Yurakucho: Where You Can Eat & Drink Like a Local in Tokyo

Discover Yurakucho for Yakitori & Izakaya.

When travelers visit new destinations, they want to discover the culture by “eating like a local.” In Japan, you can easily do that by going to where the office crowd dines after work and in the city that is often near train stations. Discover the Yurakucho district for the locals’ favorite area to eat and drink.

Eating & Drinking in Yurakucho

Located right next to Ginza, Tokyo Station, and Marunouchi, Yurakucho is the perfect place to unwind at the end of the day with a cold drink and casual meal. On Friday nights the district draws a large gathering of locals looking to celebrate the end of the week.

In just a matter of hundreds of meters, Yurakucho is packed with an overwhelming selection of yakitori and izakaya restaurants all under and along the train tracks from Tokyo International Forum down to Shimbashi. There are even restaurants for sushi, Korean bbq, Italian, and a German beer hall.

If you want a local night out, walk down Yurakucho’s side streets to smell and discover all these hidden gems.

Friday night in Yurakucho looks like this with a sea of locals happy that the workweek is over. Many are red-faced from drinking with their dinner and loiter along these small streets before heading home.

You can find so many small yakitori and izakaya restaurants. During warmer months, restaurants will have tables and chairs outside to draw in more diners. Most are English-friendly but note that they will limit your dining to 1 or 2 hours to guarantee the restaurant’s turn over for more customers.

When you dine out at yakitori and izakaya restaurants, your clothes will smell like the smoke of the kitchen and the cigarette smoke of the locals nearby. It’s best to wear washable clothes or bring a bag to store your jackets in while you dine.

At some restaurants, like this 24-hour seafood establishment, you will get to cook certain dishes at your table. Also, it is a practice at izakaya restaurants to give what seems like a complimentary dish. It is actually a way to have a “table charge” to add to the bill and give the staff a larger service charge at the end of the night.

Order a variety of dishes and share them with the table! Izakaya is about small plates, sharing, and drinking. Drink and order a couple of dishes, then order more drinks and order more food. Typically, highballs and beers are the most popular drinks at izakayas.

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Angela

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Angela

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