Tokyo: Eat, A Lot

The food in Tokyo is the best in the world. Hands down. The next closest city would be Singapore, which is incredibly diverse but does not necessarily excel in one cuisine specifically. Being Iranian, I was born and bred to love Persian food above all others. After visiting Tokyo, Iran can step aside. Sorry Persians.

After visiting Osaka and Kyoto, I was already beyond impressed with the food of Japan. But it wasn't until Tokyo that I truly fell in love with ramen and sushi and everything else a Japanese cook will put in my mouth. From tiny, hole-in-the-wall ramen shops, to massive fish markets, to the ninth best restaurant in the world, here are my recommendations for where to eat in this incredibly diverse city.

Best Ramen

First let me start by saying that Tokyo boasts the world's only ramen museum, which we unfortunately did not have enough time to go to given our jam-packed schedule. So if you are a ramen lover, I would suggest you go there. We met a couple who went and they loved it, saying it was a pleasant surprise on the trip.

Anyways, the best ramen place in this city, which mind you easily has at least a few thousand ramen shops, would probably be Nagi. Located in the Golden Gai area, this place is just like every other restaurant here-tiny. Finding it is almost impossible, and you have to line up in a dark alley just beside the actually "building" the restaurant is in. Once there is a seat available, someone comes down, gives you a menu and leads you up an impossibly steep staircase. During the time you walk up the stairs, you have to decide what ramen you want to order, because at the top is a little machine that you put money in and almost like a vending machine, it gives you a ticket. I ordered the special ramen because I'm special. You then take one step from the ramen ticket vending machine and sit at your stool in front of a kitchen the size of the bed I am writing this one. And yes, I did purposely say "one step", because you literally are inside a restaurant that is at most ten feet wide by twenty five feet long. My mom and I could not stop laughing at how small this place was.

Although it was tiny, the food was massive. My ramen bowl was just about as large as the photograph they had of Wayne Gretsky, which he himself had sign (No one who worked there had any idea who Wayne Gretsky was). I wouldn't call myself a ramen connoisseur, but I have had my fair share of ramen, and this one was head and shoulders above the rest. It was perfectly spicy with the right amount of noodles, which were not too soft and soggy. The meat was amazing, and it all just went together perfectly. My mom and I both devoured our bowls and still talk about Nagi to this day. Golden Gai is a must visit in general, and for some amazing ramen, Nagi is the place to go.

I wasn't exaggerating about how small it is.

Best Sushi

The outer market at Tsujiki, where you can sample hundreds of different types of fish and snacks

There's no correct answer. I would be bull shitting you if I thought one sushi restaurant was the best. Sure, you can drop $400 on Jiro Sushi, but, and no disrespect to Jiro, every sushi shop in the city is arguably better than most sushi places in the states. So what I WILL say is that if you want the best seafood, including the best sushi, go to the Tsujiki Market. It is the world's largest fish market and it is seriously massive. The market has every type of fish you could imagine, with the most absurd ways of cutting, serving and presenting them. Walk through the outer market and try every sample you can. I ate every fish possible, and often didn't even ask what I ate, I just put it in my mouth. Granted, there were a few sour bites, but the bites that made my mouth tingle with joy far outweighed the sour flavors. e with joy far outweighed the sour flavors. Try and get into the main market before 10, as you will see much more fish and a much more interesting and lively environment within the market, but be warned, the fisherman and buyers may notice you, especially if you're carrying a big camera and have papers hanging out of your fanny pack, in which case they will not be too happy. And don't be weirded out by having sushi for breakfast, as it is the freshest fish you can possibly get.

We became sushi masters! Restaurant opening soon...

As a another pro-tip, go to the parking lot towards the end of the market. From there, go to the rooftop, which even though there are countless signs saying employees only, is definitely possible, and DEFINTELY worth it. The rooftop overlooks the entire market and outer market, along with a bit of Tokyo's skyline and coastline. Definitely one of the more breathtaking spots in the city, and getting up there was a bit of an adventure which makes it that much more worth.

View from the top of the parking lot, worth risking getting in some trouble for!

Craziest Restaurant

Okay so maybe this isn't a restaurant technically, but you can eat and drink here, so it's going on this blog. I'm talking about the world famous Robot Restaurant, with the Robot Cabaret show. Japan as a country is definitely strange. We've all seen their commercials and weird mascots and game shows and toilet-based restaurants. There are a lot of…unique customs which make this country so interesting. The weirdest experience of the trip, in the best way possible, was the Robot Restaurant.

From a food and drink standpoint, you can order basic food (think fries, chicken strips, generally westernized food) and any drink you want. Booking through Viator comes with a free drink, so I got a Moscow Mule which was pretty good.

But you don't come here for the food. You come here to watch the most ridiculous show you have ever seen, without question. On top of full robot battles inside a small auditorium, they also bring out fake dinosaurs (specifying that they are fake in case you were wondering), costumed dancers who have no fear about getting way too up in your face, and the loudest, craziest music you could imagine. And the audience was one of the most diverse group of people I had ever seen. You name a race, it was there, which is synonymous with the culture and demographic of the city as a whole. Anyways back to this absurd form of entertainment. The lights in the show are insane, and the performances alternate between story lines, with intermissions. During intermission, there are people walking around serving standard snacks and alcohol. My advice on it: buy the alcohol. If you are a good level of drunk, this experience is so much more fun. I wish I had known, otherwise I would have drank more beforehand while we were waiting to enter the auditorium itself. People all around us were hammered, which seemed so much more fun than we had, which was a lot in it of itself. BUT, with that said, the Japanese businessman sitting next to my mom, somehow someway, SLEPT through the entire show. God knows how one could get so drunk to the point where they could not stay up to watch skinny Japanese girls wearing American flag booty shorts and a barely-there tank tops shoot fire out of a 15-foot dragon while dancing to the loudest K-Pop you've ever heard. He won't remember any of it. So be smart with your alcohol intake.

Best Restaurant

This isn't just the best place I ate in Tokyo, this is hands down the best place I have eaten in the world: Narisawa.

Narisawa serves what they refer to as, "innovative Sayotoma cuisine", which they regard as both sustainable and beneficial. Narisawa was awarded number one for sustainability in the world, and ranked number nine overall. And it does not disappoint one bit.

The menu for the night was as follows:

"Bread of the Forest 2010" with Moss Butter, which is served on your table before it is baked, and they fully baked the bread by your table while you eat the first few meals.

Baby Sweet Fish and Sakura

Satoyama Scenery and Essence of the Forest

Yellowtail, Yamaguchi | Wasabi, Shizuoka | Botan Shrump, Ishikawa | Hairy Crab, Hokkaido

Soft Shelled Turtle, Saga

Sea Snake, Okinawa

Tilefish, Yamaguchi

"Ash 2009" Scene of the Seashore

Nozaki Beef, Kagoshima

Langoustine, Shizuoka

Tiger Puffer, Jumamota | Lindera, Gifu

"Sumi 2008" Kobe Beef, Hyogo

Kobe Beef, considered to be one of the restaurant's signature dishes

Sakura and Koji

Fresh Brewed Sake

Matcha, Fukuoka

As you can tell, these beautiful menu items are all correlated with a city/area in Japan, and that is precisely the goal of Chef Narisawa, which is to create an interactive experience through the entire country, immersing every diner in the beauty of what Japan has to offer.

The food all sucked. Totally terrible. Low quality. Would never eat that garbage again.

Frankly I don't understand how anyone could say anything even remotely negative about any of the food. They all provided such unique flavors, and did so with minimum ingredients. Most dishes used no more than 3 ingredients to create mouthwatering bites, primarily relying on cooking styles to define the taste. If I HAD to nit-pick on something, the only thing I would say, and I do so with hesitation because I am not nearly the culinary expert that Chef Narisawa is, is that the Langoustine broth was a bit bland, without any memorable flavor. In fact, it was memorably bland because every other bite had each and every taste bud freaking out. All in all, it is entirely worthit.

The vibe of the environment was very relaxed, and very subdued. Chef Narisawa wants the food to be the main attraction, not the décor or the music. This makes it a very unique fine dining experience, because it truly is just you and the food. We spend a full three hours enjoying every last bite, and also having powerful and engaging conversations with our French waiter (my mom speaks French so I felt left out more than a few times).

When it comes to reservations, they use a system which opens the reservations for the next month and the first day of the previous month. So for my reservation in March, I booked the table on February 1st, and even that was too late as I waited until it was afternoon in Japan to make the reservation online. Finding the restaurant is also a bit tricky, but we were also stupid enough to completely miss the sign on the side of the street. If you look for the sign, it's an easy place to find. Definitely worth the price, which given its ranking and stature in the world is actually not absurd. I promise you, it will be the most unique and fascinating pure dining experiences of your life.

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