.
- Hiyashi Chuka冷やし中華chilled ramen noodles topped with shredded egg, ham, and vegetables in a tangy sauceChinese-style noodles are chilled in water and topped in neat rows of shredded egg, ham, and cucumber, then finished with a tangy sauce — a summer dish said to take its cue from China's liangban mian but to have grown into its own soy-vinegar form in Japan.The second-generation owner of Yosukocho Saikan in Kanda-Jimbocho is said to have taken inspiration from a nearby soba shop's cold noodles, running over 200 trials before completing a five-color 'ryanban-men' in 1933, its toppings arranged to evoke Mount Fuji and the four seasons.
- OmuraisuオムライスRice dishesOmurice — ketchup-fried rice wrapped in a thin sheet of eggButter-fried ketchup rice wrapped in a thin sheet of egg. Both a Tokyo Ginza and an Osaka story claim the origin, each tracing back to a dish worked out for a regular customer.A Ginza restaurant founded in 1895 says in its own history that it developed omurice and hayashi rice alongside breaded fried dishes like katsuretsu, becoming known as Japan's first yoshoku restaurant.
- Nihachi Soba二八そばsoba noodles mixed at a roughly 8:2 ratio of buckwheat to wheat flourA name said to denote either a roughly 8:2 ratio of buckwheat to wheat flour, or simply "Edo-style soba" more broadly. It is said to have entered soba's written history in the Kyoho era, though accounts differ on whether the name comes from the blend ratio or from an old noodle price, and no settled answer exists.The neighborhood is home to the founding shop of the Yabu lineage, one of Edo's three great soba houses, open since 1880 and said to have kept an 8:2 ratio as tradition. The area holds a shop carrying the Sunaba lineage's name since its 1872 founding, part of the same Edo-style soba tradition as nihachi.
- Dango団子Mochi and dangosmall balls of rice flour, steamed or grilled on a skewerA humble sweet of rice flour kneaded, shaped into balls, and steamed or boiled. Its prototype is said to date back to the Jomon period, when ground nuts and acorns were kneaded with water and rolled into balls — a form said to have taken root everywhere as an offering at festivals and rites.The Edo-period gazetteer Gofunai Bikou records a tea stall selling dango beside this slope, and the slope's name itself is said to derive from the dango shop — a place still associated with Edo's skewered-dango culture.
Food experiences here
- Shin-Okubo (Koreatown)Food townsOpen year-round (closing days vary by shop). Weekends tend to be crowded — visiting on a weekday can make for a calmer trip.
- Toyosu Market (Tours and the Marketplace)Markets & morning marketsThe visitor walkway and restaurant area are open on business days (closed days follow the market's annual calendar). Tuna auction viewing is said to require advance reservation — check before visiting.
- Tsukiji Outer MarketMarkets & morning marketsOpening days and hours vary by shop (Wednesdays, Sundays, and public holidays are common closing days). Mornings tend to be the liveliest time.
- Food Festivals at Yoyogi ParkFestivals & fairsDates and content vary by event (the park itself is always open and free to enter). Check each event's official information before visiting.