8 best restaurants and shops at Mikan Shimokita in Shimokitazawa

This Thai restaurant seeks to recreate the vibrant street scenes of Bangkok with its colourful interior, tableware and street food atmosphere. The menu features a number of classic Thai dishes including green curry, tom yum kung and gapao rice. The lunch menu is a steal, where ¥900 gets you a selection of small sides to accompany your main dish of choice. Wash it all down with a Thai beer to complete the experience.

Right across from Thai Stand 999 is Dai Pai Dang 105, a casual eatery that specialises in Taiwanese street food. The restaurant feels like a typical open-air food court you'd find on the streets of Taipei. The menu serves Taiwanese fried chicken, dandan noodles, shumai and pork rice bowls. But if you only order one thing, get the yaki xiao long bao (pan-fried soup dumplings) with perfectly crisp bottom.

The venue is a mash-up of three different shops: Esszimmer, Kuon and Fuji Dog. Esszimmer is a casual German restaurant offering affordable lunch and dinner courses as well as a la carte meat dishes including assorted hams, sausages and chorizo. Kuon is a small standing bar serving charcuterie boards and wine while Fuji dog is known for its modern take on hot dogs.

This Shimokita bar is a local institution. Bar Fairground has been around for over 30 years and since relocating to Mikan, it now doubles as a wine store. At the bar, you can enjoy wine pairings with sweets and other small bites. But if you’re looking for bigger meals, you can bring wine bottles from the shop to other restaurants in Mikan Shimokita.

Just treat this shop like a wine concierge, and ask the staff for wine recommendations to match the restaurant you'll be eating at. Need help making a restaurant reservation? They can do that for you, too.

This Tsutaya bookstore also functions as a café and a spacious co-working lounge. Just like the Share Lounge in Daikanyama, you can bring your laptop to work here while enjoying free-flow drinks and snacks. Access to the lounge can be reserved via a special app. 

The store also boasts the largest selection of manga in all of Shimokitazawa. Here you’ll also find books on business, art and design as well as miscellaneous household goods, clothing and home appliances. Talk about a jack of all trades.

The Toyo Department Store Annex is like a market of sorts, with six small shops sharing the space. Sift through second-hand treasures at the vintage shops, including Sukonbu which has been in business for 17 years, and Butterfly Fall Vintage that focuses on retro American pieces from the '60s and '70s. Don’t miss Motoimaho: this unique store is made up of 480 small wooden boxes, each showcasing items such as jewellery, pouches and more from a different artist/designer.

This exhibition space is run by Konel, the digital creative agency behind the branding for Mikan Shimokita. The studio is used to showcase temporary art exhibitions, such as Mojamoja Contest, the venue’s inaugural show featuring failed works from 3D printers. Other than art, Sandbox will also host live-streaming events and video production work. The on-site audio room can even be used to record podcasts.