Loved places to eat in/around Shinjuku

What is the Japanese version of Yelp? Is Tabelog the best available?

I wanted to try out a different excellent new place out every day that I am here. I was going to initially just wing it but there are a lot tourists that visit my home and I always make sure they visit the best that our island has to offer.

I was wondering what you would recommend for my stay here. I'll be here for 3 months so listing 90 different restaurants is too much but I was thinking we could discuss 9 or so a week of well-known loved places that should not be missed.

I am staying at Žs’J’‡”V’¬ in Shinjuku and I really like to eat thick stews and soups with many different types of offal (organ meats). Back home in Hawaii, I eat a lot Korean and Ilocano food such as Dinuguan (blood & intestine stew) and Dinakdakan (a brain dish).

So, for the week of 1/3 - 1/10, do you have any suggestions for places I just must try?

I'll go first:
http://www.siddique.co.jp/#!find/cjg9

^ I was thinking of trying this place out tonight. It is a Pakistani/Indian place probably a 10 minute walk from my place.

I will also list another place I went to on NYE:
http://postimg.org/image/e4cpp0zzl/

^ This a picture of the place but I don't know what the name is yet. I ordered the offal stew, liver w/ onions, and some other type of meat. The liver was really delicious!

Here in Tokyo people refer to neighborhoods based on nearby train stations, not by ku. So if you're in Žs’J’‡”V’¬ you're near Akebonobashi.

(Saying you're in Shinjuku is actually kind of confusing, since you're about a 45-minute walk from the hotels in Shinjuku where a lot of people stay.)

Here are some listings for the Akebonobashi area that can start you off: http://bento.com/ra-yotsu.html#akebonobashi

I've actually been to all of them, as I live a few minutes from Žs’J’‡”V’¬. Siddique is good but nothing special; there is a closer Indian-Nepalese place right on the corner of Nakanocho. Tashi Dalek does interesting Tibetan food if you want something a little more exotic.

Yoshiura is a great, old-school izakaya, but you'd probably need some Japanese language to order. Abuzo is quite good, and the menu is easier to negotiate I think; it's mostly charcoal-grilled meats and fish. Garni does charcoal-grilled pork (and lots of offal) on skewers with wines, and is excellent.

Five or ten minutes farther south from Akebonobashi are Arakicho and Yotsuya 3-chome, and you might like the curry udon at Norabutaya and the quirky Hamburg steak at Gooburg.

1. Siddique turned out to be not very good at all. The service was non-existent and the meat portions were so small. (I wasn't sure if I was supposed to eat the meat sauce after I finished the little bit of meat they gave) I had the Lamb Spinach curry and the Siddique special.

2. For locations, do I say, "I live near on Žs’J’‡”V’¬ by �Œ‹´‰w." I ask because aren't there a number exits for �Œ‹´‰w?

3. Please don't be afraid to list Japanese only resources, that is my entire reason for being here. I have a scholarship to study Japanese for three months. My current level is third year college Japanese.

4. I think the Indian-Nepalese place you are referring to is 'Deep Sagar'. I will try there after I finish my first Insanity session in Tokyo. ^^ (I am kinda nervous to do this in my apartment but the paper for my apartment says that it is soundproof so hopefully I should be ok)

For dinner, I think Abuzo will work.

I am thinking of trying a Michelin 3 star restaurant tomorrow. I have to see if there exists one that has the type of dishes I like. Any thoughts?

5. Lastly, you listed a guide for our �Œ‹´‰w neighborhood but are there any Tokyo-wide all star places that you, a Tokyo native, and your family/friends feel just must be tried by everyone? (I'm just curious)

2. You can just say Akebonobashi station. Nakanocho is kind of obscure. (Or is it Nakanomachi, I always forget.)

4. No, Deep Sagar is at Kappazaka-shita crossing; I get take-out from there sometimes, it's quite inexpensive. The place I'm thinking of is right at Nakanocho crossing, northwest corner.

Sorry, I don't have much advice about Michelin-starred restaurants. Maybe you'll like Birdland in Ginza; they do some raw chicken organ-meat dishes. But most starred places seem to be French or Italian, or else kaiseki or similar. Not much in the way of stews or offal.

5. There are over 100,000 restaurants in Tokyo, so it's hard to narrow it down. When I take visitors from out of town to dinner, I usually go to izakaya that have good sake lists. Washoku En in Shiodome is always reliable, and Tapas Molecular Bar in Nihonbashi is a lot of fun.

For organ meats, I really like the beef organ-meat stews (gyu motsu nikomi) at Numata in Shinjuku 3-chome: http://bento.com/rev/4672.html

Teruteru in Takadanobaba is good for the pork equivalent: http://bento.com/rev/4752.html

They're both very down-to-earth and casual.

I'm still not sure what place you're referring to on Nakanocho but I'll walk around some more this evening.

1. Abuzo was closed when I went there yesterday, New Years is my guess so I'll try again tonight.
^ Since it wasn't open, I ate at an Italian place in Shibuya. I just tried to post a picture for you but I guess I must have forgot to take pictures of the actual restaurant itself. I was pretty perturbed by the hot water they gave me because it seemed dirty and had stuff in it. I made sure to snap a picture of that though.

Oh, I actually noticed that Abuzo was closed yesterday (for the holiday). Lots of places open tomorrow (Jan. 5) for the new year.

I think this is the Indian joint in Nakanocho: http://tabelog.com/tokyo/A1305/A130504/13176680/
(The map might be a bit off though.)

I've only been there once, but I thought the food was a few notches above Deep Sagar and Siddique. Also they had some Nepalese food that was a little weird for my taste, which I took as a good sign that they're not dumbing down their cuisine.

The best South Asian in the neighborhood though is probably Dipmahal in Arakicho: http://www.bento.com/rev/2384.html

1. I actually made a typo, I meant to type 'Aguri'. But yeah they were closed because of the New Year.

Tonight, I was able to eat there at Aguri. It was quite good, I enjoyed it. I had the grilled potatoes w/ squid liver, beef tendon dish, and I believe something called Tempurri, it was a tomato offal stew.

Also, I found the Nepalese place you were referring to. It is literally right next to me. But I browsed the restaurant site you posted and according to them the best Nepalese restaurant is Sansar. So I am going to try there tomorrow.

I was looking around that site more and I see that there are a number of different types of ethnic food available in Tokyo. I am going to try and eat at at least one place in each ethnic group that has a star by it. I will focus on the types of food that we don't have restaurants for in Honolulu. Of course, I'll continue to go to Japanese places as well since here is as good as it gets for that. I have to start eating two meals a day so I can sample more, so far I've only been eating once a day which isn't healthy or making good use of my time here.

2. It is Nakanocho not Machi, I think because it would be machi if it were not used in a Chinese compound word.

3. About going to an Izakaya, I am hesitant because I don't drink. Is it worth going just for the food?

4. Up for tomorrow is Sansar for lunch and Numata for dinner.

5. The name of the Italian restaurant is 'Pasta Mama'. Good thing I keep all my receipts.

6. I am thinking of trying three Michelin starred restaurants - Birdland, Ishikawa, and Kohaku (for now). Can I just go there and eat or do these takes months of waiting? If it's the latter then I will probably not try them out. I'm not even sure if they are worth it, I was doing research and supposedly to here are no Michelin restaurants in Beijing. Unbelievable and makes me really doubt this entire system.

1. Oh yes, Aguri is great. With lots of vegetable dishes, which you don't find all that often in Tokyo.

2. "Cho" and "machi" are both used in compound-character names, and I don't think there's any hard and fast rule - you just have to know which it is for any given place. Sometimes you'll have two places with the same characters (in different parts of the country), and one will be a cho and the other a machi.

3. Some izakaya are worth it for the food. I'd say that Numata is worth it just for the food. Just remember that in an izakaya (yakitoriya, etc.) it's customary (and polite) to order a drink when you sit down. Order an oolong tea ('uroncha') if you don't drink alcohol. There's usually a small cover charge (Y300-500), and you get a small dish of food to go with your drink.

(Sometimes foreigners who don't understand local customs try to skip the drink, but it's not polite, and it gives a bad impression.)

4. Let us know how Sansar is - I liked it a lot, but I haven't been back there in several years.

6. I don't know Kohaku. I think you can get a reservation at Birdland within a week or two, but Ishikawa is much harder I believe.)

no Michelin restaurants in Beijing

Michelin doesn't publish a guidebook for Beijing, so it would be meaningless. They don't have infinite resources to cover every restaurant in the world, they only evaluate restaurants for their published guidebooks.

Personally I think the Tokyo Michelin guide is fine for rich tourists who want to find a fancy restaurant during a short visit, and for people looking for an expensive place to take a business client to impress them.

The guides make more sense in the French provinces. In a city like Tokyo with 100,000 restaurants, the places they choose are going to be kind of arbitrary.

My Favorite shop in Shinjuku
Keawjai (Thai)
https://gurunavi.com/en/e155503/rst/?__ngt__=TT0b82c7570000ac1e4a2635H...
The Sit not often but, BERG
https://gurunavi.com/en/g030072/rst/
Cafe Haiti
Subnade and Shinjuku Center Building, there is a store in Nishi.
https://gurunavi.com/en/g746612/rst/
When I went to the picture of the school of Akebonobashi I was going to Freshness Burger.
I never went to the Araki-cho. But I think the interesting bar often.

Bento.com and tripadvisor Please also refer to.
Tabelog is a little difficult search of English.
http://bento.com/ra-yotsu.html
http://bento.com/ra-shinj.html
http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaurants-g1066457-Shinjuku_Tokyo_Tokyo...

1. I tried Sansar today for lunch. They had the lunch menu out so I couldn't try the gizzards and liver organ meats like I wanted to. I was going to leave and come back another day but since I already paid for a taxi there, I thought I might as well try it out (it so hard to figure out how the bus and subway system works here).

I had the Kheemu chicken and lamb curry. Now, I am positive the portions are supposed to be small because they were also tiny here. Anyway, the salad was good and the meal wasn't bad either. It wasn't anything special but it works.

2. For dinner, I went Romina, the Peruvian place. Boy was that delicious! I had the enchiladas, Cebiche, and Feijoada. I also ordered a Chicha Morada and an Anis tea. That was probably the best enchiladas and Spanish rice I've ever had and I normally have always hated Spanish rice ever since I was a kid. I didn't know it could taste that good.

The music was really good too. The only thing that was strange was the Japanese guy who was told me he was local from Japan but didn't speak Japanese. I had to reach way back and dig up my Spanish from high school to chat with him. I guess he was trying to make it a really authentic Spanish experience and that's fine, it just seemed a bit odd.

3. Lastly, I had pasta and red wine at Fairfax Grill at about 0040. Customer service here was the most receptive I've seen so far. He just kept checking on me. The food was ok but the red wine wasn't as smooth as I'm used to having.

Hopefully Dasenka and Numata tomorrow.

Ah I love Romina, although I don't get there that often. Fairfax has had its ups and downs, but it's been pretty solid recently.

I think Dasenka changed their hours recently, and they're only open for lunch on weekends now.

1. Went to Salsa Cabana for lunch today. Customer service here wasn't that good. The food wasn't that good either. Guess I should have returned to Romina. The buffet lunch rice and chili was a deal though, it came with the lunch order.

2. For dinner, I went Dashenka. What an excellent meal and wonderful atmosphere. It was just so nice in there, just me, two workers, and an older man. I have had such a nice meal with a relaxed setting like we were old friends experience in years. The older gentleman bought a bottle of white wine and just gave me a glass. Later on, one of the ladies bought something called "Japanese Ice" and gave everyone one. We were just chatting away. The food was really delicious too especially the Russian dumplings, the strawberry dumplings, and the ginger ale. (finally someone has this, I couldn't find this brand of ginger ale anywhere, I wonder where he sourced it from)

The only thing here is they did not give me the itemized receipt like every other place I went has done. Made me a bit concerned about if they were actually charging me for all the extras they kept offering me that I didn't order. Besides that, though, I had a very nice time there, I wanted to just sit around there and relax for another hour.

3. After there, I headed straight to Doromamire (yes, I know I am just being a big fat pig but I may never ever return to Tokyo so...). Oh my goodness, the meat here was just so melt in your mouth delicious! I am definitely a fan of Yakitori and wine now. I had the liver, heart, and something called Neti or something. They all were soo good!

I drank the most alcohol that I have ever had in my life tonight, 2 glasses of red wine and one glass of white wine. I wanted to try something else besides wine since that is the only type of alcohol I have ever tasted since it is the only alcohol that has significant health benefits but I decided against it. I am still considering it but I can't convince myself to try it since it is 'bad' for me. (blame my religious upbringing even though I am not religious anymore)

What do you think about Takeda and Fuku no Hana tomorrow? ^_^

1. Ah, too bad about Salsa Cabana; I've only been there once, for dinner, and the food was pretty good, although the service wasn't.

2. Don't worry too much about getting a little slip of paper with a price, rather than an itemized bill - it's a custom in places that like to think of themselves as old-fashioned traditional drinking spots. (Presumably if you don't like the price, you still pay it but you don't come back for a repeat visit. )

3. I love Doromamire - I was just there a few weeks ago. Unfortunately the friends I was with didn't like raw chicken so we skipped the chicken sashimi....

Takeda is great, very down to earth. There might be a line if you go at peak lunchtime (or dinnertime).

Fuku no Hana has some interesting regional dishes. I'm not sure if the chicken will impress you after Doromamire, but it might. The grilled Iberico pork is really great.

1. For lunch, I went to Aquavit. The carrot soup was very good and the bread was heavenly. Other than that, it was just ok. Service was good though.

2. For dinner, I went to Shilingol. The food was good. I had the brain and some soup dish he recommended me since I told him I love organ meat. The service was friendly but it was only two people working and the server pretty much just chatted with some older ladies the entire time.

I'm not sure what's next since class starts tomorrow.

I love Shilingol and Aquavit, although I've mostly been to Aquavit for dinner.

Yesterday, I went to Tribes. I tried the camel, crocodile tongue, chicken muamba, and beef lungs. I do not recommend it.

After that, I went to study for a bit then I made my way Thien Phuoc for a light dinner. The crunchy spring rolls and stuffed tofu were excellent, the Pho not so much though.

Then, I just had to go back to Doromamire for more Yakitori and a glass of red wine. Just so good! Is there any place that can top them for Yakitori?

Doromamire is definitely one of my favorites for yakitori. I also love Souten in Otsuka, and the second branch of Birdland (in Marunouchi).

Oh, yes! I almost completely forgot about Birdland! Ok, I will try to get there tomorrow.

Today, I went to Emilia. Wow, wow! First, I had the tripe stew. That was the darn tripe I have ever had in my life! It literally was melting in my mouth! It was so good and I gobbled it down so fast that I kid you not I totally forgot what I had ate not even 10 minutes later. I had to wait almost three hours later until I returned home to look at the pictures I took.

Next, I had the foie gras and it was also phenomenal and decadent. It went so well with the homemade bread that they make.

Now, I was hoping for a perfect meal but nope. Along comes the spicy tomato pasta and ruined the streak they had going. I just did not like it at all. The texture was just plain bad and so was the taste. BUT dessert saved the day! It was a slice of some type of pie and rose petal ice cream. Very tasty!

I was thinking of giving them another chance at a perfect meal but there too many other places to try out. Oh well. ^^

P.S. - Went to Doromamire again tonight but this will probably be my last since I am going to try other late night spots if possible. It was so funny tonight though because they didn't even say "good night" in Japanese like they usually do, they just said, "see you tomorrow". :)

Ah, I love Emilia; they also do a decent lunch if you opt for the more expensive option. I don't think I've ever had pasta though, usually just starters and mains.

I'd recommend this branch of Birdland: http://www.bento.com/rev/4175.html
Just because it's less pretentious, and not filled with tourists like the main branch. Also the lamb is good, if they still serve it.