Akiyoshi - Yakitori ***

Address - Nishi-Ikebukuro 3-30-4.
Opening hours - 17:00-23:00 (LO)
Telephone : 03-3982-0644

Chain of restaurants specialized in yakitori (grilled chicken); they even call themselves the "yakitori university"! While the title is a little exagerated, this restaurant is a nice place to eat yakitori. Customers sit either at tables or directly on a counter around the cooking area, which occupies the middle of the restaurant. Portions are small, but for 200-400 yens, you get 2-5 sticks. Large selection of grilled stuff, with extremely low price - even with a beer, you might pay 1200 to 1500 yens for dinner! Lots of foreigners and English menu.

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Yorozuya Matsukaze - Izakaya ****

Address - Nishi-Ikebukuro 1-24-5.
Opening hours - 17:00-23:30
Telephone : 03-3986-1047

This izakaya, with its characteristic wooden outside facade, is one of my favorite in Ikebukuro. The dark inside interior is quite cramped, especially the basement, and can be a little smoky. But they have excellent fish, both raw and grilled, including a great kamayaki. A lot of their dishes are seasonal, so you probably can go there a couple of times and never eat the same things. They have a large selection of nihon-shu, about 30 brands, served at very reasonnable prices. Great for small parties, but probably not for your romantic date.

Un restaurant presque entierèment boisé, avec une facade extérieure en bois également. Rez-de-chaussée et sous-sol, peut être très encombré. Sert essentiellement du poisson, avec en particulier un superbe thon grillé (kamayaki). Excellent choix de nihon-shu, avec certains crus qui sont parmi les meilleurs à mon goût.

Sasashu (笹周) - Sake tasting place

Address - 2-2-6 Ikebukuro, Toshima-ku
Telephone - 03-3971-6796
Opening Hours - from 17:00 to 23:00; closed on Sun & Hol

For an old, classically gorgeous Japanese setting with good food, and solid sake visit Sasashu in Ikebukuro. While not cheap, it is not prohibitively pricey, and while not stuffy, it is perhaps just slightly staid in feel. But all in all, Sasashu's a wonderful experience, in victuals, libation and ambience. The private rooms upstairs likely lose out in setting to the more popular open area downstairs, with its small open fire pits.


One of the "Top Ten Sake Dining Experiences" in Tokyo, selected by John Gautner
Reproduced with permission

Ikebukuro - Japanese food




RED = Izakaya
YELLOW = Yakitori
GREEN = Specialized food
AQUA = Sake tasting place

手羽先唐揚専門店 鳥良 (Toriyoshi - とりよし) - Nagoya restaurant ****

1st restaurant (2号店)
Address - 東京都豊島区南池袋2-27-8 (Tokyo-to, Toshima-ku, Ikebukuro 2-27-8)
Phone number - 03-5391-3479
Open - 17:00 to 2:00 (from 16:00 on Sat, Sun and Hol)

2nd restaurant (1号店)
Address - 東京都豊島区南池袋1-20-1 (Tokyo-to, Toshima-ku, Ikebukuro 1-20-1)
Phone number - 03-5979-7766
Open - 17:00 to 5:00 (Sat: 16:00 to 5:00; Sun: 16:00 to 24:00)

A chain of restaurants - with two branches in Ikebukuro (East Side) - which is specialized in food from the Nagoya area. Most of the dishes served are based on chicken, tofu or miso.
This is a relatively inexpensive place to taste unusual food, although yakitori lovers will, too, be extremely satisfied by the selection of grilled chicken available. The tsukune are especially interesting: three kind of tsukune, based on garlic, chiso or chicken cartilage are available, each served either with salt, tare or an egg yolk.
The most famous dish from that izakaya is the chicken wings karaage with pepper, which are available with normal, hot and very hot seasoning.
As it could be expected, there is a good variety of food based on tofu. The only slight disappointment were the miso, which was not as tasty as the rest of the food. Several dishes were obviously based on the same miso sauce, when slight variations would have been appreciated.
It is finally worth to note the good selection of nihon-shu - mostly famous brand, so no jisake there.

internet - www.samukawa.co.jp