I have a few questions about Tokyo restaurants. What are the best places that serve:[ul]
[li]sushi?[/li][li]fugu?[/li][li]Kobe beef?[/li][/ul]
This will be a matter of opinion, so I’ll move this thread to IMHO.
Just got back a few weeks ago. My wife and I got up at 5am and went to the giant fish market and wandered around looking at the enormous tunas and the immense variety of seafood being sold, bought, packaged, and lugged around by assorted means. Just across the street from the main entrance are a couple of traditional sushi houses, so we had breakfast there–sushi for a pre-7:00 breakfast our first morning in Japan. It was fantastic.
If you’re looking to impress people, the Nobu sushi restaurant only requires a few days advanced notice, while its New York counterpart (so I’ve heard) has a 6-month waiting list. Personally, though, I’d recommend any of the nicer looking places around Tsukiji station, where ArchiveGuy and his wife went. Significantly cheaper, and just as good.
My wife would probably know the names of some good steak restaurants, but she’s asleep now. I’ll ask her tomorrow morning.
The best food, though, is from the little pickup-truck ramen kitchens parked on the sidewalk at 4am while you’re waiting for the subways to start running again after you’ve been drinking all night.
Sorry it took me a while to get back to this. My wife found a couple of Kobe beef restaurants.
There’s Ittetsu at the Daiichi Hotel in Ginza
http://www.daiichihotel-tokyo.com/english/topframe.htm
Sorry, I can’t seem to link directly to the restaurant page. The hotel’s Tokai-tei sukiyaki restaurant also looks worth a try.
There’s also Ajitetsu in Akasaka.
http://www.ajitetsu.com/index.htm
The site is all in Japanese, but they play up that all their beef is from Kobe.
They both seem pretty pricey, though.