11 best food and drink festivals happening in Tokyo over Golden Week 2025

Taking over the expansive outdoor lawn within the children’s play area at Meiji Shrine’s Outer Gardens, the Forest Beer Garden distinguishes itself from other boozy events in town with its lush green surrounds and bubbling waterfall.

The popular two-hour all-you-can-eat (¥6,000) option includes everything from barbecue beef, pork and lamb to veggies, yakisoba noodles, grilled onigiri and even ice pops. It includes an all-you-can-drink selection of seven kinds of beers including Kirin and Heineken, in addition to whisky, sours, wine and soft drinks.

To mark its 40th anniversary, the beer garden is offering a special menu option (¥7,000) this year, with all-you-can-drink craft beer from Spring Valley Brewery and an all-you-can-eat seafood platter. Despite being one of the largest beer gardens in Tokyo with a capacity for around 1,000 people, the event can get extremely busy at weekends, so advance bookings are recommended via the website.

The rooftop of Lumine Shinjuku has transformed into a Japanese matsuri-themed beer garden with a BBQ menu inspired by various cities and local cuisines of Japan. You can choose from Tokyo, Kyoto or Sapporo barbecue courses, all offered in light (from ¥5,940), standard (from ¥6,490) and premium (from ¥7,590) versions. The Around Japan BBQ Premium Plan offers a taste of all the cuisines in one go, for ¥8,690.

The Tokyo course comes with wagyu beef brisket in egg sauce, pork marinated in Edo-style miso, chicken marinated in salt-fermented rice koji, and sausages, accompanied by an assortment of veggies and sauces such as teriyaki, yuzu-shio and regular BBQ sauce. The Kyoto course features a beef short rib, pork marinated in Kyoto-style miso, chicken marinated in sake lees and an assortment of veggies. The Sapporo course comes with beef short-rib, Tokachi-grown glazed pork, Hokkaido-style deep-fried chicken, seafood options like scallops and shrimp, and special jingisukan BBQ sauce. All three sets include 90-minute all-you-can-drink deals where you get to choose from a list of 160 cocktails and soft drinks.

Popular German craft beer brand Schmatz takes over the Lumine Ikebukuro rooftop with its annual beer garden serving modern German cuisine. The premium all-you-can drink plan features three original craft beers, plus a range of beer cocktails including shandy gaff, cassis beer, mango beer and even a peach weizen. Additionally, there are regular cocktails, highballs, wines and soft drinks to choose from as well. 

The standard barbecue plan with the premium all-you-can-drink option will set you back ¥6,500, and includes spare ribs, beef shoulder loin, specialty sausages, chicken, corn and an array of veggies to grill. If you're looking to save, the standard all-you-can-drink lager beer plan at ¥6,000 is worth considering too.