20 best things to do in Ebisu: restaurants, cafés, bars and shops

Run by the owner of Sangenjaya’s Los Tacos Azules, you can expect authentic tacos at this second outlet in Ebisu. The menu only offers omakase-style meals that include around nine to ten dishes including seasonal seafood, tostadas, tacos and desserts. Don’t expect the usual al pastor or carnitas here – the chef will whip up unique tacos with sakura ebi (small dried shrimp), and a kampachi (yellowtail) tostada.

Tokyo’s largest jazz club Blue Note has opened up a new dining space in Ebisu Garden Place with live music every night. There’s a large restaurant, bar, lounge, private rooms and even a terrace that can seat over 200 people across two floors. The second floor also has a library packed with books selected by Yoshitaka Haba, the director of book curator Bach.

Each day features a different genre. Mondays are for piano performances, Tuesdays are experimental, Wednesdays are for jazz, Thursdays and Fridays are for DJs, and on weekends you can enjoy Latin, Brazilian and world music. On most evenings the table charge is just ¥1,100 per person.

The open kitchen on the first floor whips up modern American cuisine with course meals starting at ¥8,000. There's also the option to order a la carte, with the seafood platter (one tier ¥3,800, two tiers ¥8,000) a popular dish to share among a group. You also can’t go wrong with any of the classic all-American dishes like barbecued meat and hamburgers.

Make sure to browse through the large selection of around 40 natural wines (from ¥1,100 per glass, from ¥6,000 per botte). If alcohol isn’t for you, there’s premium fruit juice (¥800 per glass) from Asama Farm in Nagano prefecture.

Outside you’ll even find the brand’s first takeout stand serving delicious beignets along with drip coffee from Kyoto’s popular Kitaoji Roastery Lab.

Deep-fried food often gets a bad rap. But Tokyo gourmands go crazy for tempura, and Kazuhito Motoyoshi’s dexterous, majestic technique demonstrates exactly why.

Seating is limited to eight counter stools – snag one and you’ll be able to watch his every delicate, deliberate move up close, soundtracked by the swooshes and fizzles of brief rendezvous between vegetables and a deep-fryer, and the chimes of tongs bouncing off the edge of the pan. It’s all about timing and temperature, Motoyoshi insists, and he urges customers to eat the tempura within seconds of it being served. Unfortunately, this is rather tricky when your natural inclination is to photograph the gorgeous miniature sculptures so their beauty can be preserved for all time on your Instagram feed.

Fight that urge and pop these tempura into your mouth without wasting a second because the food is as good as it looks – feather-light, grease-free, gratifyingly crisp and loaded with natural flavour. The vegetables on offer, which usually include asparagus, aubergines, sweet potatoes and various mushroom varieties, are encased behind glass at the counter so non-Japanese-speaking customers can easily point and choose, and have been sourced by a chef who obsessively tracks down the highest quality ingredients.

There are four different set menus (from ¥9,500 to ¥14,900) but whatever you do, don’t miss Motoyoshi’s extraordinary signature dish: fresh sea urchin on a fried shiso leaf.

The bánh mì ('bread' in Vietnamese, as it were) sandwich is no longer a rarity in Tokyo, but the ones at Ebisu's Bánh Mì Bakery are different. These baguettes are made right in the store by bakers trained at a long-established bakery in the northern Vietnamese city of Vĩnh Yên. Even the fillings are carefully chosen based on research from the old country, starting from Vietnamese ham and pâté, fried fish, pork, beef, shrimp and vegetarian options. Press the baguette lightly in your hands and crunch off the fresh taste of Vietnam.

Adopting a similar concept as its sister shop World Breakfast Allday, Padaria offers bread inspired by different countries and cultures. You’ll find the Turkish sesame topped simit, German knotted pretzel, Finnish karelian pastry with sweet milk filling, Taiwanese scallion bread and many more interesting options.

Pair the bread with a cup of coffee, or one of the weekly soups. Expect bowls filled with the likes of Ukranian borscht (sour red beetroot soup) and caldo verde, a popular Portuguese soup packed with plenty of veggies.

Daiwa, the famously popular fruit sandwich store in Nakameguro run by a greengrocer from Aichi prefecture, has its own permanent café here in Ebisu. Da Café Ebisu not only serves the brand’s high-quality seasonal fruit sandwiches, but also offers fruity parfaits, drinks and more. Best of all, you can eat in – no more waiting to get your sweet treats home before tucking in.

Its special premium fruit sando are only for eating in and the fillings change regularly depending what fruits are in season. You’ll usually find two or three different kinds but its spring flavours include strawberries (¥2,000) and Miyazaki mango (¥5,000).

Although the price point here is much steeper than its sister shop’s takeaway versions, what you're getting are premium ingredients. Plus, each order comes with extra fruit and soft-serve ice cream on the side – everything is perfectly cut and beautifully presented.

Da Café Ebisu opens as early as 6am, making it a perfect breakfast place before you start your Tokyo outing. If you’re craving some savoury options before diving into these fruity treats, hot sandwiches are also available in the morning.

A short walk from Ebisu Station, this bar specialises in domestic craft beers and food that pairs well with said beverages. The most popular option is the 'omu-curry' (served from 3pm), a mashup of omurice and curry, served with as much roux as you can handle. For added entertainment, cat-shopkeeper Robin presides over the premises, making sure all customers finish their food, while you can also have records played on the gramophone, made in 1931. 

Friendly and casual, this ‘oriental diner’ is ideal for starting your journey into the wild world of ‘medicinal’ herb liquor (yakushu). Fusion eats and exhibitions by local artists complete the package.

This popular sweet shop sells the fish-shaped dessert taiyaki fresh off the pan daily. The taiyaki here is filled with housemade sweet bean paste and cooked for around 30 minutes to give it its signature crispy outer layer. If you’re here during the summer, we recommend getting the taiyaki soft serve, which is a cup of vanilla ice cream topped with a whole taiyaki for ¥550.

Hidden down the backstreets of Ebisu, this charming space is everything you hope for from a quaint little neighbourhood coffee shop. It’s reassuringly homely, set in a remodelled house whose entrance is almost entirely covered up by lush leafy plants. It’s the perfect place to stay idle over coffee and cake (the gorgonzola cheesecake is a winner), but make sure to check out the second-floor gallery for its selection of handbags, jewellery and ceramics by local designers.

Drip Bar started out as a retail shop in Aoyama with a small coffee counter before moving to its current Ebisu hideout to focus on the beans. The four-man team deals directly with farmers mostly in Africa and South America, while the roasting happens weekly at another location near Kichijoji, which sells beans but doesn’t serve coffee. So this offshoot café offers a better experience, as you can drink in and also buy beans from as little as 30g.

With a focus on single-origin varieties, Drip Bar roasts its beans in small batches to maintain greater control over quality while minimising waste. Each cup of coffee is handdripped to order, using exclusive drippers made to fit just 15g of ground coffee at a time. The dual-language menu is straightforward, with six bean options organised from the lightest to the darkest roast.

This ramen restaurant is only a four-minute walk from Ebisu Station and is known for its umami-filled chicken broth noodles. The seven-seat counter is lined with a tatami mat, giving it a relaxing atmosphere. You can choose between two types of noodles – medium thick and extra thick, which are hand-pulled with green bamboo and aged overnight, giving them a chewy consistency.

If you’re not full after finishing your bowl, order the ‘oyadori meshi’, which is a bowl of rice cooked with chicken thighs and skin. The kakiage kodon (tempura over a small bowl of rice), hon wasabi kodon (bonito flakes and waabi over a small bowl of rice) and motsuni (pork innards stew) are also popular side dishes.

This restaurant and bar serves Mexican and Spanish cuisine all day, and is only a four-minute walk from Ebisu Station. You’ll find it at the top of a hill, giving you a spectacular view of Tokyo Tower and Ebisu Garden Place from the rooftop bar on the sixth floor. Enjoy taco shrimp, housemade chorizo sausage, roasted Japanese kinka pork alongside signature cocktails, wine and whisky.

In a busy Ebisu shopping street where low-budget lunch places flaunt their options on display boards, Kadota is easily missed, as it’s hidden in a basement with minimal signage. It doesn’t need to advertise, as a queue of local office workers forms from noon for this busy, fast turnaround teishoku (set meal) joint.

On arrival you’ll be presented with a menu of just over a dozen options written entirely in scribbly kanji – even the prices are written in in the same way. Don’t be put off, as most of the set meals cost ¥1,080; the pricier few are towards the bottom of the list. Options include saba (mackerel) either salt-grilled or brushed with a miso sauce; sake (salmon); or meaty swordfish, among others.

Order in Japanese, if you can, as the manager is always in a hurry – you are even sometimes expected to order before sitting down. Service is brisk rather than brusque though; your food arrives very quickly, you eat, you leave. But the quality of the rice, the excellent quality of the seafood and its perfectly blackened skin, richly-flavoured miso soup and pert pickles are all sublime.

As you place your chopsticks down your empty tray will be whisked away and the handwritten bill arrive, but you won’t care – you’ll have just had the best, and best-value, teishoku lunch in Ebisu. Dinner prices are higher, but still good value even though the table-sharing continues in the quieter evenings.

This self-serve craft beer bar in Ebisu is run by the people behind liquor store Tap and Growler. Here’s how it works: the bartender will hand you an empty glass and a ‘pour card’. To get your drink, you’ll need to scan the card at one of the 15 taps of your choice; this will fill up your glass and tally up your bill. Each tap uses a mixture of carbon dioxide and nitrogen gas to give the foam a super smooth texture. 

You’ll find beers from local breweries nationwide, including big and familiar names such as Far Yeast Brewing Company, Fujiyama Hunter’s Beer, Craftrock Brewing, Devil Craft and much more. There are tables here but it’s standing room only. Feel free to bring your own meals and snacks, or get a bento from nearby konbini, or purchase one of the bar’s packaged chips, nuts and crackers to enjoy with your ice cold draught beer.

Just like its sister stores, Tap and Tumbler lets you purchase beer to take home in its sustainably made growlers, which come in 0.9 and 1.8 litre capacities.

The physical outpost of Time Out Tokyo's online empire brings a dash of cosmopolitan class to the Ebisu area – and it's a great hangout, too. Housed in the upstairs floor of key live venue Liquidroom, Time Out Café & Diner offers an ideal spot for lazy lunches, coffee sessions and meetings alike. The interior is a pitch-perfect imitation of a New York loft eatery, with skylights nestled in the exposed ceilings, and a mixture of armchairs and more conventional seating, complete with a large central table that's ideal for bigger gatherings.

Order up some international grub from the open-plan kitchen – specialities include the hearty pastrami sandwich and the mouth-watering Yatsugatake Premium Burger – and browse the library of Time Out books and magazines from around the globe. Alternatively, knock back a cappuccino, Chimay beer or cocktail, then check out the latest exhibition in the adjacent Kata gallery. And did we mention that we also have free Wi-Fi? We're nice like that.

Built on the remains of the old Yamashita shopping centre, Ebisu Yokocho opened in 1998 as a lively izakaya arcade with plenty to offer for courageous diners. You’ll find western-style wine bars, sushi shops, oden, grills and even oddities such as horse or whale meat (at Jun-chan). Some of the shops have less than twenty-five square metres of indoor space, which explains the many desks and chairs lined up near the entrances. Most businesses here operate from 5pm until very late indeed; a few others run from 11am to 11pm.