Do you have any recommendations on where to eat at lunchtime in Tokyo?

by David
(Australia)

We know there are now a lot of Michelin rated restaurants in Tokyo so we were wondering if you could recommend somewhere good to eat lunch. We've heard that many of these restaurants can be quite expensive to eat at in the evening, especially at the moment with the poor exchange rate against the dollar.

However, we heard that lunchtimes there are often special deals or set meals available. Can you tell me if this is correct? If so, how do we make a booking (do they speak English?) and do you have any that you recommend?

Hi David,

First off, you are absolutely right that lunchtime has some good deals for eating out - of all kinds. Average price for a good lunch set is around 1,000 JPY - you can get them from 600 depending where you are.

If you want my recommendations for lunchtime I would head to one of these areas and just have a wander round to see what takes your fancy. We rarely go to the same place twice - I don't know what that says about us but I know I've had very few bad experiences here.

Tamachi area has lots of restaurants open at lunchtime (from Tamachi station on the Yamanote line take the West exit and cross the main road in front of you to enter the back streets - there are plenty of places to choose from here, all good (I work here which is why I know it so well). Shibuya is another good bet.

Other areas to try are the shopping area called Tokyo Midtown - (at Roppongi station) - this one is fairly new (a year or so old now) and again lots of places to choose from - it will be a little more expensive but lunchtime will still those 1000 JPY deals available.

If you want to eat in the high end Ginza area of town, my recommendation would be this one http://www.bento.com/rev/0801.html - and check out the rest of this site. This is the one I use to find restaurants, either according to location or by type of food I want to eat. The recommendations on here are good and the reviews have always proved to be accurate.

How to tell how much things cost? Need to book? Cost is usually easy as many places will have a visual display of food (plastic) with the prices on - if you can't read anything on the menu you can always point to the one you want. More and more places are now starting to offer menus in English as well - no promises but you may well find this is the case. Booking at lunchtime is not necessary - you may just have to wait a while if the place is full but that's it. Bookings come into play for evening meals - especially at the weekends.

Hope this helps : )