Tsukishima

A bar on the second floor of a converted old house in a Tsukishima back street, two minutes from the station. It keeps whisky, wine and sake, and it also serves ramen: the owner worked in a well-known ramen restaurant before opening here, and makes both a thick iekei-style bowl and a clear shoyu one.

The hours have a gap in them. It serves from 11:00 to 20:00, shuts for an hour, and opens again from 21:00 to 01:00. It is closed on Mondays, has sixteen seats at a counter and tables, and welcomes dogs.

Good to know

• Closed on Mondays.
• The bar shuts between 20:00 and 21:00, so do not arrive in that hour.
• Only sixteen seats.
• The large ramen portion is not available.

A small monja restaurant on the third block of Monja Street that opens at 18:00 and runs to 02:00, which is later than anywhere else listed here for Tsukishima. On Tuesdays it closes earlier, at 00:30.

There are 28 seats across five tables, including tatami seating, and the shop says the tables are wide for a place its size. Smoking is allowed. It does not open for lunch at all.

Good to know

• There is no lunch service; the shop opens at 18:00.
• On Tuesdays it closes at 00:30 rather than 02:00.
• Smoking is allowed at the tables.
• Listed by the Tsukishima Monja Association; the shop has no site of its own.

A monja restaurant that serves until 00:30, from noon on weekdays and from 11:30 at weekends. It is non-smoking, takes cards and QR payments, and the association tags it as welcoming to overseas visitors and to families with small children.

Several of the monja here are its own: pork with yuzu kosho, a tantan monja with noodles and minced meat, and a black curry monja made with beef tendon and squid ink. Courses run from ¥3,300 to ¥7,150.

Good to know

• Closing days are irregular rather than fixed.
• The whole restaurant is non-smoking.
• Listed by the Tsukishima Monja Association; the shop has no site of its own.

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 monja restaurant that opened on Monja Street in 2009 inside a house built in the early Showa period. The windows, the safe and the ceiling beams were kept from the original building. It seats 44 and can be hired exclusively for parties of 30 to 44.

Two stocks are used depending on the dish: a lighter stock simmered from several ingredients for the seafood monja, and a richer chicken-bone one. The kitchen closes at 22:00 and the bar at 22:30, with the door shutting at 23:00.

Good to know

• The kitchen closes at 22:00 and drinks at 22:30, though the door stays open to 23:00.
• The whole restaurant is non-smoking.
• Exclusive hire is possible for parties of 30 to 44.

A monja restaurant on a back alley off the third block of Monja Street, named after the old sweet shops: monja used to be sold as a children's snack, and the owners took the name to keep that in view. It opens at 17:00 on weekdays and 16:00 at weekends, and runs to 23:00.

The monja here are a mix of old and new. Besides the Tsukishima standard of mentaiko and rice cake, there is one built on Hatcho miso from Okazaki in Aichi, and one with a whole camembert on top.

Good to know

• There is no lunch service.
• Closing days are irregular rather than fixed.
• Smoking is allowed.
• Listed by the Tsukishima Monja Association; the shop has no site of its own.

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.

The largest of the Oshio restaurants listed here, with 124 seats over two floors: tables and tatami on the first, tatami only on the second. It is two minutes from the station, on the second block of Monja Street, and the shop describes its seating as sunken-hearth style.

It opens at noon on weekdays and 11:00 at weekends, and serves to 23:00 every day of the year. Smoking is allowed.

Good to know

• Smoking is allowed.
• Open every day of the year.
• Listed by the Tsukishima Monja Association; the shop has no site of its own.

A 114-seat monja restaurant on the second block of Monja Street that serves straight through from 11:00 to 23:00, every day of the year, with no afternoon break. There are tatami rooms, and the seats themselves are non-smoking with a separate smoking room.

The house speciality is the risotto monja, made with rice in either a cream or a tomato version, which the association lists as the most popular of its unconventional monja.

Good to know

• The seats are non-smoking, but there is a smoking room.
• Prices for individual monja are not published; only the courses are.
• Listed by the Tsukishima Monja Association; the shop has no site of its own.

The newest of the Bambi restaurants, two minutes from the station on the second block of Monja Street. Of its 60 seats, eleven tables are for two, and the association tags it as welcoming solo diners — which is not a given on a street built around sharing a hotplate.

On weekdays it opens at 18:00 and does no lunch; at weekends it opens at 11:00. The shop says it was the first in Tsukishima to serve a salt-based monja.

Good to know

• There is no lunch service on weekdays; the shop opens at 18:00.
• The whole restaurant is non-smoking.
• Listed by the Tsukishima Monja Association; the shop has no site of its own.