Tokyo

A restaurant serving dozeu, loach, in a shallow iron pan over a charcoal burner. It opened in 1801, when the founder came to Edo from what is now Saitama and set up a shop selling loach soup and loach hotpot under the name Echigoya Sukeshichi.

The building is in the Edo merchant style, and the first floor has no windows on the street side so that nobody could look down on a passing lord's procession. Guests sit together at long low tables laid over the tatami.

Good to know

• There is no fixed weekly closing day. Closing dates are announced month by month on the restaurant's own site, so check before you go.
• Seating is shared, at long low tables.

clubasia opened in Maruyamacho in 1996 and describes itself as a long-standing club and live house that has helped drive Shibuya's nightlife. Its stated concept is to take in every genre of music, and it hosts live sets, DJs, dance events and receptions. The floor guide shows a stage, audience seating, drink counters, a terrace area and a separate lounge floor. Opening times and admission are set per event, and night events are strictly for guests aged 20 and over, with photo identification required at the door.

Good to know

• Guests under 20 are strictly refused entry to night events, and photo identification must be shown at the door.
• Men wearing sandals are refused entry.
• Admission is set per event and a drink charge is added on top of the ticket price.
• Opening times are given per event and the closing time is not stated on the official site.
• The club states that it cannot take responsibility for lost property.
• Enquiries are taken on 03-5458-2551 on weekdays from 12:00 to 18:00, or by the contact form.
• There is no walking time from Shibuya Station on the official site, only written directions. The capacity, payment methods, the smoking policy and any cover charge are not stated.

Sushi Tatsu is the only sushi restaurant in Omoide Yokocho, the lane of small eating places by the west exit of Shinjuku Station. The restaurant says it takes its toppings and its rice seriously and makes its own thick omelette. The omakase sushi is already seasoned apart from the rolls, so the restaurant asks you to eat it without soy sauce. There is an upstairs room that can be used by a private party of up to eight. It is open from 17:00 to 23:45 and closed on Sundays and public holidays. Payment is cash.

Good to know

• Payment is cash only.
• Closed on Sundays and public holidays.
• Reservations are recommended; phone 03-3342-0740.
• The restaurant has no website of its own. The information comes from the official site of the Omoide Yokocho shopping street, where the Japanese page is marked as of June 2024 and the English page as of March 2021, so check before you go.
• The smoking policy, any cover charge and any age limit are not stated.

2nd COOPER is a craft beer gastropub in Okachimachi and the sister bar of COOPER ALE'S in Shimbashi. Real ale is poured from a hand pump, with at least 12 beers on tap and around 80 bottled beers, each served in the glass of the brewery that made it. The room has 7 counter seats and 35 table seats, with large windows and a high ceiling in the style of a European pub. Signs inside state that the whole venue is non-smoking.

Good to know

• When the pub is busy there is a two-hour limit on tables.
• Reservations can be made online or by phone on 03-6806-0130. For a table after 20:00 the pub asks you to call directly, and it recommends booking for groups of five or more.
• If you will be more than 10 minutes late, contact the pub; otherwise the reservation may be cancelled.
• Beer and other drink prices are not published on the official site.
• Monday opening hours are not listed on the official site, and no closing day is stated, so check before going.
• Payment methods are not stated on the official site, and whether prices include tax is not stated either.

A small monja restaurant on the fourth block of Monja Street, recently refitted, with 24 seats across five tables. The owners say the name — tomo, friend — reflects the kind of room they try to keep.

It opens at 17:00 on weekdays and 11:00 at weekends, and serves to 23:00. It is closed on Tuesdays. Among the monja are a few built for sharing rather than tradition: avocado with mentaiko and cheese, and a basil one with fresh tomato and bacon.

Good to know

• Closed on Tuesdays.
• There is no lunch service on weekdays.
• Listed by the Tsukishima Monja Association; the shop has no site of its own.

A sake house in Tsukiji 4-chome, with fully enclosed private rooms and a list of fifty to sixty sake at any time. The kitchen cooks Japanese dishes around what is in season.

On weekdays it serves lunch from 11:30 and dinner from 17:00 to 22:00, with food orders closing at 21:00 and drinks at 21:30. Sundays, public holidays and the New Year period are closed, and the shop lists Saturdays as an irregular closing day. The shop says it welcomes solo guests as readily as large parties.

Good to know

• Closed on Sundays, public holidays and over New Year. Saturdays are listed as an irregular closing day.
• Food orders close at 21:00, drinks at 21:30.
• Prices are not published.
• Listed by the Tsukiji outer market shopping association.

A tempura restaurant on Namiki-dori, part of a house that started as a small shop in Ningyocho in 1930 and opened in Ginza two years later, where it moved to frying in front of the guest at a counter. It serves without closing between lunch and dinner, from 11:30 to 22:00, every day of the year.

Dinner is three courses: ¥16,500, ¥22,000 and ¥27,500, with tax included and a 15 percent service charge on top. At lunch a tendon at a table is ¥6,000, and the counter courses run from ¥11,000 to ¥19,800.

Good to know

• A 15 percent service charge is added to the listed prices.
• Last orders are at 20:30 even though the restaurant is open until 22:00.
• Cancelling on the day costs the full price of the course.
• If you are more than 30 minutes late and cannot be reached, the booking may be treated as cancelled.

A ramen and tsukemen shop whose idea is that you eat ramen in a private room. Besides 8 counter seats there are nine private rooms: one for two, five for four, two for six and one for eight. It is three minutes from Roppongi Station and open every day of the year.

It runs from 11:00 until 9:00 the following morning, and on Sundays until 5:00. Bowls are ¥1,180 to ¥1,280 and dipping noodles ¥1,280 to ¥1,380, with a larger portion ¥150 more. The menu is published in English as well as Japanese and Chinese.

Good to know

• Smoking is separated rather than banned.
• When Monday is a public holiday, the Sunday closes at 9:00 and the Monday at 5:00 instead.
• Toppings are ¥150 to ¥280 each, or ¥600 for all of them.

A branch of the tonkotsu ramen chain, in the basement of the HK Asakusa Building a few steps from Ginza Line exit 8. It has ten seats in the solo booths the chain calls the flavour concentration counter, and thirty-eight table seats, so you can eat alone behind a partition or sit with other people.

The shop serves one bowl of ramen and lets you adjust it: richness, garlic, spring onion, the strength of the red sauce, and how firm the noodles are. Opening at 9:00 means it is also one of the few places in Asakusa where you can eat ramen in the morning.

Good to know

• The shop can stop seating people before last orders when it is busy, even though the door is still open.
• The same building holds two more late-night places: Warawara on the 3rd floor and Mekiki no Ginji on the 4th.

Umegaoka Sushi no Midori has a branch on the fourth floor of Mark City East, inside the Shibuya Station terminal building. It seats 62 and serves the chain's sets, from the Jo nigiri at ¥1,980 to the Chotokusen nigiri at ¥3,630, all with a chawanmushi. Since 1 October the restaurant has stayed open through the afternoon, from 11:00 to 21:00, and it closes only on 1 January. Seating is by numbered ticket, taken from the machine at the entrance or through the branch's LINE account, and guests are asked to keep their meal within two hours.

Good to know

• Seating is by numbered ticket. Take one from the machine at the entrance from 10:00, or through the branch's LINE account on weekdays from 10:00 to 19:30 while you are within about one kilometre of the restaurant. Tickets are for up to 10 adults.
• The restaurant asks guests to keep their meal within two hours.
• Ticketing may be stopped early if the queue will not be seated before last orders.
• Closed on 1 January.
• Reservations are taken through TableCheck, or by phone on 050-3623-4347 for takeaway and seat bookings.
• Mark City's own car park gives one hour free with a spend of ¥3,000 including tax; you must show the white parking ticket when you pay.
• The official page notes that prices for some items may differ at individual branches.
• The walking time from the station, the smoking policy, any cover charge, any age limit and English support are not stated on the official page.