Once a month. On the Omakase page they let you know the next day reservations open up. So you’ll be able to make February reservations on January 9th at 10am (that’s Japan time, mind you).
You can also sign up for Sawada as a “favorite” and get notified when people cancel.
Even if a dinner seating is unattainable, lunch at Sawada is still quite an unforgettable experience.
All: Anyone have opinions as to the pizza specialists in Tokyo? We’d like to try out one of the well known places as a single “break” from traditional Japanese food during our next trip. We’re looking at Seirinkan of course, but also interested in Savoy. Has anyone been or have thoughts on one vs. another?
I haven’t tried either of those names you mentioned, but on my last trip I went to Pizza Studio Temaki
and it was great. I think I read somewhere that the chef won the “pizza olympics” in Italy a couple of years back. Very small restaurant, but very cozy and fun to be around. You can see him making expertly crafted pizzas right near the pizza oven anywhere you sit. There’s also a cool bar right next door as well.
Ok: I would like folks who have been to Tokyo to please judge my current Tokyo food itinerary or give me any thoughts. For the most part, with one exception, for breakfasts we’re planning on coffee shops and onigiri/other quick items from places like Lawson’s, so I’ve really only included lunches and dinners below. Most are in the Shibuya/Shinjuku area as that is where we are staying.
Day 1
We arrive into the city around 7. Plan is to have dinner at Kaikaya by the Sea.
Day 2
Lunch at Kagari Ramen.
Dinner at Sushi Sawada or Kyubei (reservations depending–counting on some luck!)
Day 3
Lunch: Tsukemen at Menya Itto
Dinner: Leaving this open to go to a great small noodle or other specialty place in piss alley in Shinjuku. Looking at this udon place, among others.
Day 4
Breakfast sushi at Sushi Daiwa at Toyosu
[Probably a quick lunch at a Japanese grocery or department store]
Dinner at Jumbo Hanare for beef.
Day 5
Lunch at Tonkatsu Narikura
Dinner at Seirinkan
Day 6
[Meals mostly covered elsewhere because spending the day at Mt. Fuji related activities before returning for dinner]
Dinner at Fuku for yakitori.
Day 7 [just the morning before we leave for Kyoto]
Breakfast tsukemen at Rokourinsha in Tokyo station.
Ate there in November (my first visit back since they relocated the shop) and I wasn’t impressed. Unless you love tori paitan (which I do not) I’d skip it. To me, it tasted like Campbell’s chicken noodle soup. Right next door, Ginza Kazami prepares a delicious ramen made with sake lees. I personally much prefer it to Kagari, which I think is very overrated.
Note that as of December 2019, Sawada only accepts reservations via the Omakase web site.
Great choice.
Not sure I’d trust a random Singapore blogger with an udon recommendation. Shin udon on the other side of the station is pretty well recognized as the best udon shop in Shinjuku, and deservedly so, it is delicious. udonshin - Shinjuku/Udon [Tabelog]
Personally, I wouldn’t waste my time trekking to Toyosu for very average sushi and would save the stomach space and $ for a discounted lunch set at a high-end Ginza sushi shop, but I understand the appeal of sushi breakfast at the market, so YMMV.
Great choice. Make sure to book ahead.
Good call, I always visit at breakfast because the wait is much more manageable. They open at 7:30 AM - if you get there at 7:15 you will usually make the first seating. Do note that the broth is not full strength at breakfast, it is diluted a little to make it lighter on the stomach.
Thanks!! Exactly the feedback I was looking for. I have tried to make your point about breakfast sushi to my GF, but she is insistent on doing it at the fish market for the experience.
Interesting re Kagari. Our friends swore by it when they came back recently. Will reconsider.
Download the ramen beast phone app and turn on location when you arrive. You can also visit www.ramenbeast.com for taking a look at the various reviewed ramen offerings. Try some of the more out of the box shops that do something either very traditional or a modern take. Anything with a score of over 4.0 is already smashing good. Do not just focus on the highest rated shops, you’d be surprised.
There are some very solid picks for ramen within Shinjuku and Shibuya to be explored.
If visiting Toyosu is a must, skip the sushi and focus on cooked food. Nakaei for curry rice, Tenfusa for tempura, Yachiyo for deep fried seafood sets (anago, oyster, aji, scallop). If Tomina Trattoria is open, go for the watarigani (local crab) pasta or the de-shelled zuwai gani (snow crab) tomato cream sauce pasta that’s quite spectacular. Check the hours before you go.
This.
Understood. Still, the “experience” will be more fun at the old Tsukiji outer market than at Toyosu, so I would recommend skipping Toyosu and visiting Tsukiji instead. After your visit, you can have a late sushi breakfast at Okame, Shutoku, or Tsukiji Sushi Dai. The quality will be equal to (or better than) Daiwa without the long lines. For Okame or Tsukiji Sushi Dai I would arrive 20 minutes before opening.
Thanks. When I was last in Tokyo (in 2013), Tsujiki was still the fish market, and the lines for Dai were insane. I had been hoping that perhaps the move to Toyosu had reduced lines in light of its relatively inconvenient location. Sounds like that is not the case. For Tsujiki sushi dai–everything I am reading online is that it closed and re-opened at Toyosu. Is that not true? Obviously, the tablelog site looks recent–is this a different Dai?
The waits for Dai and Daiwa at Toyosu are not quite as bad as they used to be when they were located in the Tsukiji inner market, but they are still significant (and, IMO, still too long considering the quality).
Tsukiji Sushi Dai and Sushi Dai are different. They come from the same lineage and split into separate shops many decades ago. Tsukiji Sushi Dai has two locations at Tsukiji, the honten (main branch) and bekkan (annex shop). Maybe not quite as good as the Sushi Dai now located in Toyosu, but still of comparable quality, and of similar quality to Daiwa.
The issue with sushi at Toyosu as well is that the old school charm of Tsukiji is completely gone. If you look at the decors of Dai or Daiwa at Toyosu, they are modern shops without any real character. You might as well be eating in a mall. Hence my recommendation to visit shops in Tsukiji instead, because if you’re going to settle for average tasting sushi, might as well have it in a colorful setting. 
I hear you, thanks. To be honest, if we do Toyosu, it will be to watch the fish auction, grab quick breakfast sushi at Daiwa, and get out. But I am now reconsidering.
May be blasphemous of me to say, but having seen 3 of the live tuna auctions there, I gotta say there’s not much more to it than what the sushi documentaries (notably Jiro Dreams of Sushi & Tsukiji Wonderland) already portray (and portray accurately).
But at the same time, I completely understand if seeing that live auction in person is a box you must check off…
If the tuna auction tractor beam is far too strong, at least at Toyosu this section just recently opened
with some more shops and eating places
This website provides a useful guide of non sushi restaurants at Toyosu
My pointers for Toyosu eateries (not Edomae Jokamachi):
Tenfusa - do some research (e.g. tabelog or yelp) and see what’s popular. You might be able to order some really unique a la carte tempura options depending on what’s in season when you arrive. Some eclectic shellfish tempura for example you can’t find in the US for sure. Kakiage also looks awesome here.
Yajima - Japanese Chinese focused, their ramen is not the kind you’re used to but it’s excellent and unique. If you go during oyster season, the oyster ramen is a must and their jumbo shumai are wicked delicious with some mustard and chili oil. Some well respected sushi chefs make their stop here (or did when it was at Tsukiji). The lines here are sooooo much shorter than the sushi shops
Nakaya - Japanese Indian style curry / curry rice. Excellent stuff.
Toritoh - they might do yakitori rice bowls but the draw here is oyako don
Takahashi - unclear if they only take advanced reservations now. Probably my most favorite restaurant, their grilled fish and soy sauce mirin simmered fish is freakin amazing (also their ni-anago appetizer). 5000 yen or more for a whole kinki but it’s premium quality. Blows away any Cantonese steamed fish.
Odayasu - a competitor to Yachiyo, their deep fried oysters are pretty good and they might even have deep fried fugu too. Classic yoshoku style deep fried food with tartare sauce and worcestershire sauce. Yachiyo is far superior for their fried scallops, fried aji, fried anago, fried oysters.
Tomina - excellent regional Italian done Japanese style and with the seafood from Toyosu market. Japanese watarigani whole crab tomato sauce pasta is freaking excellent (white wine sauce) and their no shell snow crab tomato cream sauce is amazing too. No English menu here, but so rewarding. The pizza’s here are also quite fulfilling too, the granny who makes them if she’s still around is as old as Jiro Ono. The youngest daughter who helps out speaks the best English in the entire family
At the Tsukiji Outer Market, Trattoria Paradiso is an unsung gem. Sorrento style pasta, the go to is the tomato sauce shellfish pasta, but lots of other choices too.
Yeah so to just to go there and line up 3 hours for Daiwa or Sushi Dai… is a wasted tourist experience (and a huge time sink) especially if you are doing high end sushi in Ginza as well. All of the above are unique and great experiences in their own ways and offer a taste of what Japanese locals would eat and some experiences you’ll never find in Southern California (and perhaps not to that degree).
I’d like to throw in an upvote for Kagari. I ate there about a year ago and me and my friends all loved it.
It’s also directly downstairs from Sushi Taichi (so it has strong back-to-back grub potential).
That is incorrect. Ramen Kazami is directly downstairs from Suhi Taichi. Kagari is next door. Also, it should be noted that reservations are needed 99% of the time at Taichi - he does allow walk-ins but is typically fully booked so I wouldn’t risk it.
Sorry shouldn’t have said “directly.” I just meant that it’s extremely close by (30 seconds or less by foot). But you bring up the good point that there’s another ramen place downstairs so my wording could have led to confusion.
I’d HIGHLY recommend Sushi Miyaba for discounted Lunch sushi…6,000 for incredible nigiri and what seemed like unlimited sake.
Also, Tsuta ramen crushes if you are down to do the ticket system. Otherwise, stick to ramen beast app 4.0+.