12 best street food and snacks in Harajuku

This popular conveyor belt sushi restaurant is ideal for a cheap and cheerful meal, but more often than not, the queue for a seat inside borders on the ridiculous. So do this instead: skip the line and order from the takeaway menu, which includes these fun sushi crêpes. 

A twist on the ubiquitous Harajuku snack, these crêpes are filled with popular sushi fillings such as shrimp and tuna along with veggies and crispy rice dumplings. There are two options – spicy tuna and shrimp mentaiko cheese – each priced at a reasonable ¥380.

If you love mochi and all things chewy, make a pitstop at Hakata Yamadaya. This sweets shop from Fukuoka specialises in dango, or Japanese rice flour dumplings, served with flavoured toppings. 

In fact, we’ve never seen such a wide variety of dango; you can order them as a simple skewer of three dumplings, in a cup or bottled in glass jars. Better yet, have them skewered on an extra-long stick, which can fit between 19 and 25 dango, each with a different topping (the 19-flavour stick costs just ¥999).

The toppings on offer range from the standard (such as classic mitarashi, or sweetened soy sauce glaze) to the unusual (such as zunda or crushed edamame beans, Ramune soda, and purple sweet potato).

Tokyo’s on a Godiva craze lately with the opening of the Belgian chocolate brand’s first bakery in the world and now, this chocolate dessert shop in Harajuku. Fittingly for Tokyo’s capital of kawaii, the menu here offers mostly crêpes as well as frappe and Belgian waffles. The shop also sells boxed cookies and chocolates, but you might want to go straight to the refrigerator for Godiva’s speciality chocolate daifuku mochi filled with fresh fruit.

If you can’t decide among all the desserts, opt for the special Harajuku crêpe and get ready for a chocolate high. This ultimate chocolate crêpe is overloaded with fondant chocolate, chocolate custard, chocolate ice cream and chocolate whipped cream, and then finished off with a drizzle of warm chocolate sauce from the shop's dreamy chocolate fountain.

Strawberry Fetish specialises in tanghulu, a simple candy made by covering fresh fruit in a thin, crunchy layer of melted rock sugar. As these treats feature plenty of fresh fruit, they might make you feel less guilty about consuming all that sugary sweetness compared to some of the other desserts and snacks found along Takeshita-dori.

There are five varieties of tanghulu here, including strawberry (¥600), strawberry and green grapes (¥700), strawberry and purple grapes (¥700), strawberry and marshmallow (¥650), and grape (¥450). For an additional ¥70, you’ll get a side of condensed milk for dipping. 

Bubble tea has been around for quite some time now, but Tokyo seems to be going through a boba resurgence lately, with tea shops thriving all over the city. In Harajuku, we enjoy the tea options at Taiwanese specialist Koi Thé. The takeaway shop offers milk tea, fresh juices, tea lattes, flavoured teas and a Japan-exclusive menu which includes matcha. 

What sets this bubble tea shop apart from others is that Koi Thé uses golden tapioca bubbles instead of the standard black ones. These golden bobas are just as chewy and they pair well with the shop’s taro mochi. We also like the complete customisation, where you can choose an exact amount of ice, sweetness level and extra toppings.

If you’re looking for a quintessential Japanese dessert, you can’t go wrong with an ichigo daifuku. With a prime location right on Harajuku’s bustling Takeshita-dori, this confectionery turns out fruit-filled mochi known as daifuku. Its speciality, however, is strawberries, and the shop uses fresh, seasonal strawberries and adjusts the flavour of the sweet bean paste coating so as not to overpower the delicate sweetness of the strawberries. The mochi layer, on the other hand, comes in the classic white as well as a special black colour made with the addition of bamboo charcoal.

Aside from strawberry daifuku, Yurinan also carries colourful cream-filled daifuku made with fresh cream and fruit instead of bean paste. To quench your thirst, there’s fruity strawberry tea and a range of coffee. 

This sweets shop offers a twist on the classic candy apple by coating the fruit in a variety of unique flavours including yoghurt chocolate, cinnamon sugar, Uji matcha, kinako (roasted soybean flour) and much more. Here you’ll be able to sample the season's freshest apples – in fact, the candy coating is thin enough that you can still taste the fruit’s natural flavour.

Order your candy apple either whole on a wooden stick or cut up into bite-sized pieces for easy eating. We recommend ordering the drink set, where you get to choose from a wide selection  including coffee by famed Tokyo roastery Onibus, tea and fresh fruit juice.

Japan's longest-running crêpe shop started life as a food truck in 1976 before moving to its current home on Harajuku's Takeshita-dori the following year. For many, a Marion crêpe is still the quintessential Harajuku street food, whether you're having it sweet (try the strawberry, azuki bean and whipped cream version for a sugar overload), or with a savoury filling like tuna and curry sauce.

Known for both their crêpes and crazy cotton candy, this Harajuku spot is where you can stock up on many street snacks in one go. Aside from the sweets, you'll also find bubble tea drinks as well as savoury food items like taco rice and spicy coconut curry bowls. The oversized cotton candy usually sports a much shorter queue than the opposite Totti Candy Factory. Pick either the simple swirling rainbow or animal shapes including ducks and bunnies.

This shop, originally from Korea, is popular for its Rainbow Cheese Sandwich. Introduced in 2018, this cheesy treat became a big hit on social media due to its psychedelic filling. For the perfect picture, tear apart the sandwich to see 20 centimetres of melted rainbow cheese. If you have a sweet tooth, then go for the colourful soft serve ice cream or galaxy drink. Le Shiner is one of the best spots to start your Harajuku adventure.

Round off your eating tour in Harajuku at this laidback café found not too far from Harajuku's ever-crowded Takeshita-dori. The latte is available with flavours like caramel, mocha and honey, but can be made more Instagram-worthy by paying a few extra yen and getting latte artist extraordinaire George to top your cup with an 'illustration' based on a photo of your choosing – remember to bring a pic of your favourite anime character, celebrity or dog to show him. Otherwise, you can also opt for a 3D latte art made from milk foam.