Japan, Restaurants, Tokyo

Sushi Zanmai, Tokyo – Perhaps the best affordable sushi in town

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During our recent visit to Tokyo we were staying in Korea Town, Shinjuku (we’ll recommend Shinjuku as a location, but not so much Korea Town). We were incredibly lucky that one of the roughly 40 Sushi Zanmai branches (nearly all in Tokyo, some in other parts of Japan) was located one minute’s walk away from our hotel, literally just across the street. Many of them rank in the top 1000 of Tokyo’s 100,000 restaurants on Tripadvisor and hold Certificates of Excellence, the best-ranking of them is currently placed at #82 (and #6 out of 4,300 Sushi restaurants). ‘Zanmai’ is the Japanese word for luxury. Different from most other sushi restaurants, Zanmai is outrageously good value for money, despite all ingredients being super-fresh and top-quality. Another benefit is that many of the restaurants, including ours, are open 24 hours, so it’s perfect for a little snack between meals or after a […]

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Fun, Restaurants, Tokyo

Rock’n’Roll at the Robot Restaurant

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During our recent trip to Tokyo Ms B & I visited the famous Robot Restaurant, one of the city’s top tourist attractions since it was founded in 2012. Initially it was not aimed at robot-focused tourists but at local businessmen with a penchant for the fairer sex. Within days after opening it made headlines around the world and started an outright frenzy. It’s difficult to describe this eclectic, crazy celebration of childish wonder, intergalactic war, and madness. If you’re looking for a sophisticated art performance or a high-budget Broadway show, then you’re bound to be disappointed. Despite the fact that the performers’ routine is very impressive, well-rehearsed, and finely tuned, and despite the fact that much of the technology, I’m sure, didn’t come cheap, there is still at times a vibe of rogue, low-budget, anarchic street performance. That’s one of the reasons why the show is so much fun to […]

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Restaurants, Tokyo

Nabezo Shinjuku Meijidori

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Nabezo operates just under twenty so-called shabu-shabu restaurants in and around Tokyo. Its Shinjuku branch, called Nabezo Shinjuku Meijidori, which happened to be less than ten minutes’ walk from our hotel, is ranking #1 out of 9,000 Shinjuku restaurants on Tripadvisor. Shabu-shabu was only introduced to Japan in 1952 by a restaurant in Osaka that took the Chinese dish shuan yang rou from Beijing, where thin slices of mutton were used, to Japan and replaced the mutton, which was foreign to Japanese cuisine, with marbled beef, which is the red meat held in the highest regard by locals. Nowadays shabu-shabu is one of the most common hot pot dishes in the country. You can also order pork, even though no self-respecting Japanese gourmet would order it. While some would disagree, most seem to share our view that you should only eat the pork well-done. This takes the fun out of […]

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Restaurants, Tokyo

Ichiran Shibuya – Tokyo’s Best Ramen

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Ichiran (“one orchid” in Japanese) started out as a tiny street stall in 1960 in the province of Fukuoka. Tonkotsu ramen, locally called hakata ramen originated there, and tonkotsu ramen is all Ichiran ever served. It differs from other ramen in that its broth is made by boiling pork bones for extended periods of time, giving the broth a white colour, nearly creamy texture, very full flavour and a strong stench people have compared with old socks and smelly cheese. Ichiran pride themselves in having developed a technique (mainly involving regular skimming) that obliterates the smells. Tonkotsu ramen is rich in collagen, which is supposed to be great for your skin. Ramen is a relatively young Japanese dish imported from China in the mid-19th Century. It only became the popular dish it is today in the 1950s when cheap U.S. wheat flour imports started pouring into the country and ramen […]

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