Overview

Pretend you’re a Japanese ‘salaryman’ for the evening on this tour to the hidden drinking dens, ‘Izakaya’ (Japanese style food pubs) and ramen restaurants of Tokyo’s Shimbashi area.

The first restaurant we visit, Sato, is a small Japanese izakaya. At Sato, quality is more important than quantity, both in terms of food and alcohol. The tuna is bluefin tuna and the pickled mackerel is fresh enough to be eaten raw and lightly vinegared. The seasonings are carefully selected so that you can feel the quality of Japanese ingredients: the soy sauce for sashimi comes from Kagoshima, the ponzu from Kyoto and the salt from Ishikawa. The tour includes six different items from the menu (appetizers, hot dishes, sashimi, fried dishes, Japanese delicacies and grilled fish) and an all-you-can-drink bar with a selection of Japanese sake, beer and other alcohol. Your izakaya-loving guide will explain the contents of the menu as appropriate.

Next, your guide will take you to a ramen shop that offers pork, seafood, soy sauce, salt, vegetable or other types of ramen according to your preferences. Shimbashi is one of the most popular areas in all of Tokyo with extremely high-level ramen shops. In Japan, there is a culture of ending a drinking party with a bowl of ramen noodles, so enjoy an evening unique to Tokyo in Shimbashi, where local Japanese people frequent after work.

Examples of dishes served at Sato:

①Appetizers: boiled seasonal vegetables, potato salad, deep-fried and soaked aubergine

②Hot dish: deep-fried oysters and tofu

③Sashimi: Assorted sashimi (tuna, vinegared mackerel, flatfish, etc.)

④Fried food: snow crab croquettes, tempura (prawns, rape blossoms, shiitake mushrooms, etc.)

⑤Sake snacks: Japanese delicacies (Crab miso, etc.)

⑥Grilled dish: Saikyo yaki of gindara cod

Possible ramen shops you may visit:

① Tanmen Shaki Shaki
Tanmen Shaki Shaki specialises in tanmen and gyoza (dumplings). The signature dish is the tanmen with chewy homemade noodles and a large portion of crunchy vegetables. The gyoza, filled with meat and vegetables to the point of almost popping, are also popular. You may be surprised at the sheer volume of food at first, but with so many vegetables and a light flavor, there's zero guilt and plenty of satisfaction.
Opening hours: Weekdays: 11:00am~23:30pm / Weekends & holidays: 11:00am~22:00pm

② Ramen Horinouchi Shimbashi
Ramen Horiuchi is particular about its noodles, with the boiling time adjusted according to temperature and humidity to give them a sticky, firm texture. The restaurant also features a light, traditional soy sauce-flavoured soup made from chicken and pork bones, and thick, juicy pork chashu (pork cutlet). For those who want to try a slightly different ramen, zaru ramen and natto ramen are also recommended.
Opening hours: Mon-Thu: 7:00am~3:00am / Fri: 7:00ama~4:30am / Sat: 11:00am~3:00am / Sun & holidays: 11:00am~23:00pm

③ Ramen Tanise-ya
At Ramen Tanise-ya, you can enjoy the classic Iekei-ramen (a style of ramen with fatty pork-soy-sauce flavored soup with thick flat noodles). The pork bone broth simmered for a day, which matches the slippery noodles, is very rich but not boring. So, it is easy for everyone to eat, and many people queue day and night to get a taste. The service is also attractive: you can choose the firmness of the noodles, the amount of oil and the intensity of the flavor to your liking, and rice and refills are free of charge.
Opening hours: 11:00am~26:00pm