What to Eat in Tokyo! Japan Food Tour 2024

Hey everyone! Today's video is the Tokyo food tour part 2! If you haven't seen part 1 yet, I will link it in the cards and in the description box. It was filled with so many amazing foods, and in particular, there was one restaurant that absolutely changed my life. So trust me, you don't want to miss it! As always, all the locations are listed in the description box below for your reference, and if you like these food tours, make sure to give this video a thumbs up! And without further ado, let's get straight into the video! Oh my god you guys, I'm literally about to cry. This has literally been my dream for so many years, and today my dream is coming true! We are at the Shirohige Cream Puff Factory, and they have Totoro cream puffs. These cream puffs are the most adorable thing in the world! I'm obsessed. If you come on a weekday, you could probably come about 30 minutes early and still get a seat at the cafe. If you come on a weekend though, I would definitely recommend coming at least an hour early, but if you don't want a seat at the cafe, then you can totally do their two-go option, which is on the first floor, and there for the star of the show! So the flavors they have today are chocolate, raspberry, custard, and chestnut. I think this one is my favorite. I just am obsessed with the little leaf. This is the definition of too cute to eat, but I'm still gonna eat it. Not only is it cute, but it's also delish! This one is the custard flavor. There's actually little specks of like vanilla bean in there, and the cream puff itself is nice and light and airy. There's a little bit of a crisp on the outside, but it pairs really well with that custard on the inside. Next, let's try this one. Look at this little hat! It's adorable. This one's chocolate inside. It does have a really nice chocolatey flavor, and it's actually nice because the cream puff has a nice texture, and then you get the little crunches from the chocolate decorations, and what I'm noticing with these is that they're not too sweet either. Pretty sure this one's chestnut. I don't think I'm particularly super super fond of chestnut flavor, but let's find out. You know, it's actually not bad. There is a chestnut flavor, but it's actually kind of subtle, so it's not super like punch you in the face with chestnut flavor, which I think I prefer in this scenario. Last but not least, we have the raspberry. Oh, the little hat! I can't with the little hat. Okay, the cream is so like soft and whipped and fluffy, and then you get a pretty good like fresh raspberry flavor. Again, it's not like super super strong, but you can definitely taste it. I think my two favorites are the raspberry and the custard, but honestly they were all good, and obviously they were all so so cute. At Ginza Kagari, they're known for their chicken ramen. So it comes with this bowl of chicken ramen, then it also comes with this plate of extra meat and vegetables, and most importantly to me, the soft boiled egg. They also give you an apron, which is very nice, especially because I'm wearing white today. This restaurant is relatively quiet, but in Japanese culture, when you slurp the noodles, it lets the chef know that you really really like the noodles, and they're tasty. So morning, there will be some slurping sounds. The texture of those noodles, they're really nicely cooked. They're not like mushy or anything. They have a nice little bounce to them, but they're also not like super super firm or chewy. They're just right. The egg is marinated really nicely. It actually has a lot of flavor. Let's try the broth. Oh my gosh, it's so creamy and thick. Super comforting. You can tell by the consistency that it's definitely not a light broth. It has a thick and richness to it. It has such a nice chicken flavor. You cannot find chicken ramen this good in the States. The special set comes with this thin slice of chicken. It actually looks very similar to pork. This has a lot of flavor. It kind of has like a little smokiness to it, and it's not quite as fatty and melts in your mouth as pork, but it is really good. Fine food, and they specialize in very unique flavors of kakigori, Japanese shaved ice. So first up, we have this kinako mochi shaved ice, which is basically like a soybean powder, and then they put actual like stretchy mochi on top. Just look at how big this is. It's literally like the size of my head. All right, I guess we're just gonna go for it. Whoa. I was actually scared that the mochi would be so stuck together that it wouldn't be easy to scoop it up, but it actually breaks apart super easily, so it must be really, really soft. I'm so shocked at the mochi texture. It's literally just stretchy and soft. It's not even that chewy. The mochi creates this kind of like sticky feeling in your mouth, but then it also works really well with the finely shaved ice. I think they put some like condensed milk around the shaved ice, so that brings in the sweetness, and you also get sweetness from the red bean. And then it comes with two sauces. I like it even better with the matcha. It adds like an earthiness, and it's nice because it makes it less sweet, so if it's too sweet for you, you can kind of balance it out with the matcha. Then we also got this egg tart brulee shaved ice. They even let us watch them brulee it, which was super, super fun. And I believe they layer some fruit puree in the middle, then they add more shaved ice, and then they add that custard on top with some flaky crust pieces, and then they brulee the sugar. Let's try to crack the top. Oh wow, you can see some of that berry puree on there too. Oh whoa, these are some really unique shaved ices I've never had before. This one is really interesting because you get the fruitiness with the shaved ice, but then you get this like sweet and creamy caramelized sugar flavor from the top part. Such a good combo. I'm not sure I would describe it as an egg tart flavor. I would more describe it as fruit shaved ice with creme brulee on top. Very unique, and I'm glad I tried it. All right, for dinner I am super duper excited because we are at Hiki ni Kyu Toh Tomi. I hope I said that correctly, but this place is known to be really hard to get reservations at. They release reservations for the week on Fridays at 9am Japan time. So I was there trying to get my reservation, they booked up so fast, but luckily today Michael just randomly checked on a whim and there was an opening for tonight. So if you can't get a reservation through the booking system, just try to keep checking and see if one opens up. But what they're known for here is their hambagu, hamburger patties. And so I ordered a set with three patties, and it also comes with an egg, miso soup, and you have unlimited rice as well. The vibes are really really cool in here, and you can watch the chef making your patties right in front of you. I'm gonna try it with the green chili peppers first. It is spicy, definitely felt that one, but in a good way. The beef itself though is so tender. This is definitely the most tender hamburger patty I've ever had in my life. All right, let's try some with the spice mix. That spice mix reminds me a lot of when you get like Chinese skewers. The seasoning that they put on that, pretty sure it's the same or at least very very similar. Now let's try it with some of the garlic. I love garlic, so you really can't go wrong with that. Since it's fried garlic, it adds a nice crunch and a crisp. Definitely a different texture, and of course the patties are so so juicy and tender. They just like melt in your mouth. Last but not least, let's try it with the lemon pepper salt. That really brightens it up. It adds this acidity, savoriness, tartness as well. This is actually such a fun experience because they have so many different sauces. I can't get over how juicy the patty is. This is the juiciest patty I've ever had in my life. They definitely use quality meat and they cook it to perfection. If you can't get a reservation, you need to come here. Today we are actually at a mall food court because we are going to be trying specialty fast food items that you can only get in Japan. Like you cannot get these in the U.S. I'm very excited. I'm very curious to see what different options they have. We ordered a variety of different menu items. First up, we have this spicy miso garlic chicken. I love spicy, I love miso, I love garlic, and I love chicken, so I'm hoping that this will be really good. It's really good. The flavor on the outside is jam-packed. It has a spicy tingle on your tongue, has a little bit of a garlic flavor, it has a nice crisp as well, and the cherry on top is that super super juicy succulent chicken. It's so much better than KFC at home in the U.S., right? All right, next up we have this crispy garlic chicken. Oh, this one is actually much crispier. They must use a different batter because the breading is much more light and crispy. Similar-ish to a tempura batter, but actually thicker than that. The chicken in this one is not as juicy as the first one, but the garlic flavor is pretty strong and it also has this umaminess to it, which is really nice. Next, we have this pepper mayo chicken twister. It's kind of like a chicken wrap. It's been a while since I had a McDonald's snack wrap, but this is what I remember it to taste like. It has the crunchy lettuce and then the pepper mayo. It's not super spicy or anything. Adds the creaminess, you have the crunchy chicken. Not a bad on-the-go type of snack, but definitely the first chicken we tried was the best thing. Next up, we got some pot pies. They have two different flavors. Oh, this chicken one looks so good. Look at that filling. There's a huge chuck of chicken in there. It's kind of like a thick version of chowder. It has that same creamy taste and you get a good amount of the chicken flavor too. Not a bad pot pie. And then they also have a demi-glace flavor. This is supposed to be like a French kind of sauce made with some sort of like beef type thing. Clearly, I'm very knowledgeable about the subject. Oh, it does have this kind of like tomato flavor also with beef. Kind of a Worcestershire sauce taste. I definitely prefer the chicken pot pie over this one. Moving on to dessert, we got this choco pie. Oh, what the? Oh, interesting. It's so dry. Okay, I will say they have this melty chocolate in the middle and that's actually really, really nice. The problem is they need to add more of it. Like the ratio is completely off. The pie part is so dry. It's just like you're getting a whole mouthful of dry flakes. Your mouth is trying to like moisten it up so that you can swallow it, you know? If they just have less of the pie crust and more of the gooey chocolate on the inside, this would actually be really good. Walking to Wendy's. Walking to Wendy's. Look what we got. I'm so excited. The first time I ever tried Wendy's boba five years ago, I literally took a sip of it. It was so good. I drank the whole thing and I went back and lined up for another one because it was that good. So we'll see if five years later it still holds up to how I remember it. They had a lot of different varieties to choose from, but we kind of got one from each category. So we got the oolong milk tea with strawberry boba. We have the hojicha brown sugar latte with boba. And then we got the matcha latte with boba and ice cream. It's like a boba float. Of course, we gotta use Fimime boba straw. Link will be in the description as always. Let's give it a stir. I'm so excited. Okay, so the boba itself is really good. It's strawberry flavored and it's really nice and soft. Very chewy as well and not hard whatsoever. My problem with this is the oolong milk tea. It tastes like water. So when you drink it, it tastes like strawberry water. I think the other drinks that we got will be better. Next, let's try the matcha boba float. Give it a mix. Oh my god, this boba is so perfect. Wow, it's soft, it's chewy, it has a QQ bouncy texture. The other one, the strawberry one, was a really great texture but it was a little too soft. This one is perfect and when you chew down it releases that brown sugar flavor and you get the little creamy bits of ice cream in there. This is why I love floats. Last but not least, we're trying the hojicha brown sugar latte. It has a strong hojicha flavor which is really nice. I personally love hojicha. It's like a roasted version of matcha basically and so you get that extra like deep kind of nutty roasted flavor. The boba texture itself, surprisingly in this one, is not as good as the matcha one but I'm also thinking that they probably just scooped it from the same place. So I don't know if maybe just the ice or whatever affected the texture. Could be, but still really good. Now we are at Hyukatsu Motomura. They have multiple locations all around Tokyo and the location we're at I will put in the description box. They are known for their fried beef cutlet and what makes this really special is that they have a grill kind of stone and you can just cook it yourself to your own doneness liking. I ordered the one beef cutlet set and so it also comes with some cabbage, a little like potato salad and then you have some soup, a bowl of rice, some dipping sauce and I did see that they have warabi mochi on their menu so I had to get a side of that. Oh my gosh, you can see how rare that beef is. So let's go ahead and just place it on the stone and we gotta flip it. Oh wow, look at how quickly that cooks. So once it's cooked you dip it in any sauce that you like. I'm just gonna go ahead and do the soy sauce. Oh my god. I don't know what I was expecting but I wasn't expecting that. The beef is juicy. It was so soft and tender. You get the little crisp from the fried breading. The rice helps balance out the flavor of the beef and the sauce. Oh my gosh, that's amazing. I'm gonna go ahead and try this sauce. I'm not quite sure what it is. That sauce, it actually tastes kind of like a dressing. It's like garlicky, a little sweet. I think you can actually use that as a dressing for your cabbage as well but it's really good with the meat. It's like a fun little activity while you eat some delicious beef katsu. My mind is absolutely blown. This rocked my world. Right now we are at dinner at Yakiniku Like You and this is basically like a single stall yakiniku place. So it's a really cool concept and you order on the iPad. They have some different sets that you can choose from or you can also order a la carte which is what I ended up doing. I also ordered the rice set which comes with rice, kimchi, soup and I chose to go with the tamago kake gohan. Basically raw egg over rice and just this stall is so cute. Like you have everything you need. They give you an apron. You also have a whole sauce section. You can self-service your own water and where you're sitting there's a little drawer that you pull out and you get your chopsticks, your hand wipes, your toothpicks. So very self-sufficient. This is super cool experience already. So first I'm going to try the beef tongue. Oh wow. Oh it's hot. Things are heating up literally. Oh my god the fire. For my sauce I'm gonna add some lemon juice, some garlic and then also some soy sauce and then I'll mix that together. Then we're gonna dip the beef tongue in. The beef tongue itself already has so much flavor. I think they marinate it in some sort of like garlic, maybe a little like soy sauce flavor. Beef tongue usually has a little bit of a chew but this one actually is really really really tender. Alright next we're gonna try this beef rib. Oh my gosh. So what you do is you put it on the grill, you do a little dance while you wait for it to cook, then you flip, then you dance again, then you eat. Cook, dance, eat, repeat. Look at the sear on that beef. Wow the way they marinate their meat here it's really nice. It has this like soy saucy flavor, a little sweet and acidic at the same time. Also a little garlicky which I love and the meat quality is really value. You really can't beat it. And then last but not least we got the wagyu ribs. Wow so nicely marbled and fatty. I love the extra flavor that the grill adds. It has like a smokiness, like a charriness, a charriness, a charredness, a char. I'm always making up words. All three of the meats that I ordered were really good. I do have to say though I think the beef tongue is actually my favorite. Such a fun experience. Definitely recommend. All right so I am back at my hotel now but I just stopped by Lawson and 7-eleven because I haven't actually tried that many things at the convenience stores, also known as Konbini. So I thought now would be the perfect time to do some convenience store taste tests. So I picked up a few things from Lawson. First up I'm gonna try of course the egg sandwich. Actually not a lot of filling but let's give it a try. The bread is so incredibly soft and fluffy. Like a pillow, like a cloud. The egg filling is not bad. You do get chunks of the egg whites and you get the flavor of the Japanese mayo which is like salty, it's a little sweet. I'd buy a sandwich. Next from Lawson I'm gonna try their chicken karaage. They have different flavors and I got the red flavor which is spicy. And it comes in this cute little container and you can see the little nuggets in there. And then they also give you a little toothpick to eat it with. I think it's to eat it with or maybe it's to pick chicken out of your teeth after. I don't know. Oh you can see in the batter that it's like a reddish color. So hopefully it's spicy. These are not like chicken nuggets in America. I mean I guess this is technically chicken karaage but it looks like chicken nuggets to me. And you can tell in there there's real chicken. I might have left it a little too long so it's not crispy anymore but the flavor is good. It has a slight slight kick, it's nothing super spicy or anything. It's just like a little touch of heat. Then I also got a onigiri. I got their tuna mayonnaise one and I love unwrapping onigiri because they always have this cool packaging where it keeps the seaweed nice and crispy. Super well balanced. You have crunchy seaweed on the outside, the rice is nicely cooked, it's not mushy or anything. And the tuna mayo is actually really flavorful. Then I also got a sesame bun. Oh it already feels really soft. Look at that black sesame filling. I love black sesame. Has a decently strong black sesame flavor and it's also not too sweet. However the bun could use some improvement. It's not as fluffy as I would like and when you chew it you get that kind of like gumminess feeling in your mouth. So not a huge fan of that but I do like the filling. And then the last thing I got from Lawson is this strawberry milk. It just had such cute packaging I couldn't resist it. It already comes with a straw on the side so let's poke a hole. Oh whoa there's like strawberry chunks in there. I fully expected it to just be like strawberry flavored milk but it actually has chunks of strawberry. It's also not overly sweet. All right now moving on to the 7-Eleven items. We're gonna start off again with the egg sandwich. I just wanted to compare 7-Eleven's egg sandwich to Lawson's and see which one I like better. I feel like this one does actually have more filling in it. 7-Eleven, Lawson. I feel like this one has more flavor. It's not by much, they're both good. But I do think this one's more flavorful and the egg filling is more creamy. And even the bread is softer. I already thought that one was like so fluffy and cloud and pillowy but this one is actually more so. Then I also got a curry bun. Oh it looks so crispy on the outside. The outside is so crispy. The bread has a little chew to it which is nice. And then the curry flavor of the filling is really good. Wow okay so far 7-Eleven is definitely winning. Then I picked up a spicy pollock roe onigiri from 7-Eleven and I wanted to try their tuna one so I could compare side by side but they were out so I had to go for this one. I don't know if it's just me but I feel like the rice here has more flavor. I actually really enjoy the spicy pollock roe filling too. It's like savory, spicier than I expected but not like super super spicy. And they really don't skimp on the filling. Last thing from 7-Eleven, I got their warabi mochi. I always describe it as a cross between jelly and mochi. Oh look at that, it's so droopy. And then the powder on the outside is kinako soy bean powder. Whoa this one is more jelly-like than other warabi mochi I've had in the past. It's less chewy for sure and it kind of like melts in your mouth. It's actually quite nice. Oh and also just wanted to throw this in, I got these at 7-Eleven as well. They're these mints that are peach flavored. If you watch the Japan vlogs you'll know I've been obsessing over these. So if you see it, grab it, it's really good. But yeah overall I think I generally did like the 7-Eleven items better than Lawson. Not to say that the Lawson ones were bad but I just liked the 7-Eleven ones better. So please let me know in the comments if there's any convenience store items that I didn't try in this little haul that I need to try. Alright so let me know what was your favorite food from the video or even from part one in the comments below. I can't wait to hear what you guys think. And if there's any places that I missed that you think I should try, definitely leave those in the comments as well because I'm always on the hunt for the best eats. And yeah I'll see you guys in the next one. Bye!