Tokyo

A soba restaurant inside the outer market, which the listing describes as forty-two years old. It makes its own soba, fries tempura with seasonal fish and vegetables, and keeps a list of hard-to-find sake. Edomae fish — sea eel, megochi and whiting — are on the list too.

Dinner is served from 17:30 to 21:00 on weekdays only. On Saturdays it closes at 14:00, and on Sundays and public holidays it does not open to a fixed schedule. There is a ¥5,000 course with all-you-can-drink sake and wild bluefin tuna.

Good to know

• There is no dinner on Saturdays, Sundays or public holidays.
• Single-dish prices are not published.
• Listed by the Tsukiji outer market shopping association; the shop has no site of its own.

A basement bar in Ginza 5-chome, open from 17:00 to 1:00 from Monday to Saturday, with the last entry at midnight. It is closed on Sundays and public holidays. The site and the menu are written in English first, down to the ingredients of each drink.

The house list leans Japanese: whisky with matcha liqueur and house-made matcha bitters, gin with sakura liqueur and roasted-tea bitters, cocktails built on sake and shochu, and a set of Japanese old classics including the Bamboo, the Million Dollar and the Yokohama. Fresh fruit cocktails change with the season.

Good to know

• Closed on Sundays and public holidays.
• Last entry is at midnight, even though the bar is open until 1:00.
• Drink prices are not published on the bar's site.

A shot bar on the second floor right at the Roppongi crossing, next door to Wendy's, open until 5:00 every day. There are two rooms: a main bar at the back and a front bar looking out over the crossing. The walls and ceiling are hung with Native American artefacts.

A drum hangs above the bar, and anyone buying a round for the whole bar beats it. Whoever buys the most rounds in a month tops the bar's leaderboard and gets a name plate fixed to the ceiling. The bar also runs a fifteen-shot challenge. Its site is written in English first.

Good to know

• Drink prices are not published on the bar's own site.
• The front bar overlooks the Roppongi crossing; the main bar is at the back.
• The bar has been running for about thirty years, by its own account of its anniversary.

A yoshoku restaurant in the back streets of Rokku, open since December 1951. Yoshoku is western food as it was rebuilt in Japan: beef stew, croquettes, omelettes and steak, cooked to go with rice and sake rather than against them. It started with ten seats at an open counter, and the building has not been rebuilt since 1960.

Beef stew is ¥3,400 and a hamburg steak ¥1,700. The sign outside carries the line the restaurant adopted around 1960, which translates roughly as "so good we apologise".

Good to know

• Closed on Thursdays.
• Last orders are at 21:00.
• Almost everything can be ordered to take away; the restaurant asks you to phone ahead.

A sukiyaki and shabu-shabu restaurant that opened in 1895 and is now in its fourth generation on Kokusai-dori, next to the Tsukuba Express exit. It uses Japanese black beef, female cattle only, selected from across the country, and also serves Kobe beef.

It is open every day of the year, from 11:30 to 21:30 with last orders at 20:30. The ground floor has chairs and a raised tatami area, and there are three private rooms seating up to eight.

Good to know

• Reservations cannot start later than 19:00, even though the restaurant serves until 20:30.
• A 10% service charge is added once one person's order reaches ¥5,500.
• A seat dish of beef simmered in soy sauce, ¥440 per person, comes with the standard menu.
• The third floor keeps shorter hours, 11:30 to 19:30.

Beer Boy is the standing craft beer bar of the Craft Beer Market group, in the basement of Shibuya Parco, four minutes from Exit A2 of Shibuya Station. The branch describes its theme as craft beer with sharikin shochu and izakaya food. The group pours 30 draught craft beers that change daily, selected from Japan and abroad and including its own CRAFTROCK BREWING labels. It opens every day from 11:30 to 22:30, following the opening hours of the shopping centre.

Good to know

• Open every day, following the opening hours of Shibuya Parco.
• Reservations are taken through Tabelog or by phone on 03-5422-3444.
• The group's site gives a flat price of ¥480 for ten of its beers and ¥680 for the other twenty, tax included and in half sizes, but adds that some branches are excluded. It does not say whether this branch is one of them.
• The number of seats, payment methods, any cover charge, the smoking policy, any age limit and English support are not stated on the official page.

Albatross G is a gallery bar in Shinjuku Golden Gai, the drinking quarter in a corner of Kabukicho that the bar's own site describes as holding nearly 300 bars. It is on Golden Gai's 5th street. The bar shows artwork by young artists, as its sister bars do, and the site says Albatross G in particular has been strongly supported by visitors from overseas. It opens every day of the year from 19:00 until 5:00 the next morning.

Good to know

• Prices, payment methods, cover charges, the smoking policy, the number of seats and any age limit are not stated on the official site.
• Telephone 03-3203-3699. The bar also takes enquiries about private hire and filming.
• Golden Gai is a dense lane of tiny bars; this one is on the 5th street.

LIVER is a third-floor bar in Yushima specialising in malt whisky, with more than 300 bottles kept in stock at all times and southern soul playing in the background. Half-shot tasting sets let you compare several whiskies, and the bar also makes whisky-based cocktails described as suitable for newcomers. The bar states that there is no dress code at all. Reservations are required on Saturdays; on other days walk-ins are seated when space allows.

Good to know

• Reservations are required on Saturdays. On other days you can be seated without a reservation if there is space.
• Closed on Sundays and public holidays.
• Reservations are taken by phone on 090-3148-6253 (a mobile number).
• The latest news post on the official site dates from May 2023, so call to confirm opening hours before visiting.
• The bar is on the third floor.
• Whether prices include tax is not stated on the official site.

A monja and okonomiyaki restaurant on the ground floor of a tower on the second block of Monja Street, open until midnight every day of the year. It has 54 seats, and two of them are private rooms, which is rare among the monja restaurants here.

The kitchen cooks okonomiyaki as well as monja, and the courses are built around either meat or seafood. It is non-smoking and takes cards and QR payments.

Good to know

• Open until midnight, every day of the year.
• The whole restaurant is non-smoking.
• Listed by the Tsukishima Monja Association; the shop has no site of its own.

A fish restaurant in Tsukiji 6-chome that says its aim is to serve wild fish at a reasonable price, using the advantage of its location. Set meals are built around tuna, and there are sashimi, grilled and simmered dishes from the day's catch.

Dinner runs from 17:00 to 21:00 on weekdays. On Saturdays it serves straight through from 11:00 to 20:00, and it is closed on Sundays and public holidays, as well as over Golden Week, in summer and at New Year.

Good to know

• Closed on Sundays and public holidays, and over Golden Week, the summer holiday and New Year.
• Prices are not published.
• Listed by the Tsukiji outer market shopping association; the shop has no site of its own.