Shinjuku

Torikizoku is a yakitori chain where every food item costs the same, and this branch is two minutes east of the Central East Exit of JR Shinjuku Station, on the eighth floor of the Peace Building. Everything on the food menu is ¥410 including tax, as printed in the October 2026 English menu. The grill menu includes momo and mune kizoku-yaki skewers, fried chicken, a griddled yam dish, chicken kamameshi and chicken paitan ramen. There are 4 counter seats and 62 table seats, and the restaurant serves until 4:00 in the morning.

Good to know

• People under 20 cannot come on their own. They may enter with a guardian or someone aged 20 or over, on condition that no alcohol is served to them, and staff may ask for identification.
• Reservations are for two hours. Branches running an opening sale do not take reservations.
• There are no private rooms; tables are only divided by partitions.
• The official pages do not state whether there is a cover charge, nor whether the restaurant is non-smoking. The branch page shows no indoor smoking booth and no outdoor smoking area.
• Opening hours change on some days. The branch page listed 1, 3 and 23 November as days with different hours.
• No takeout, no baby chairs, no barrier-free access and no parking.

Kushikatsu Tanaka serves Osaka-style kushikatsu, skewers coated in batter and deep-fried, five minutes from Seibu-Shinjuku Station in Kabukicho. Skewers run from ¥88 for a sausage to ¥352 for large prawn (tax included), and assorted sets of five or eight are also on the menu. The restaurant has 56 seats at counters and tables, and a PDF menu printed in English, Chinese and Korean is available. It stays open until 3:00 from Monday to Thursday and until 4:00 from Friday to Sunday, and the house rule is that the shared sauce must not be dipped twice.

Good to know

• Guests aged 20 or over pay a ¥319 (tax included) cover charge each, even without alcohol, and must order at least one drink.
• Do not dip a skewer in the sauce twice. The sauce is shared within your group and discarded afterwards.
• People under 20 can enter without an adult, but are not served alcohol. Staff may ask for identification.
• The all-you-can-eat plan is only for Monday to Thursday arrivals before 18:00 and must be booked by the day before. Guests aged 20 or over are charged the adult rate that includes all-you-can-drink alcohol even if they do not drink.
• There is no smoking booth at this branch.
• Reservations can be made online at any time, and walk-ins are accepted, but booked guests are seated first.
• No free Wi-Fi, no kids' chairs, no parking and no lunch menu.

Isomaru Suisan is a seafood izakaya one minute from JR Shinjuku Station, and it is open 24 hours a day all year round. Its signature is isomaru-yaki, shellfish taken live from the tank and crab miso in the shell, grilled in front of you at the table. Sashimi and other small dishes are also on the menu, and lunch is served as well. The restaurant has 93 seats, free Wi-Fi and a smoking booth, with all other seats non-smoking.

Good to know

• Individual dish prices are not published for this branch; the chain notes that menu contents and prices differ by restaurant.
• The official page does not say whether there is a cover charge, an English menu or an age limit.
• Seating is non-smoking and there is a separate smoking booth.
• There is no parking.

Shirokiya is a large all-round izakaya on the fifth floor of a building in Kabukicho, open from 15:00 until 5:00 every day. It has 479 seats, private rooms, karaoke, free Wi-Fi and a smoking booth. The menu runs from small dishes such as grilled skewers at ¥416 for two and takoyaki at ¥537, through fried chicken at ¥647, to pizza, yakisoba and rice dishes, all tax included. A charge of ¥471 per person covers the otoshi, and a 10% late-night charge applies after 22:00.

Good to know

• A charge of ¥471 per person (tax included), which covers the otoshi, is added to the bill.
• A late-night charge of 10% of the bill applies between 22:00 and 5:00. The two pages of the grand menu word the condition differently, one saying it applies to guests who arrive in that window and the other to guests who place their first order in it, so check at the restaurant.
• People under 20 are not served alcohol, and staff may ask for identification.
• The restaurant does not serve alcohol to guests who arrived by vehicle, including bicycles and electric kickboards.
• There is a smoking booth. The official page does not state whether the other seats are non-smoking.
• The official page does not give a walking time from the station, only a route description.
• There is no parking and no lunch service.

Yamauchi Noujou is an izakaya built around Satsuma Yamauchi jidori, a free-range chicken raised in Akune in Kagoshima Prefecture and certified as jidori under the JAS standard. The house dish is the chicken grilled over charcoal and seasoned with salt, ¥1,758 for a 180 g portion and ¥2,528 for 270 g, tax included. The restaurant is on the fifth floor of a building on Godzilla Road in Kabukicho, with 72 seats, free Wi-Fi and a smoking booth, and it serves until 1:00 from Monday to Saturday.

Good to know

• A charge of ¥526 per person (tax included), which covers the otoshi, is added to the bill.
• People under 20 are not served alcohol, and staff may ask for identification.
• The restaurant does not serve alcohol to guests who arrived by vehicle, including bicycles and electric kickboards.
• There is a smoking booth. The official page does not state whether the other seats are non-smoking.
• The official page does not give a walking time from the station, only a route description.
• There are no private rooms and no karaoke, and no parking.
• The tax rate differs between eating in and taking away; say before ordering if you want to take food out.

Ichiran is a tonkotsu ramen specialist, and this branch in the basement of the Peace Building, three minutes from Shinjuku Station, is open 24 hours. The ramen that the company has served since it opened is 1,180 yen, with extra noodles at 210 yen, and you choose how your bowl is made by filling in a paper order sheet. All 28 seats are at the flavour concentration counter, which is divided into individual booths. There is an English version of the shop page and a subtitled video explaining how to order for first-time visitors.

Good to know

• A late-night charge is added between 22:00 and 6:00. The rate is not published.
• Seats cannot be reserved.
• You may not be let in even before last orders when the shop is busy.
• The company notes that seat numbers, opening hours or opening at all may change depending on staffing.
• The official page does not state whether prices include tax, nor what the smoking policy is.
• There is no parking.

Nagi is a niboshi ramen shop on the second floor of a building inside Shinjuku Golden Gai, and the company describes it as the restaurant where Ramen Nagi started. It is open 24 hours a day and has ten seats at an L-shaped counter. The soup is made from a blend of more than twenty kinds of niboshi, dried sardines, selected from around Japan, and the company says it buys more than five tonnes of niboshi a month. Both ramen and tsukemen, served with a separate dipping soup, are on the menu.

Good to know

• Prices, accepted payment methods, the smoking policy and whether reservations are taken are not stated on the official website.
• The shop has only ten seats, so you may have to wait.
• It is on the second floor of a building inside Shinjuku Golden Gai.

This is the main shop of the Menya Musashi group, four minutes from the West Exit of JR Shinjuku Station. The soup is a double soup: an animal-based stock built on chicken bones and pork bones, combined with a seafood stock taken from bonito flakes and dried sardines. Both ra-men and tsukemen, noodles served with a separate dipping soup, are on the menu, each in light and rich versions, with garlic, spicy tantan and extra-pork variations. The shop has 19 seats and is open every day.

Good to know

• The shop has only 19 seats, so you may have to wait.
• Prices and accepted payment methods are not listed on the official website.
• The shop is open every day with no regular closing day.
• The official site has an English version of this shop's page.

Fuunji is a tsukemen and ramen shop five minutes from the South Exit of JR Shinjuku Station, and one minute from Exit 6 of the Toei Shinjuku Station. The soup is made by simmering whole domestic chicken, chicken bones, kelp, bonito flakes and round herring for eight hours, straining it over six hours and ageing it for a day. The noodles are a medium-thick straight noodle made to order by a noodle maker that supplies many well-known shops. There are 15 counter seats, all non-smoking, and the shop closes when the soup runs out.

Good to know

• The shop does not take reservations.
• It closes when the soup runs out, before the listed closing time.
• All 15 counter seats are non-smoking.
• The shop breaks between 15:00 and 17:00 every day.
• The official site does not say which payment methods are accepted, nor whether prices include tax.
• There is no parking, although there are paid car parks nearby.
• The address is in Shibuya-ku, but the shop is within walking distance of Shinjuku Station.

Moko Tanmen Nakamoto is a ramen shop in the basement of a building in Nishi-Shinjuku, open from 10:00 to 23:00. Every bowl on the ramen menu carries a spiciness number from 0 to 9. Shio tanmen, with stir-fried vegetables and no chilli, is level 0 at ¥1,000; moko tanmen, which the shop lists as its most popular dish, is level 5 at ¥1,060 and puts spicy mapo tofu on top of a miso tanmen; and hokkyoku ramen, level 9 at ¥1,080, is the hottest, with the shop warning first-time visitors. There are 19 counter seats and three tables.

Good to know

• The official page does not give a nearest station or a walking time.
• The shop is in the basement of the building.
• Payment methods, the smoking policy, reservations and closing days are not stated on the official page.
• Takeout and delivery are shown on the shop page.