Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
When eating soupy noodles it's considered good manners
to slurp them noisily from the bowl.
Service, taxes, tipping and the bill
When you want the
bill, say
o-kanjō o kudasai
(bill please); the usual form is to pay
at the till on the way out. Consumption tax (5 percent) will push
up the total cost if not included in the prices. Some restaurants
and bars serving food, especially those in hotels, add on a
service charge (typically 10 percent). Tipping is not expected,
but it's polite to say
gochisō-sama deshita
(“that was delicious”)
to the waiter or chef. Payment by credit card is becoming more
common, but is generally restricted to upmarket restaurants
and hotels - make sure you have cash to hand.
GINZA AND AROUND
A16
Brick Square, 2-6-1 Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku
T
03
3212 5215,
W
giraud.co.jp/a16; Tokyo station; map
p.48.
Californian-Italian cuisine served at indoor and
outdoor tables facing the lovely garden at Brick Square -
a great place to chill over a glass of wine and a crisp pizza
(try the
funghi
, ¥1900) in between browsing through
Marunouchi's boutiques.
Mon-Sat 11am-11pm, Sun
11am-10pm.
Aroyna Tabeta
͋Ζ͍ͳͨͨ
3-7-11 Marunouchi,
Chiyoda-ku
T
03 5219 6099; Yūrakuchō station; map
p.48.
Note the big ¥630 sign - that's the price you'll pay
for every single plate listed, including set meals, at this
basic Thai place under the tracks between Yūrakuchō and
Shimbashi. The cooking is heavy on the chilli (a surprise in
Tokyo) but tasty, and great value.
Daily 11am-11pm.
Ì
Dhaba India
μόΠϯσΟΞ
2-7-9 Yaesu, Chūō-ku
T
03 3272 7160,
W
dhabaindia.com; Kyōbashi station;
14
map p.48.
Give your taste buds a workout at this bustling
South Indian restaurant, one of the best of its kind in
Tokyo. The colourful decor avoids the usual clichés and the
specialities include a potent chicken and black pepper
curry, and a sweet-and-sour fish curry. There's also a wide
selection of good-value set meals (the daily curry is ¥800)
and they do a mean dosa.
Mon-Fri 11.15am-3pm &
5-11pm, Sat & Sun noon-3pm & 5-10pm.
Hibiki
ڹ
46F Caretta Shiodome Building, 1-8-1
Higashi-Shinbashi, Minato-ku
T
03 6215 8051,
W
www.dynac-japan.com/hibiki/; Shiodome station;
map p.48.
Admire the breathtaking views from the
windows of this modern
izakaya
, which serves contem-
porary Japanese cuisine in sleek surroundings. The lunch
sets (from ¥1200) are particularly good value; count on
around ¥6000 a head in the evening.
Mon-Fri 11am-3pm
& 5-11.30pm, Sat & Sun 11am-4pm & 5-11pm.
JAPANESE STAPLE DISHES
With Japanese food now popular across the globe, most visitors will, before even setting foot
in the country, have sampled at least a couple of its main staple dishes. However, any national
cuisine is best tasted in its homeland, and chances are that it'll be cheaper here, too.
Sushi
is
perhaps the country's most famous food; go to a good restaurant and you'll never want to eat
it outside Japan again.
SUSHI
Unless you're totally disgusted by the thought of raw fish, you absolutely have to give sushi a
go during your time here. The name refers not to the fish, but to the vinegared rice it (or other
ingredients) are laid upon; simple raw fish is actually known as
sashimi
. At a traditional
sushi-ya
, each plate is freshly made by a team of chefs working in full view of the customers.
Choices include tuna (
maguro
), salmon (
sāmon
), shrimp (
ebi
), eel (
unagi
), scallop (
hotate
) and
egg (
tamago
); order by pointing, or going for a set (
mori-awase
; usually served at lunch).
Kaiten-zushi
shops, where you pluck your selections from a conveyor belt, are an
inexpensive, convenient way of sampling the cuisine; plates are colour-coded according to
price, and the total number of plates is totted up at the end. You'll be served green tea with
your meal, and expected to pour your own soy sauce, into which some stir
wasabi
(already
included beneath the fish in some sushi); note that it's the fish, not the rice, which is supposed
to be dipped into the soy, though this is only possible if you have good chopstick skills.
NOODLES AND RĀMEN
There are three main types of noodles to try in Tokyo. The first two usually go side by side in
simple noodle restaurants (see box, p.148):
soba
, a thin, grey noodle made from buckwheat
powder; and
udon
, a fatter, white noodle made from wheat flour. These come with all sorts of
toppings, and in either a hot or a cold broth (the latter usually a bit more expensive). King of
the noodles, however, is
rāmen
, a Chinese-style yellow noodle served in dedicated, often
atmospherically steamy establishments; this can come in a soy or miso-based broth, and
