Surrounding a stone paved courtyard with relaxing patio seating, near Daikanyama’s landmark green flower, Eataly is the largest Italian food & wine center in Japan.   The store is a bakery, deli and wine store all rolled into one great location and also offers prepared food that you can take home and a variety of dine-in offerings. 

La Pasta offers fresh pasta with a choice of three different sauces each day, I Salumi E I Formaggi offers sample plates of proscuitto and cheeses straight from Italy, authentic Neapolitan Pizza comes straight out of the wood burning at La Pizza E La Foccacia, and Le Verdue offers vegetarian cuisine.  If you have room left for dessert, Il Gelato serves artisanal gelato alongside a very tempting pastry bar.

At Eataly “you can follow taste itineraries or wander through themed educational areas, attend courses in food education or take part in cooking classes held by renowned chefs. The calendar of events is packed with tastings, drinks with producers and various events dedicated to local products, and there’s a specialized library available for consultation. Scattered throughout are mini-restaurants where you can sample delicious dishes or take away prepared foods for later.”

My lunch companion Honor, webmistress of Tokyotopia, ordered the vegetarian Lasagna and I had a scrumptious dish that combined a generous serving of a fresh plum tomato sauce served with a dollop of ricotta cheese and lightly toasted bread.  Great Italian bread along with olive oil and vinegar were complimentary as was bottled Italian water. 

Both our dishes were excellent but the service was not as attentive as we had hoped, probably due to the fact that we were one of the first diners on their first day open to the public.  However, we dined at the counter and the chefs, who spoke English, were very helpful and friendly with an obvious passion for the food they were preparing. 

I will definitely will visit Eataly again as it is not often that you find a store where you can buy, eat and learn about great Italian cuisine under one roof in Japan!  (Eataly store diagram)

Eataly is located a two minute walk from Daikanyama Station and is open daily from 10AM to 10PM (Eataly Tokyo Access Map)

Image Credit:  Personal Collection

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Upon arriving at the restaurant we were warmly greeted by a cheerful, apron clad, standing outside the restaurant clapping her hands and saying “irashai!” or welcome. We were quickly ushered in to a table on the main level but there are also seats upstairs or at the main sushi bar if you want to be closer to the action.

The interior of the restaurant is warmly lit and the sushi chefs are a very lively bunch who often pause to announce a special that is about to be prepared. The waiters are patient and friendly and the service is prompt. The prices are reasonable, but most importantly the food is oishi-desu! Absolutely delicious!

Pictured below you will see my husband eagerly reaching for some of this great sushi as I took the picture. I made it just in time!

In a clockwise direction starting at the top left the sushi pictured above is Salmon (Y98/piece), a type of roe that I can’t remember the name of, minced tuna hand-rolls (Y300/roll), Seared Fatty Tuna (Y398/piece), Squid legs (Y98/piece), and in the center is Pink Tuna (Y98/piece).

I would highly recommend the Salmon and the Seared Fatty Tuna but it’s a toss up on the roe as my husband stated quite bluntly that it “tasted like the inside of a tennis ball” and as a result I chickened out and didn’t try it. Only one out of the four of us enjoyed the roe and the one that did was the only one who was born and raised in Japan.

If you like sushi you definitely want to check out Sushizanmai!

Here’s How:

Sushizanmai (website)
Locations: 20 different locations, we went to the Honten location (map). Menu: An English menu is available and some locations offer set menus or courses. (sample menu)
Hours: Varies by location but the Honten location is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Table Time Limit: Two hours

Photo credit: Personal Collection

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Okonomiyaki restaurants are fairly common in Japan and the dish is a popular one at festivals but what makes okonomiyaki special is not only do you choose your ingredients, but in most restaurants, you get to cook it yourself! Doesn’t that sound like fun? I know I really enjoy interactive dining experiences and you can’t get more interactive that cooking your own food!

Like Yakiniku, you will find a grill in the center of your table and the ingredients are brought to your table in bowls. All you need to do is mix them together, pour the batter on the grill and use a meal spatula to shape and flip your pancake. When it’s done, top it with some of the traditional, slightly sweet, sauce and optional items like mayonnaise and fish flakes and you are ready to eat!

One okonomiyaki will cost between Y800 and Y1,200 (USD $8-12) at a restaurant and will serve two people nicely. The Tokyo Metropolitan multi-lingual Okonomiyaki menu lists other combinations like asparagus and bacon (this one sounds really good to me!), Kimuchi (Korean spicy cabbage – Chinese cabbage) with pork and potato and bacon but the combinations are limited only by your imagination. I have to admit that at first I was hesitant to try okonomiyaki but I have even eaten one with octopus squid, or tako taco as it is called in Japan, and it was quite tasty. Okonomiyaki is something that I would not hesitate to try again, in fact I may even try to make it at home! (I’ll use this Okonomiyaki recipe from Kids Web Japan)

Photo Credit: Flickr, Okonomiyaki & Okonomiyaki

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Noodles are a significant part of the diet in Japan and there are three different kinds of noodles.  The most commonly known noodle in the west is Ramen, then there is Soba, a thin noodle made from buckwheat and wheat flour, and finally, my favorite, Udon, which is a thick and substantial noodle made from wheat flour that can be traced back more than a thousand years in Japan.

Udon can be served either in a hot soup or cold, dipped into a sauce called mentsuyu.  Eating udon is a healthy alternative to traditional western fast food as the noodles contain no fat – the only ingredients are wheat, salt and water.   The soup base and dips are usually a mix of soy sauce (shoyu), rice wine vinegar (mirin) and other low fat ingredients.  In addition to udon, Hanamaru offers a self serve tempura bar, curry & rice and a beef bowl. 

You can get lunch or dinner for two for between Y1,000 and Y1,500 and the service is quick.  Don’t be discouraged if you encounter a line – it will move fast and you will have more time to decide which tempura you want with your udon!

The Hanamaru in my neighborhood offers an English menu but even if the one you run across doesn’t you can decide by looking at the picture menu in Japanese.  If you aren’t too adventurous stick to kake (plain) or bukake (with lemon).  I had never tasted bukake before and it’s become one of my new favorites! 

So, the next time you are hungry for something healthy and inexpensive, yet tasty, look for the Hanamaru/Manmaru sign (upper right) and I don’t think that you will be disappointed.

Photo Credit:  Personal Collection

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When we went my husband had a cheeseburger, I had the shrimp and avocado sandwich and we shared a small order of fries. The prices aren’t cheap, our lunch set us back around Y3,000 ($30USD), but the quality of the food is excellent and the portions are generous. Homework’s is open Mon-Sat 11:00am-9:00pm; Sun 11:00am-6:00pm.

To get to Homework’s take the Hibiya Line (Tokyo Metro) to Hiro-o station. Take a right out of station exit#1 and then another quick right at the intersection. The restaurant is a few blocks down the street on your right.

Photo Credit: Personal Collection

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