10 best street food, snacks and desserts in Asakusa near Sensoji Temple

Tempura is usually eaten as a meal with rice or noodles. However, Asakusa Seisakusho serves it as a snack that you can enjoy on the go while you do some sightseeing in the neighbourhood. The tempura here is flattened by a high-pressure press machine, turning it into a piece of crisp in two minutes. These tempura crisps are made to order, so you’ll get them fresh off the griddle every time.

While the classic shrimp (¥600) tempura is a crowd pleaser, you’ll also find kakiage (a mix of vegetables; ¥500), kabocha pumpkin (¥500) and even a sweet daifuku (¥600) crisp. You can season your crisp with flavoured salt such as yuzu, wasabi and ultra spicy.

Asakusa Taco Taco Koromo Brothers’s takoyaki are known for their fuwatoro texture, which means they have a fluffy outer layer but a thick, stew-like consistency inside. A set of five takoyaki goes for ¥700, but you should get the popular takosen, which is much easier to enjoy with one hand. It features two takoyaki dumplings sandwiched between giant shrimp crackers and drizzled with takoyaki sauce, mayonnaise and koromo (crispy tempura batter). It’s best enjoyed on the spot as the cracker starts to get soggy after a few minutes.

The menu also offers a ring-shaped black wagyu beef croquette (¥350) as well as deep-fried manju with fillings like red bean paste (¥450), camembert cheese (¥500) and matcha custard (¥550).

In the evening after 6pm, the spacious café turns into an izakaya, where you can dine on classic Japanese pub grub alongside takoyaki and takosen.

Sweet potatoes aren’t just a snack for winter. At Imo Pippi, you can enjoy a warm baked sweet potato topped with vanilla ice cream, luscious honey butter or creme brulee custard cream (¥750) all year round. The shop’s sweet potatoes are aged for three months and then slow-cooked for a few hours to give them a much sweeter taste than your average baked potato.

For something unique, we recommend the sweet potato ice cream (¥1,400). It has a layer of vanilla ice cream and whipped cream, topped with thin, purple thread-like sweet potato paste that’s similar to Mont Blanc (the dessert).

A traditional sweets shop by trade, this long-established Asakusa fixture does a roaring trade selling one thing – jumbo melon pan. This melon-shaped (but not flavoured) sweet bun is sold hot off the oven for ¥300 each. But here’s why it’s so popular: you can have your melon pan stuffed with vanilla, matcha or a seasonal soft-serve ice cream for ¥700.

This little food stand not far from Sensoji temple offers unagi (grilled freshwater eels) at a reasonable price. So stop by Unana for a grilled onigiri topped with a generous slab of unagi, glazed with a sweet-savoury sauce and a sprinkling of sansho peppers. Each onigiri goes for ¥600, but you can get the unaju (from ¥1,350) if you’re looking for a bigger portion. 

Kuroge offers three kinds of croquettes made with 100 percent black wagyu beef. Its most popular cheese menchi katsu (ground meat cutlet; ¥500) has a generously oozy cheesy filling. The standard croquette, on the other hand, has a 3:7 meat to potato ratio and it’s best enjoyed with a simple drizzle of Worcestershire sauce. The third option is a beef croquette filled with cheese and dusted with sweet honey powder. 

Curry bread may be ubiquitous in Japan, but not the ones served at Tokyo Curry Pan. This perfectly round curry bun (¥500) is covered in fine panko breadcrumbs and then baked instead of the conventional deep-fried. Plus, its Japanese curry and cheese filling is just moreish. But what makes this bread truly special is the sumptuous truffle oil seasoning, which you’ll notice with every bite. We suggest you get a mango lassi to go with your snack.

Frites Bruges in Asakusa is one of the few places in Tokyo serving Belgian fries. Unlike the ordinary fast-food french fries, the potatoes here are cut into thick strips and deep-fried twice to achieve that signature crispy outer layer. The types of potatoes used are selected by the owner depending on the season, and sourced directly from local farms. 

There are three sizes ranging from ¥540 to ¥890, and you can add the restaurant’s house mayo dip for ¥50, which comes in flavours like aioli, honey mustard, basil, garlic mentaiko as well as shichimi. There’s also premium dips (¥190) like black truffle and mushroom, and sour cream onion, and even more luxurious options like raclette cheese and Echire whipped butter (only on weekends) for ¥250. While take-out is the norm, we recommend you sit down and order a glass of Belgian beer to go with the perfect fries. 

Karaage is a classic Japanese soul food that’s served at most restaurants, but Yukari has made deep-fried chicken its speciality by doing it exceptionally well. The standard karaage uses juicy chicken thigh that’s been marinated overnight, and it’s packed with umami flavours.

However, we recommend going for the crispy version if you want more of a crunch. Better yet, get the garlic or speciality sauce karaage for an extra burst of flavour. Too full for a snack? The addictive chicken skin senbei (crackers) or cartilage will give you the munchies.

For traditional Japanese dessert, make a stop at Asakusa Soratsuki. Here you’ll find an array of dango (mochi on a stick; ¥350) topped with strawberry slices and colourful sweet bean paste that come in flavours like matcha, mango, sweet potato and more. It also offers giant mitarashi dango (mochi with sweet soy sauce glaze; ¥350), which are double the size of the standard ones.