16 best restaurants and cafés in Harajuku and Omotesando

Don’t be fooled by the name – this conveyor belt sushi restaurant isn’t in Ginza, it’s in Omotesando. It’s run by The Onodera Group, which operates the famous Sushi Ginza Onodera chain around the world, including a Michelin-starred outlet in New York.

Kaitensushi Ginza Onodera, however, serves up a premium selection of seafood at decidedly more affordable prices. Sure, the food is a little more pricey than at your neighbourhood conveyor belt sushi store, but it’s a great way to try some premium seafood without breaking the bank.

You can’t go wrong with the selection of tuna, which comes direct from the Toyosu Fish Market. Try all three kinds: akami (lean tuna), chutoro (medium fatty tuna) and otoro (fatty tuna) to see which one you like best. Then move on to the restaurant’s other signature sushi including botan shrimp and the Hokkaido uni (sea urchin roe).

Just as its name suggests, Mushroom Tokyo serves dishes celebrating its namesake ingredient. The fungi are delivered fresh from Katori in Chiba prefecture every day while the menu is a testament to the mushroom’s great flexibility. Try a creamy mushroom and seafood rice gratin, a mushroom TKG (mushroom over rice with raw egg) or a hearty mushroom curry for ¥1,200 each during lunch.

Come dinner you'll find an elaborate eight-course menu (¥6,600) that feature various types of mushrooms in innovative preparations. The dishes change every two months – in the past we've had mille-feuille with mushrooms, confit mshroom, mushroom tofu and even mushroom cannoli. A vegan-friendly option is also available.

A cheap eat institution in Harajuku that's been around for about 20 years, Gyoza Lou's simple, no-frills menu offers just two styles of gyoza dumplings – fried or steamed – and they're as tasty as they are affordable (just ¥340 for six). If you've got some spare change, order up a beer and some bean sprouts too. Gyoza Lou is located just off Omotesando in central Harajuku. Expect a queue.

The latest addition to the Gonpachi family, this Harajuku outpost focuses on temaki, or hand rolls, which are all made to order. The menu consists of some firm favourites such as salmon avocado and tuna, but also branches out into typical Japanese combinations including yam and coe roe, okra and natto, and stewed beef.

All of them come with a salad leaf inside to keep the nori seaweed from getting soggy too quickly. Plus, for some of the rolls, you can opt for the low-carb option, where the regular rice is swapped out with 'cauliflower rice' instead. 

Four hand rolls should do nicely as lunch, depending on your appetite. And with prices ranging from ¥260 to ¥610, rest assured you won't be breaking the bank. If you can't pick, they have some set menu options too, with three, four, five or six hand rolls plus miso soup included.

Located in a quiet backstreet of Harajuku, Tamawarai is a one-Michelin-starred soba restaurant that looks like a discreet modern Japanese home from the outside. Low-lit, with just 14 seats, Tamawarai draws a crowd for its chewy, fragrant noodles, which are made to a unique 85:15 buckwheat to wheat flour ratio. The owner-chef has a field in Tochigi prefecture where he grows and cultivates soba himself. The soba is harvested by hand and sundried in the traditional, labour-intensive way. The noodles are worth all that effort – fragrant and chewy from the coarsely ground flour.

Try the set of soba noodles, served hot or cold, with tempura and seafood. The soba with tofu, however, is our favourite: a bowl of chilled noodles topped with a cloud of creamy, airy house-made tofu and a mound of bonito flakes. Served alongside the bowl is a small flask of rich soy-based sauce to pour over the noodles. The yakimiso, a portion of chunky miso paste mixed with carrot and spring onions and grilled until the top caramelises, is the ideal starter or side.

Tucked away in the alleys off Cat Street among cutesy cafés and creperies is the enduring California-style joint, The Great Burger. At this long-time establishment of Harajuku, the laid-back, beachy atmosphere is typically what attracts passing shoppers, but it's the burgers that people are willing to stand in line for. 

With its extensive menu, you can have burgers any way you want, whether it's with the ever-popular combo of bacon and jalapeno, or slightly more eccentric toppings like grilled pineapple or baked apple and gorgonzola. To wash it all down, you can order American beverages that are hard to come by in Tokyo, like Cherry Cola and Rootbeer. However, the restaurant also features a selection of craft beers on the tap for those looking to roll straight from lunch into happy hour.

With its collection of artworks and Japanese garden designed by Hiroshi Sugimoto, Sahsya Kanetanaka is a confoundingly peaceful space hidden on the second floor of Oak Omotesando. While the restaurant itself is small, its minimalist design consisting of two long counters facing the garden make it feel far more spacious than it actually is.

During the day, the restaurant is frequented by shoppers looking for a tea break with traditional Japanese sweets, but the restaurant’s evening menu draws in diners looking for a contemporary kaiseki meal. There are two dinner courses available for ¥5,000 and ¥8,800 per head. The courses are beautifully presented, beginning with dishes like miso cured fish and ending with mochi and bean paste paired with a freshly whisked bowl of matcha. 

Hidden away in a quiet back alley just steps from the hustle and bustle of Harajuku lies Kiki, the domain of haute cuisine wizard Yuki Noda. Having moved to France at 22, Noda worked at venerable Paris establishment Taillevent before returning to Japan to take up the sous chef position under Christophe Paucod at Kagurazaka’s Lugdunum Bouchon Lyonnais. Noda went independent in 2011, leaving behind the hallowed halls of Michelin-starred restaurants in favour of a more casual setting in the form of Kiki.

With the lunch course set at ¥13,000 and dinner at ¥15,000, chef Noda is particularly fond of reimagining Japanese ingredients through French cooking techniques.

Eatrip feels like a sanctuary of calm in Tokyo’s bustling streets. To reach this rustic restaurant, you’ll stroll up a stone path surrounded by lush greenery before coming to a charming old wooden house with an open kitchen and dining space. Owner-chef Yuri Nomura sources some of her produce from her parents – a culinary teacher and organic farmer – along with a network of producers across the country.

We recommend going for the tasting menu, which features modern Japanese dishes accented with European flavours. Expect dishes like grilled seasonal vegetables served with black bean hummus, seared sea bream with cabbage cream, as well as grilled Yamagata beef with wild mountain vegetables, black garlic puree and Mimolette cheese. The desserts are not to be missed either; we love the crisp persimmon galette with funky sake lees cream and roasted green tea ice cream.