Izakaya

A yakitori restaurant a minute from Tsukiji Station, one of three places on the same block run by the same company. It grills Shingen-dori chicken from Yamanashi, and the room is laid out in a quiet Japanese style on the second floor.

Skewers start at ¥380 and a set of five is ¥1,800. On weekdays it serves dinner from 17:00 to 22:30; at weekends and on public holidays it opens earlier, at 15:00, and closes at 22:00 with last orders at 21:30. It is open every day of the week.

Good to know

• At weekends and on public holidays the kitchen closes earlier, at 21:30.
• Tables may be limited to two hours when primary-school-age children are in the party.
• All listed prices include tax.

A Japanese restaurant run in the manner of an izakaya, in a converted house about sixty-five years old with an earth floor. There are counter seats, tables, private rooms set apart like an annexe, and tatami rooms behind a curtain.

The dish it is known for is Edo negima-nabe, a hotpot of tuna and spring onion. The kitchen also serves shumai, duck tsukune, simmered beef tendon and simmered whale, and works with Edo vegetables such as Kameido daikon and Shinagawa turnip. The sake and shochu are chosen by the owner, who is a certified sake taster and sommelier.

Good to know

• The restaurant describes a wooden-token system — you change money into tokens at your seat at ¥100 to one token, and change the rest back when you leave — but its own page states that the tokens are currently suspended.
• On the days of the Tori-no-ichi fair the restaurant works differently: two-hour sittings, no choice of seat, and only the first floor takes walk-ins.
• Hours are later on weekdays than at weekends: 18:00 to 23:00 Monday to Friday, 17:00 to 22:00 on Saturday and Sunday.

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.

An oyster bar run directly by Tsukiji Sandai, a wholesaler inside Toyosu market. It gathers oysters from around Japan so that you can taste them against each other: large rock oysters in summer, richer true oysters in winter.

It opens only in the evening, from 17:00 to 22:00, and is closed on Sundays and public holidays. The kitchen also makes a soup curry from wild fish and shellfish stock.

Good to know

• There is no lunch service; the bar opens at 17:00.
• Closed on Sundays and public holidays.
• Prices are not published.
• Listed by the Tsukiji outer market shopping association.

Torikizoku is a yakitori chain where every item on the food menu costs ¥410 including tax, and this branch sits on the sixth floor of a building three minutes south-east of Exit 5 of Roppongi Station. It has 11 counter seats and 47 table seats, and serves until 4:00 in the morning seven days a week.

The branch page lists no indoor smoking booth and no outdoor smoking area. Power outlets, baby chairs, takeaway by advance order and online reservations are available; there is no parking, no barrier-free access and no lunch service.

Good to know

• Takeaway has to be ordered by the day before.
• Opening hours change on some days. The branch page listed 3 and 23 November as days starting at 16:00.
• No parking, no barrier-free access and no lunch service.

An oyster restaurant in the outer market, which describes itself as the only oyster specialist there. Its name dish is gangan-yaki: oysters, scallops and white clams packed into a metal can and steamed in sake in front of you, then shucked and eaten by the guests themselves.

Lunch runs from 09:00 to 16:00 and dinner from 17:00 to 22:00, with last orders at 21:00. There is no dinner on Sundays. If a Monday falls on a public holiday, dinner moves to the Sunday and the Monday evening is dropped instead.

Good to know

• There is no dinner on Sundays.
• If a Monday is a public holiday, dinner is served on the Sunday and dropped on the Monday.
• Last orders are at 21:00.
• Prices are not published.

Kushikatsu Tanaka serves Osaka-style kushikatsu, skewers coated in batter and deep-fried, three minutes from Exit 2 of Roppongi Station. There are 40 seats across counters, tables, tatami and box seating, and the house rule is that the shared sauce must not be dipped twice.

This branch has free Wi-Fi and allows pets, and there is no smoking booth. It opens at 16:00 on weekdays and from noon at weekends, and closes at 23:30 every day.

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.
• There is no smoking booth at this branch.
• No kids' chairs, no parking and no lunch menu.

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.

An oden shop that opened in 1915, after moving to Asakusa from Hozenji in Osaka. Oden is a pot of ingredients simmered in broth, and about forty kinds are served here. The same recipe has been carried through the 1923 earthquake and the war, by the founder's children and grandchildren.

It opens only in the evening, from 17:00 to 23:00, and is one of the few places in Asakusa still serving at 22:00. There are private rooms, and the seating is non-smoking.

Good to know

• A seat charge of ¥500 per person is added to the bill.
• The shop's own site gives two different accounts of its closing days — one page says Sundays, another lists only a handful of dates for the year. Check the site before you go.
• Individual oden prices are not published online; the price list is a members-only page.

A set-meal shop that opened in Asakusa Rokku in 1950 and is still run as a place where you can either eat a plain lunch or drink with sashimi. The menu runs to more than a hundred dishes, and the rice portion in a set meal can be chosen.

Raw tuna, served sliced or in chunks, has been on the menu since the shop opened. The ground floor has thirty-six seats, and the first floor has twenty-four chairs and thirty places on tatami.

Good to know

• Closed on Wednesdays.
• Last orders are at 20:00, which is early for a place that serves drinks.