9 best restaurants in Tokyo for solo diners

It’s not easy for sushi chains to set themselves apart in a city like Tokyo, but Tokyo Sushi Ten has done just that with its refined omakase dinners offered at too-good-to-pass prices. Located on the third floor of the Shibuya Stream complex, this ever-popular sushi joint is famous for its weekday omakase lunch priced at ¥4,400, which includes mini ikura rice bowls and nigiri piled generously high with uni.

If you’re looking to go all-out, come here for the omakase dinner (¥8,800) where you’ll be served an elaborate list of sushi, nigiri and nimono (grilled fish dishes) until you’re suitably satiated. With the opulent nature of the meal itself offset by the casual setting, it’s hard to feel self-conscious at the sushi counter here. Besides, the skilled chefs behind the counter are excellent conversationalists. 

Denkushiflori in Aoyama Gem is a Michelin-starred restaurant dishing up a fusion of modern European cuisine and Japanese kushiyaki (meat and vegetable skewers). As the restaurant is a collaboration between Zaiyu Hasegawa of one-Michelin-starred Den and Hiroyasu Kawate of two-Michelin-starred Florilège, the menu here combines the innovation of the former and the approachable playfulness of the latter.

The eight-course dinner is a reasonable ¥12,100, featuring six kinds of delicately plated finger food like lamb tsukune meatball skewers with edible flowers and firefly squid tacos with kinome miso, followed by a rice dish and dessert. Do note that the menu changes seasonally.

In 2011, Yusuke Miyashita opened his restaurant Fushikino, serving a banquet of Japanese dishes paired with craft sake, in the stone-cobbled neighbourhood of Kagurazaka. Miyashita is a licensed sake brewer, sommelier and Enshu-style tea-ceremony master who pairs seasonal sake with traditional multi-course kaiseki dishes created by renowned chef Yoshio Aramaki.

The Michelin-starred restaurant only seats nine people at a time, and as you settle down at the chestnut counter and eye the antique tableware, you know you’re in for something special. Behind the counter, Miyashita warms a flask to reach a temperature of 85°C, ensuring the fats in the fish or meat of the dishes will melt in your mouth as you sip throughout your meal.

Every evening features at least one vintage sake, which has been aged over ten years, as well as a blend of two sakes that Miyashita combines to match the food. The meal concludes with a bowl of rich matcha, which Miyashita whisks in front of you to revive you from the spell of the potent rice wine.

This Ichigaya restaurant is Jérôme Quilbeuf’s most upscale establishment yet, with tasting menus that offer modern takes on Spanish cuisine. Quilbeuf describes Tinc Gana as a ‘Gastrobar de Barcelona’, but unlike his open kitchen Gracia in Hiroo, where diners can order from the a la carte menu on a casual weeknight, Tinc Gana has a formal feel to it that makes you want to pull out your best outfit and celebrate a special occasion. 

Lunch courses are priced at ¥6,500, ¥9,000 and ¥15,000, while dinner courses are ¥12,000 and ¥19,000. Like the restaurant's interior, which is accented with an olive green kitchen countertop and tall vases of fresh flowers, the dishes here are elegant, bright and vibrant. 

Sangenjyaya’s popular taco eatery Los Tacos Azuoles, run by Mexican chef Marco Garcia, has opened its second outlet in Ebisu. Step inside Tacos Bar and you'll be greeted with a modern interior featuring indigo coloured walls and shelves inspired by the blue corn tortillas. 

Los Tacos Azuoles is known for its a la carte brunch menu, while Tacos Bar focuses more on an omakase-style dining experience in the evening. The Chef’s Omakase Fish Tacos course (¥15,000) includes a changing selection of nine to ten dishes.

Don’t expect the usual al pastor or carnitas here – the chef will whip up unique tacos with crispy fried sakura ebi (small dried shrimp) with guacamole and a side of salsa verde. He’ll also serve you a Hokkaido kampachi (yellowtail) tostada topped with yuzu peels, as well as a shirako quesadilla with jalapeno.

Newly opened Kinasa is a bistro and café that fuses French culinary techniques with Nagano's traditional flavours. With its cosy interior featuring Japanese tatami mat flooring and shoji sliding doors, the restaurant offers an intimate dining experience with copper melt pendant lights casting a warm glow on the amber-hued mosaic tiles and vintage vinyl records softly playing in the background.

During the day, you can indulge in siphon-brewed coffee with crème caramel. Evening sees an enticing a la carte menu showcasing modern Euro-Japanese dishes. The speciality is an assortment of oyaki (a traditonal dumpling from Nagano), which has been given a modern twist of black truffle and wagyu miso (¥900). Other recommendations include lamb gyoza in an oil-based sauce of eggplant and tomato (¥1,300), the house bouillabaisse (¥3,650) and the Shinshu soba noodles (¥600), which the chef hand makes every day.

Seating options include a communal low-rise table and a kitchen counter, each accommodating about 8 guests. There's a table charge of ¥400 per guest.

Chef Katy Cole brings her diners closer to produce at her farm-to-table restaurant in Meguro. Everything served in the warmly lit restaurant is organic, with produce arriving a few times a week from small farms in Hokkaido, Ehime and Kochi. The array of vegetables from the organic farms result in the most brilliantly multi-coloured dishes in Tokyo, showcasing a kaleidoscope of seasonal fare.

Her creations, such as avocado with lentils and fuchsia-pink shibazuke yoghurt, are the kind of dishes celebrity nutritionists wish they had thought of for their cookbooks but didn’t. Yet Cole has no intention of branding her restaurant as a shrine for Instagram fanatics (though they no doubt lose their heads over the rustic flower arrangements and the gorgeous tableware she handcrafted herself). Instead, she is set on her philosophy of serving honest food with the best local ingredients.

If you don’t go for a whimsical wine dinner, treat yourself to the weekend brunch: There's an avocado toast with perfectly poached eggs to remind you of all that is good and right with the world.

Shirokane Toritama makes something as simple as chicken on skewers into a work of art at this elegant restaurant tucked along the narrow streets of Kagurazaka. Stunning skewers of charcoal-grilled chicken are served alongside grated daikon and fresh quail egg to add a refreshingly light accompaniment to the meat. 

There are three omakase courses available, with seven, 12 or 15 skewers of yakitori favourites such as tsukune meatballs brushed lightly with a sweet savoury sauce or chochin (ovary) with its two rich orange egg yolks. The menu also features a selection of individual skewers as well as a number of modern izakaya side dishes that pair well with booze and yakitori. Add some green to your meal with a zesty salad of fresh coriander with mustard dressing and crispy potato chips or order get the chicken liver mousse to dip with toast and enjoy with wine. 

Wine pairings can feel daunting if you don’t have a dinner date to accompany you, but it’s impossible for anyone to feel unwelcome at this intimate eight-seater restaurant in the back streets of Jingumae. Run by self-taught chef Nao, who goes by a mononymous name, along with husband and sommelier Kenichiro Motohashi, modern American restaurant Julia is the best kept secret of Tokyo’s fine dining lovers.

With an emphasis on highlighting local produce, ingredients are primarily sourced from Okinawa and Ibaraki – where the Motohashis have roots – to create a seasonal tasting menu of 8-12 dishes that changes every month. The experience starts at 7pm sharp, when all the diners are served a bowl of ‘sustainability soup’ – a fragrant broth made with all the trimmings and end bits of the produce used for the rest of the course so that no amount of flavour goes to waste.

While every course that follows is crafted with equal parts finesse and imagination, the star of the course is usually Julia’s signature pulled pork slider with homemade brioche and crisp apple – the best you’ll ever have. The full tasting menu (wine pairing included) is priced at ¥25,000, though a non-alcoholic pairing is also available.

While neighbouring taverns cater to the after-work penchants of Koto’s salarymen, Blind Donkey’s farm-to-table restaurant is an unexpected deviant in its district. Headed by Jérôme Waag and Shin Harakawa, the restaurant pays homage to local produce and everything here, save for the wine and olive oil, is sourced from small Japanese farms. Waag, who worked at Alice Waters’s restaurant Chez Panissein California for 25 years, insisted on being rooted in a historic part of Tokyo, where he brings out the best in Japanese ingredients with European cooking techniques.

The menu highlights the best ingredients of the season and it’s difficult not to let your eyes rule your stomach as you sit at the rustic kitchen table, covered with colourful bowls of ingredients, aglow with linen lanterns. Vegetable dishes are a category all of their own here, and while sweet roasted carrots with mikan glaze can be enjoyed by themselves, they would also make an excellent accompaniment to heartier mains such as wild boar braised with shiitake mushrooms and red wine served over polenta.