Shinjuku Tokyo Street Food & Omoide Yokocho / Japan Travel Guide

Street food in Shinjuku and three top places to visit at Omoide Yokocho Samurai Junjiro Channel Hi, I'm Samurai Junjiro Born and raised in Japan. In today's video, we'll be touring Shinjuku First we'll drop by five popular places for street food We also picked out three particular stores that you should visit while you are at Omoide Yokocho This video will be packed with information you'll find useful when you are traveling. So stay with us till the last Now, let's get started We have arrived at Shinjuku station Shinjuku station is three stations away from Shibuya and the ride would take about six minutes It's in the different area to those of Akihabara and Tokyo stations Before we begin our food tour, let me quickly touch on two of our favorite restaurants The first one we'll share is in Kabukicho, the bustling downtown in Japan The store name is Osusumeya of Shinjuku store Altogether of 140 or more of food and drink selections are in all-you-can-eat and drink form The place is always filled with people because of its affordable pricing and food reputations The other is in the direction of south exit of Shinjuku station The store is called Zauo Shinjuku store Here you can fish while you dine as there is gigantic fish tank inside We have uploaded a video regarding the store and URL will be listed in the description. So do check it out Now to food tour. The very first one can be found in the eyes of south exit of Shinjuku station It's Kareya Bongu This store serves beef curry and was established in 2020 Of course, you can dine in but menus to go are also very favored by many We have decided to pick this particularly popular one out of the two go menus This is cheese curry bread On fluffy and chewy homemade bread crumbs are added on the surface and being fried Its size is relatively big and looks very filling The store's curry is very rich and dense like demi-glace sauce Big chunks of beef cheek are stewed with thyme and it literally melts in mouth It's extra creamy from the additional cheese Such a filling rich curry bread Next we are picking up Ganso Donaiya This is a famous takoyaki Octopus bowl selling store with other 20 and more stores in takoyaki origin of Osaka and around Japan The store serves many unique flavored takoyaki. That is other than typical sauce We'll be trying this takoyaki for today This is takoyaki with corn mayonnaise topping You won't see takoyaki like this in other stores The batter of octopus ball contains bonito flake flavored broth, so it smells amazing Mayonnaise is creamy and has melty texture. I'm loving the sweet corn Octopus inside the ball is big and chewy We'll check out IKEA in Shinjuku next This IKEA is compact store with floors spreading through first to third underground It also has restaurant inside There's so many selections of food to choose from but we picked this colorful donut The donut is in the color of IKEA signboard The sweet smells around the air The dough is moist and fluffy It tastes very similar to sweet soda pops This yellow bits on the surface is crispy and has snack like textures It tastes so unique We'll be sharing about Oiwake Dango Honpo next The history of the store began in 1947 and it hosts dango This store is constantly filled with customers You can find many other Japanese desserts. That is other than dango For today, we picked this top-selling dango This is mochi on skewers with sweet green tea paste on top It's sweet, but slight bitterness is also there The matcha flavor really spreads in my mouth Mochi is so soft and chewy It's a sophisticated flavor dango Followed by that we'll be talking about Wendy's in Shinjuku Their state-born Wendy's has 50 and more stores in Japan There's so many to choose from including burgers, but we have picked out the menu that can only be enjoyed in Japan This is a popular Japanese dessert called dorayaki The Wendy's dorayaki has thick layer of whipped cream as filling instead of typical red bean paste Honey is used for the pancake part. So it smells really good The filling is also comes with plenty of chestnut paste that is cooked sweet The chestnut bits create nice change of texture The pancakes have also absorbed sweet chestnut sauce, too it's definitely a dorayaki with subtle sweet flavor And this wraps up our street food tour for now As the sun setting now, we'll now head to Omoide Yokocho From the west exit of Shinjuku station. It's three minutes travel by foot The signboard by the crossing is the sign take a right turn here and Here we are. This is Omoide Yokocho by Shinjuku west exit Right after the World War second around 1946 was when stores began to gather for business in this area and currently has about 60 stores lining up You can really enjoy and feel that nostalgic atmosphere just by strolling around More than half of the visitors here are foreign travelers From over 60 stores. We picked top three that we especially wanted to highlight First one is Ho Raya The store has been a people-gathering place for over 70 years and more One of its specialty is motsuyaki, which is a fresh innards on skewers We have picked a seat by the table outside This seat allows you to keep your foot warm by heating so it will not stop you from enjoying in the winter Let's begin by putting our orders up I'll leave the URL for English menus in the description For your reference and helping tool when come decide to visit here and dine in First to arrive are glasses of beer It comes in a chilled glass and it's wonderful Cheers Beers outside always taste better Here comes otoshi, a small appetizer plate And it was koya dofu, which is dried tofu that has absorbed broth soup The broth consists of shiitake mushrooms and clams and tofu have absorbed the goodness to its center all the flavors are flowing inside my mouth A perfect plate to complement the drink And here comes our food This is hatsu, grilled beef heart on skewers The store uses fresh meat that can even be eaten raw The sauce is slightly spicy and tastes bold I'm loving this juicy and chewy texture This really has me drinking Next we are trying motsuni, pork innards stew with miso bean paste The smell of miso is so fragrant The innards that are stewed for a long time has really absorbed the flavor to its core It's almost melting There's also natural sweetness from miso, too If you are okay with being spicy, try eating it together with shichimi, seven spice blend Sweet miso and spiciness from peppers are perfect together Let's try the next store The following store, which we'll be covering is called Yasube It specializes Japanese cuisine and was built in 1950 You can enjoy food and drinks outside here, too English menu details will be listed in description For here, we have ordered barley shochu liquor with soda and hoppy, beer-flavored beverage Hoppy is consumed by mixing with shochu liquors so you can control how strong your drink is going to be Cheers! When the liquor is gone, you can order up for another round Here's our otoshi This is glass noodle with ear mushrooms and carrot I'm loving the smell of sesame oil It's slightly acidic with some vinegar And here's our food This is nikudofu, stewed beef and tofu Soy sauce is really fragrant It's been stewed for a long time. So the tofu have really absorbed the flavor to inside It's soft and fluffy The beef is moderately fatty and really melts in your mouth It's well seasoned. So it's a perfect pair to drink Here comes the next one This is a piece of cod marinated and grilled with miso, sweet mirin and sake liquors And it's called saikyoyaki The sweet fragrance of miso and mirin sake is in the air The fish is so fluffy and fatty Literally melts in your mouth Miso flavor is really strong. So it's good to have it with a bowl of rice, too Full of amazing dishes and drinking paces speeding up But let's try out next Our last stop is Gifuya right here With 70 years of business history the place attracts so many people Here you can try out Chinese menu, but with Japanese twists Unfortunately, there is no English menu for here. So try using Google Translator We must order a glass of beer first Most of the menu here taste bold. So drinking beer will taste even better together Our first plate has arrived This is nirareba Stir-fried pork liver with vegetables It's full of chives, bean sprouts and carrots and looks very filling The meat is moist and fluffy Loving the crunchiness from the vegetables, too It's seasoned with soy sauce, pepper and Chinese broth soup and tastes really rich We'll be trying out ramen next We picked soy sauce based ramen one of the classic option for Japanese from back in time The smell of chicken bone broth is appetizing It tastes clean It comes with simple toppings like slice of braised pork Bamboo shoot, bean sprouts, green onion and a sheet of seaweed laver The noodle has really soaked up the soup Simple but purely delicious. I love how reasonable the price is Last up, we have tried the most ordered menu and it's fried rice This is yet another classical fried rice made with egg, braised pork and green onion It comes with a side of soup, too The soup is soy sauce based and it really complements the rice Since it's cooked speedily on high heat, the rice and other ingredients are flaky and not watery The fat of the pork chunks really do a good job with transferring its fat to rice Fluffy egg is amazing, too Highly recommend trying the menu out If there's a restaurant you'd like me to introduce, let me know in the comments Please like and subscribe to my channel, too Well, that's it for today. See you in the next video