Account

Welcome

Sign in to save places, build lists, and keep your score.

Search

The Best Places to Eat in Japan

Sections

Tap another section to add it. All sections

Eat, change section
  1. Rank 1135. Yassan

    Japanese

    Calabashes hang from the rafters here, a nod to the founding chef's habit of drinking sake from gourds, and the counter fills the moment the shop curtain goes up outside. This is a meat kappo, meaning an intimate counter meal built around beef offal and cuts, handled with quiet precision. Staff still call tongue "Zunge" and heart "Herz," a house code that traces back to the German physicians who were once its regulars and apparently never left.

    The awards


  2. Rank 1135. YAUMAY

    Dim Sum Chinese

    The awards


  3. Rank 1135. Yiwanshui

    Chinese

    The sign out front says "set menu" in Chinese, which tells you exactly what you're in for. Yiwanshui is a small Chinese home-cooking spot in Nishi-ku where the kitchen keeps the oil light and lets familiar ingredients do the talking. The lunch spread arrives as a colorful nine-dish appetizer platter, the kind of meal that feels restorative rather than showy. The sort of place where regulars stop thinking of it as a restaurant.

    The awards


  4. Rank 1135. Yoshitaka

    Oden Japanese

    Oden is Japan's great underestimated comfort food, and Yoshitaka treats it with the precision of kaiseki, serving each piece one at a time in its own distinct dish. The dashi here draws on Osaka's old kombu-merchant heritage, and toppings like dried kombu shavings or ground sesame nudge familiar flavors somewhere new. The meal closes with ramen or peppered rice in the Edo style, which is a satisfying way to end something that never quite announces itself as a special occasion dinner but quietly is.

    The awards


  5. The awards


  6. Rank 1135. Youshoku Ogata

    Yoshoku Japanese

    Yoshoku, the old Western-influenced Japanese comfort food, gets counter-style kappo treatment here, with the chef cooking and chatting in equal measure. Deep-fried horse mackerel, hamburger steak, and sautéed pork are the crowd pleasers, but the sauces carry the fingerprints of a French kitchen. Ingredients travel in from a Shiga butcher, a Shizuoka fishmonger, and a Kyoto farmer, which is a lot of logistics for what is, lovingly, a plate of comfort food.

    The awards


  7. Rank 1135. Yugetsu

    Japanese

    The menu arrives handwritten in the chef's own brushwork, which sets the tone for an izakaya that takes its craft seriously without losing the easy warmth the format demands. Seasonal sake pairs naturally with dishes built around small surprises, and shochu comes blended and rested before it reaches you. The vessels are made by artisans, the service is run by a couple who clearly communicate, and the name, meaning glaze and moon, says the rest.

    The awards


  8. Rank 1135. Yuyu

    Japanese

    Sashimi arrives with Daitokuji natto instead of soy sauce, which tells you something about the kitchen's appetite for a quiet left turn. Yuyu is a Japanese dinner restaurant named for a phrase about living free of worldly cares, and the format follows through: à la carte only, no rush. Beef tongue comes in a white miso that resembles a stew, and the final course lets you pick your own ending, rice, noodles, curry, or otherwise.

    The awards


  9. Rank 1135. Zucchero

    Seafood Italian

    The awards




  10. Address
    106-2 Yaoyachō, Nakagyo Ward, Kyoto, 604-8072, Japan · Kyoto
    Hours

    Open now, until 6 PM

    Wednesday 11 AM–6 PM

    Online
    Instagram



  11. The roasting happens on-site, so the smell hits you before the door does. This specialty coffee cafe from the Australian-born Single O group sits in Ryogoku, a neighborhood better known for sumo than pour-overs, which gives it a pleasantly unpretentious edge. The space is spare and deliberate, the kind of room that makes you want to sit quietly and pay attention to what's in your cup.


  12. A towering Mahlkönig grinder dominates the counter of this quiet Tomigaya coffee bar, which is the whole thesis statement in one piece of equipment. The room looks too spare to sit in until you realize it isn't, and then you stay. Single-origin espresso is the move, pulled with the kind of unhurried focus that makes the surrounding neighborhood noise feel irrelevant.























  13. Rank 1638. MASSIMOTTAVIO

    Italian Pizzeria

    Anime figurines and actual artwork line the walls of this two-floor pizzeria in quiet Eifukucho, a neighborhood that feels a world away from central Tokyo. The chef, Massimo, has spent decades making pizza in Japan and the pies here run generously sized, which is its own kind of statement in this city. Italian wines and a full menu of pasta, secondi, and desserts round things out for anyone who arrives hungry enough to go the distance.


  14. Rank 1638. Pizzeria da Ciro

    Neapolitan Pizzeria

    Tucked between temples in Sakyo Ward, this Neapolitan pizza spot is run by a chef who trained in Naples and sources his ingredients strictly from Campania. The pies run larger than the Japanese norm, soft and light in the way that only a wood-fired dough done right can manage. The room is small and familiar, the staff attentive, and an Italian beer alongside is not a bad idea. It ranked 36th in 50 Top Pizza Asia-Pacific.


  15. Rank 1638. TONCINI

    Pizzeria

    An Italian chef running a proper Italian restaurant in snowy Tomakomai, and yet the pizza is built around Hokkaido's local produce rather than any nostalgic recreation of the homeland. The dough is soft and the menu runs well past pizza into pasta, secondi, and Italian desserts, with a wine list that spans the whole peninsula. It ranked 49th on 50 Top Pizza's Asia-Pacific list, which is an unexpected thing to say about a town famous for its snowfall.










  16. A New York roaster that planted a flag in Osaka's quieter Kitahama district, this specialty coffee shop leans into minimalist design and natural light in a way that makes laptops appear almost as often as flat whites. The pour-overs get the attention they deserve, and the baristas can actually explain why. A good place to remember that Osaka has neighborhoods where nothing is especially loud.





  17. Rank 1641. Kaikado

    Coffee


    Address
    352 Sumiyoshichō, Shimogyo Ward, Kyoto, 600-8143, Japan · Kyoto
    Hours

    Open now, until 5:30 PM

    Wednesday 8 AM–5:30 PM

    Online
    Instagram








  18. Rank 1641. Sniite

    Coffee




  19. Rank 1665. Aidaya

    Japanese Noodle Shop


  20. Rank 1665. Alt

    Coffee







  21. Rank 1665. Kagura-ya

    Japanese Noodle Shop


  22. Rank 1665. Kissa Ray

    Coffee



  23. Rank 1665. Kushiwakamaru

    Yakitori Japanese








  24. Address
    3-chōme-8-11 Nihonbashi, Chuo City, Tokyo 103-0027, Japan · Tokyo
    Hours

    Open now, until 2 PM

    Wednesday 11 AM–2 PM, 4:30 PM–9:30 PM

    Online
    Website




  25. Rank 1682. Chatei Hatou

    Japanese Café






  26. Rank 1682. common.

    Coffee




  27. Address
    309-4 Bizenjimachō, Nakagyo Ward, Kyoto, 604-8023, Japan · Kyoto
    Hours

    Closed now, opens 1 PM

    Wednesday 1 PM–Midnight

  28. Rank 1682. Fuglen Tokyo

    Nordic Coffee





  29. Rank 1682. Kirimugiya Jinroku

    Japanese Noodle Shop



  30. Rank 1682. Kosoan

    Dessert


Browse a location

Current Location

Metros

Eat Score

The score comes from the awards it's won, weighted by who gave them: a Michelin star outweighs a listicle. When you sort by what's nearby, distance changes the order, never the score.

    How we score →

    Drink Score

    The score comes from the awards it's won, weighted by who gave them: a Michelin star outweighs a listicle. When you sort by what's nearby, distance changes the order, never the score.

      How we score →

      Stay Score

      Four fifths of the score is the awards it's won, weighted by who gave them: a Michelin Key outweighs a listicle. The last fifth is where it is: the ranked places to eat and things to do around it, and how safe the country is. When you sort by what's nearby, distance from you changes the order, never the score.

        How we score →

        Do Score

        The score comes from the awards it's won, weighted by who gave them: a Michelin star outweighs a listicle. When you sort by what's nearby, distance changes the order, never the score.

          How we score →

          Best Place Score

          The Best Place Score rates the area around a point, not any one place. The places are 60% of it: the best of what's within reach, weighed by distance. The setting is the other 40%: how life goes in that country (how people rate their own lives, how long and how well they live, how safe they are) and what it's like right there (the air, and the weather). If the score looks low, we probably haven't found enough critics out here yet.

          Near Me

          Sign in to see the best places near you

          Near Me ranks what's around you, wherever you are.

          Sign in with email

          New here? Create an account

          Or see the full worldwide list