Restaurant Recommendations in Tokyo

Wow! I love the food in Tokyo. I don’t just mean Japanese food. You could get some of the best Italian, French, Indian, Thai…you name it in Tokyo. Everyone in Tokyo is a foodie. They really care about their food; the taste, the presentation and the source of the food. They love food over there and I appreciate that!

Of course when you are travelling with children, you can’t always eat at the high end restaurants (plus it will drain your bank account quickly). Here are some kid friendly places and some high end eateries we enjoyed on our trips to Tokyo.


Shabusen

On our most recent trip to Tokyo in 2010, we had dinner twice at Shabusen. It is a chain restaurant that serves shabu shabu. The location that we visited was about a 5 minute walk from the Roppongi main intersection. The attraction of Shabusen? It is kid friendly. You can have your own room (or maybe they put you in private tatami rooms if you have kids - can't tell). Regardless, nice to be able to stretch out and not have to worry too much about the kids' behavior. You can choose from different levels of all you can eat shabu shabu (prices differ on quality of meat). It's relatively healthy, as long as you don't gorge on too much meat. It's entertaining for the kids to cook their own food. The restaurant is clean, Japanese in style and I think a good value. The cheapest all you can eat dinner is JPY 4200 per person if I remember correctly.

Katsukura
This is an amazing tonkatsu (fried pork cutlet) restaurant chain. There are at least 4 branches in the Tokyo Area and 24 branches in all of Japan. It’s the best tonkatsu we have had (and I have tasted a lot since I grew up in Japan). I am recommending this place because of its excellent food and also because it is kid friendly.

We visited branches in Roppongi Hills (03) 5772-3321 and in Shinjuku (03) 5537-2891. The one in Shinjuku is a bit cramped but the one in the Hills feels more spacious (and obviously a 5-7 min walk away from where we were staying). Set meals can be ordered for about ¥1100. It comes with the choice of size and quality of pork or seafood, rice, soup, cabbage and pickles. I like this place because the kids actually like the food and also can participate in the ‘prep’. The restaurant provides small individual mortar and pestle to grind the sesame to put in the tonkatsu sauce (kids love it). You can have as many helpings as you can eat of cabbage, rice, soup and pickles. It also had a kid’s menu but it’s better to order off the adult menu (kids menu included fried burger…). On top of the food, we found the service and the wait staff to be very friendly and patient.

On our last visit to Tokyo in 2009, it seemed the Roppongi Hills location had closed. Too bad. Here is a link to the locations in the Tokyo area but it is in Japanese…

http://www.fukunaga-tf.com/katsukura/shop/kantou.html

Tsurutontan
Our first meal back in Tokyo this summer was at Tsurutontan, an udon shop. The location in Roppongi is one of many in a chain started in Osaka I believe by a Japanese celebrity. In terms of kid-friendly quotient, it’s high mainly based on the food (not on the service, which is just OK). Udon is a thick white wheat noodle often served in broth. Our girls love it! The restaurant offers something like 40+ varieties. The girls liked the tempura, meat udons. I really liked the fish roe udon. There is something for everyone and the price ranges from ¥680 to about ¥1800. It is very popular so you will have to wait long if you go at peak hours.

http://www.tsurutontan.co.jp/roppongi/index.html

Crayon House
What a find! and in the middle of chi chi Omotesando. Crayon House is a wonderful treasure trove of books, English and Japanese, for the kids. In the same building, the second floor houses natural wooden toys, and the third floor carries magazines and health related items geared towards moms. At the basement level there is a natural organic restaurant to boot. It offers a lunch buffet. The food is usually simple but it’s so nice to find a place that serves healthy meals and is kid friendly. I liked it a lot but our girls didn’t seem too impressed. My girls preferred Jonathan’s with the buzzer on the table. Who cares about the quality of food when you can push a big button and have a real live person come running to your table???

http://tokyoq.com/weekly_updates/tqoole/crayon.html



Tsunahachi
Tsunahachi is my favorite tempura restaurant. You cannot get tempura like Tsunahachi’s is the US. The stuff you eat here…is pretty bad. You will know what I mean after you’ve had tempura at Tsunahachi. It’s main branch is in Shinjuku, behind Mistukoshi and Marui department stores. I recommend sitting at the counter and it’s a fun plae to take the kids. You can watch your tempura being made right in front of you and the chef serves the freshly made tempura as soon as it is done cooking. The set meal usually comes with rice, pickles and miso clam soup. Our younger daughter loved the clam soup and could not get enough of it. She also ate lots of pickles, pretty much polishing off everyone’s. The girls both loved the shrimp tempura. Vegetarians need not despair. You can order an all veggie course.

http://210.143.110.172/locat/index.html

Ony Onigiri Cafe
The kids were jet lagged and hungry and they wanted their dinner at 9:30am and wanted to go to the bathroom. We stood in the middle of Aoyama and spotted Ony. It looked inviting and the man behind the counter was so nice. He let us use the bathroom and this was before we thought of eating there.

Onigiris are rice balls stuffed with various fillings – salmon, pickles, tuna etc…and the rice balls are wrapped in nori. Ony also serves noodles in hot soup. The girls didn’t much care for the rice balls – although I love them – but they really liked the noodle soup. We ended up ordering 3 bowls because after each bowl the girls wanted more. This is a cheap, clean and fairly tasty (for what it is) place for a casual meal in the middle of uber trendy Aoyama. After onigiri you can stop by Dean and DeLuca’s Aoyama Café and indulge in green tea and chocolate doughnuts.

http://www.ony.jp/shopinfo.htm

Sushi Zanmai
There are quite a few branches of this Tsukiji sushi restaurant. Two of them are minutes away from Roppongi Intersection, right on the main streets. If your kids like sushi – great! But you can also order grilled fish and a few other cooked items from the menu.

Jonathan’s
It has an English name but I think it is very much a Japanese creation. It’s a great place for a meal with the kids after hours spent at Kiddy Land. Jonathan’s is located at the intersection of Omotesando and Meiji Dori, on the same side as Kiddy Land, right above a fast food burger place.

The food is Japanese interpretation of Western food. Kids liked it and we liked it too. What the kids really liked were the bells/buzzers placed on each table. The wait staff comes running when you push the bell. Our kids made the wait staff work quite a bit! Great casual, clean and inexpensive option for lunch or dinner.





Napule
Napule is an Italian restaurant with a beautiful terrace overlooking Midtown park. A welcome bit of greenery and open space in Tokyo! The pizza tasted very much like Delfina’s pizza in San Francisco. It was really good. Our waitress was a super nice girl and an alumna from my high school in Tokyo to boot! Of course, she was so much younger than me! She was very cute. We had such a pleasant evening…nice temperature, nice view and great pizza. I didn’t know until after we ate there that the chef won the 2008 Naples best pizza award! The pizza really was good!!

http://metropolis.co.jp/dining/dining-diary/napule/

Erawan
Erawan, a Thai restaurant with a view at ROI building in Roppongi is a fabulous option for dinner. We all ate too much, but that’s always the problem with a buffet. You can order a la carte but it was too tempting not to go for the buffet. Plus, with kids, buffets are the way to go. No one has to wait for food, the kids are happy they get to get up from the table (often), they feel empowered choosing their own food and everyone is happy! We were all very pleased; decent food, nice ambiance and great view. My favorite dishes were the different salads and appetizers. I had so much mango for dessert. That alone made the meal worthwhile. I have to thank my sister’s friend for the recommendation…this was a good one!

http://www.gnavi.co.jp/gn/en/g038502h.htm

Wolfgang Puck
The girls got tired of Japanese food (can’t believe it!) and so we headed to Puck’s for pizza etc. This location is very close to Roppongi Crossing and there is another newer nicer one in Roppongi Hills.

Kaiten-sushi, Tsukiji Honten
Our destination was the ¥100 sushi restaurant in Shibuya. (It is no longer ¥100 but ¥120 or so but still very cheap. ¥2040 for the two of us and we ate a lot.) It is famous because of its fresh seafood procured daily from Tsukiji. There is always a long line. The restaurant also imposes a time limit. I think it also has a minimum number of plates per customer but that’s not a problem at all for my husband and me. It’s good sushi for a ridiculously low price! We went back 2 days in a row! We didn’t take the kids to this place…but I think it would be OK. Our girls are usually entertained by all the plates going around on the conveyor belt.

http://www.youlinchng.com/experiences/kaiten-sushi-experiences?navcat=62

Toraji
Based on a recommendation from a friend, our family, my sister’s family and our mom headed to Toraji, a yakiniku place, for dinner. Yakiniku is grilled meat. In general, I like it and could be a fun place for a family with kids. However, for our carnivorous family, especially my growing nephews, 7 and 5, this place turned out to disastrous. There was very little meat and what meat there was, was very fatty. Meat is so expensive in Japan not the kind of place to take our kids who wanted to polish off $100+ worth of meat. We will not go back. Adults with small appetites, feel free to check it out.

A related story, I wanted to try Inakaya, which is known as a robataya, a different sort of a grill restaurant. I get both families together and we walk to it. The place is full of character and looks really fun. Then we looked at the price list and my sister saw that 1 skewer of beef (all of 3 cubes) would cost 4700 yen! That’s like $53 for 3 cubes of meat!! Her boys, especially like meat, and they would not have been satisfied with skewers of cheaper veggies. Embarrassed but determined not to go bankrupt, we got up and left. The servers were so nice!! One of them actually took us to a nearby yakitori restaurant which serves grilled meat on skewers for a more reasonable price of $3 per skewer.

http://www.liveworkexplore.com/tokyo/residents/going-out/restaurants/korean/toraji

http://www.frommers.com/destinations/tokyo/D39024.html

Shunbou
My husband and I had an amazingly relaxing and delicious lunch at the Grand Hyatt’s Japanese restaurant, Shunbou. The atmosphere was serene (particularly so without our girls), in a sea of granite and wood. The service was impeccable. We had incredibly tender grilled beef over rice, miso soup and chawan mushi. We also got to eat lunch with a Japanese celebrity, Kiichi Nakai…OK, not at the same table, but…I could see him clearly 3 tables or so away…this restaurant is highly recommended, however…

Do not eat at Fiorentina Pastry Boutique. My husband decided to treat the girls to some patisserie at the Hyatt, wrong move. The pastries were OK and very overpriced. Not going back!

http://www.tokyo.grand.hyatt.com/hyatt/hotels/entertainment/restaurants/index.jsp#4336

Nobu
Dinner at Nobu Tokyo was my first Nobu experience. Although the dining room is more than half empty when we were there, we had a great time. This was Nobu’s week to be in Tokyo. I spot him across the table and he looks at us and smiles. Nice…

Our Omakase course consisted of:
• Monkfish pate with caviar in a too sweet sauce
• New style salmon sashimi with sesame oil on gelatinized seaweed bed
• Grilled scallop and bonito sashimi salad with Matsuhisa dressing
• Soft shell crab spring roll
• Fillet of Japanese beef with vegetables
• 5 pieces of sushi
• Apple compote with berries in sherbet and red wine tea sauce and Mango pudding with gelato

It was well worth JPY 12000. Umeshu, plum wine, was good too.

http://www.nobutokyo.com/e_index.php

Morimoto
We had a hard time finding the place but it was worth it. Initially we thought of having teppanyaki but opted for sushi thinking all that meat would be too heavy. It was the right choice. We sat at the sushi bar and had the best sushi ever! (The restaurant is on different levels and the lower level houses the teppanyaki dining room.)

From what I can remember:
• Tori kai (bird clam – which the chef slapped on the counter until it swelled up)
• Wild salmon and a white fish
• Toro grated in a wooden box with caviar, wasabi, sour cream, greens, crackers etc
• Chawanmushi – the best I have had with crab and lobster
• Soup
• Grilled fish – I don’t remember what – chicken burrito – that’s what it sounded like
• Plate of nigiri sushi – eel, aka kai, toro, some famous fresh shrimp from some small village
• Trio of raw tofu cream, eel with caviar, eggplant
• Dessert – I had green tea affogato and my husband had green tea mont blanc

Heavenly meal! Sadly I understand the restaurant still exists but no longer part of Morimoto’s empire.

http://www.ystable.co.jp/restaurant/omaexex/index.html

Department Stores
You can find lots of restaurants in most department stores either on the upper floors or in the basement.

Larger Parks and Amusement Parks Around Tokyo

There are many large parks and amusement parks, besides Disneyland, in and around Tokyo; perfect for day trips. Here are some we visited and liked.



Kodomono Kuni (Childen’s Land)
Kodomono Kuni located in Yokohama is an extremely large park, 240 acres right outside of Tokyo! And what a treasure it is. It is very low key, full of greenery and expansive open spaces. It is quaint, not much high tech gadgetry that one typically expects from Japan. This is where my sister and her boys and we decided to meet up with some Japanese friends and their children. It was the perfect place for a somewhat large group.

From where we were staying in Roppongi, we had to switch trains at Aoyama 1-chome to Hanzomon line and rode it all the way to Nagatsuta station where we transferred to Kodomono Kuni train.

Within Kodomono Kuni you can find a dizzying array of activities…dairy farm, swimming pool, tennis courts, rides, bike courses etc…We first made our way to the very Japanese amusement park rides where the kids enjoyed a peddle push roller coaster, helicopter and water rides. They also rode on some funny cycles.

After a simple lunch of noodles, (you can bring your own food or buy the very simple offerings of the park) we moved onto the farm area and some wide open grass area. The kids ran through some sprinklers, rolled down a hill, fed the cows and generally had a great time. We did however lose one of our boys for awhile…it is a rather large space…we did find him, just too many distractions for kids.

The park also boasted live outdoor entertainment. We watched a great magic show. Before we left around 3:30pm, the kids stopped by the playground near the entrance for some zip line fun. They also had a great time sliding down a huge cement slide. They kids were tired and so were we.

http://www.kodomonokuni.org/index2.html






Arakawa Yuenchi
If you want to travel back in time, this is the place for you and your children. Located within Tokyo in Arakawa-ku, the only public transportation access to the park is via Tokyo’s only working tram line, the Toden Arakawa Line. It’s very cute and you get to see a lot of the neighborhood.

The entrance fee to the park is almost nothing but you do have to buy tickets for the rides. When we were there in the summer of 2009, there was a prepaid card that you could buy from the vending machine at the entrance (which took 3 people from the park to work) which provided a discount and also refunded any money left on the card. It was a deal.

We were at Arakawa on a weekday and the park was nearly empty. The rides are old-fashioned but our girls had a lot of fun. There was a ferris wheel (very slow), teacup ride, a train, and a peddle push helicopter ride way above tree line. I was scared as I rode it with my younger daughter…imagining the helicopter tipping and tumbling off the tracks and smashing us below on the ground. I kept it together but I don’t necessarily want to do it again.

The most fun activity for us was fishing! There is a large stocked pond inside the park. You pay for your poles and bait. The old man manning the pond was extremely nice and so were the rest of the men fishing. One decided he wasn’t having much luck and took upon himself to help the girls put bait on their lines. He seemed to have a special kind of bait and the girls, with his coaching, out fished their dad and many of the men there. The girls caught 19 fish!! Their dad, and only with the help of the man in charge, caught 1!! We had so much fun. Highly recommended!



http://www.tourism.metro.tokyo.jp/english/tourists/spot/area_spot/area_spot/area_spot10.html

Hibiya Koen
Hibiya is a large park near the Imperial Palace and diagonally across from the ritzy The Peninsula Tokyo Hotel. It is a very short walk from Kasumigaseki station. Since this park neighbors the financial and government districts, the park is enjoyed by many office workers. The park is perhaps not the first place to come to mind when looking for a park for children. However, it’s a great place to visit if you are looking for a break from shopping in nearby Ginza or if you happen to be staying nearby.

We decided to make the trek to Hibiya Koen on our last morning in Tokyo. My sister had mentioned that there was a children’s playground with a zip line. And so there was. A young Japanese girl, about the same age as my older daughter, befriended my girls and they had a ball playing on the zip line.

The park itself is pretty, with lots of greenery, fountains and ponds. There is also a large open air concert space. It’s a wonderful oasis in the middle of Tokyo.

Ueno Zoo
From Roppongi, it isn’t too difficult to get to Ueno Park. Once we are on the Hibiya Line, we ride it all the way to JR Ueno station. It was an extremely hot day. Luckily the walk to Ueno from the station was pleasant. There was a shady walk on a very broad path through the park.

The zoo is somewhat old-fashioned. Nothing fancy but we were all excited to see the panda. The kids got stamps. We also saw tigers, lions, monkeys etc. We had lunch at the zoo cafeteria and it was great! Air conditioned, clean with lots of nice high chairs, kid plates and spoons and forks, kid friendly bathrooms – could not ask for a better rest stop. I was so impressed. We take the monorail across the zoo – a very short ride, break for shaved ice next to a large pond.

The walk back to the station was a mini-disaster. We were all so hot. My younger daughter, then 2, was about to fall asleep. Although the walk to the zoo from the station took us about 10 min, it took us at least 40min to find the station. We exited the zoo from the opposite side that we entered and we were given bad directions. We finally find the station but it wasn’t even the JR station that we got off at that morning. Totally frustrating. We find our back nevertheless but next time, we are heading back to the main entrance through the park.

http://www.tokyo-zoo.net/english/ueno/main.html

Neighborhood Parks in Tokyo

Although Tokyo is popularly known as a concrete jungle, you can find some fun parks and some very large ones if you know where to look. It is also important to consider the proximity to open spaces/parks when choosing your accommodation if travelling with children. We spend 3-4 weeks when we are in Tokyo and being near a park makes all the difference. Here are some neighborhood parks we personally visited and links to others. (I will list larger parks and amusement parks in another posting.) Let me know of others you like to visit!

Jidoyuen in Meiji Jingu Outer Gardens
This was one of our favorite parks! This park is located in the Meiji Jingu Outer Gardens and in Japanese is called Jidoyuen. We loved it because there were so many cool play structures for the kids – some might be considered a bit dangerous. Our then 2 year old loved the slide made of rollers. Our then 4 year old climbed up what looked a mast of a ship numerous times to ring a bell (it was high, not for anyone with a fear of heights). The kids could cross bridges made of chains and logs and monkey around on see saws etc. The park is divided into three areas, one for toddlers, one for 4-6 year olds or so and another for 6 years and up. It’s a really fun park. There is a nominal fee for admissions. I am not sure what the park is like in the summer months (we were there mid-June to mid-July) since it is attached to a beer garden.

When we went back to it last summer, June 2009, the park was closed for renovation. Hopefully it is back in operation this summer.


Arisugawa Park
Another favorite of ours. Located in the Hiroo Azabu area, the park, not surprisingly, appears to be popular with the expat families living in the area. The park boasts slides, see saw, an old-fashion jungle gym, swings and a large sand area. There is also a water faucet which translates to wet muddy clothes.

The play area is part of a larger park which is wonderfully landscaped and also has a creek running through it. Tennis courts are available for rent and the central branch of Tokyo Metropolitan Library is also housed on the park grounds.

Koji Park
We stumbled onto this park by mistake. We were looking for Arisugawa Park and found this one. This small neighborhood park is off a large street, the Gaien Nishi Dori. It is small but is feels like something you would find at a camp in the woods. It has a large play structure made of wood with a bridge. It also has a zip line of sorts. A lot of fun.

Tokyo Midtown
Tokyo Midtown’s park is a beautiful open space behind the high end Tokyo Midtown development, which houses an indoor mall, supermarket, the Ritz Carlton, etc. We went there often, whenever the kids needed to run around. It was so convenient to where we were staying. There isn’t much in terms of play structures, some swings and slides which are more art than functional playground equipment. However, there is a beautiful garden with a rather large pond and creek which the children loved. The girls and their boy cousins also enjoyed the water feature at Midtown, which was perfect for water play …we brought swimsuits and the kids had a blast getting wet and running through the water bubbling and spraying from the ground.

Roppongi Hills
The Hills also has a beautifully landscaped outdoor space but it is not a place for running around. It’s great a place to unwind and admire the Japanese garden but because the garden is on a graded slope, it is not stroller friendly. However, next to the garden is a large open space with a huge screen which beams out snippets of TV shows (marketing for one of the TV network housed in one of the Hills building). There are tables and chairs places around the open space and you will usually find moms and kids eating snacks. (There is also a cute kids clothing store which opens onto the space.)


Koganei Koen
Koganei is a large, serene and beautiful park. It is not meticulously kept, in fact it could use a lot more upkeep but it was nice to stroll under the trees and enjoy the space and greenery. The only reason we discovered this park was because we visited Edo Tokyo Tatemono-en (Tokyo Open Air Museum). Unless you are going to the museum, there isn’t any reason to go to this out of the way park.

Sakurazaka Koen
Do your kids like slides? Then this is the park for you. Located very near Roppongi Hills, this park boasts 9 slides! There is one very long roller slide and the kids had so much fun running up and down the hillside to get on and off the slide. Great place to burn off energy! The park is small and it is mostly about the slides but it is a lot fun. If you are in need of a bathroom, go across the bridge to Roppongi Hills and you will find a very clean bathroom.


Park Near Kidzania
If after visiting Kidzania and feel the need for the actual outdoors, head to the park nearby. It’s a really nice park! It has lots of fun structures and is fairly new. Most of the structures look very European.

Links to other parks:

http://www.tokyo-park.or.jp/english/park/detail_02.html

http://www.kananet.com/japanguide/link16hotelhiroo.htm

http://www.city.minato.tokyo.jp/e/liv/serv/cul/faci/faci05/index.html