LO : "last order"
: Open late  : Open Sundays  : Notable decor  : Wine served in Riedel glasses
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Omotesando
Picks:
Meat: steaks and chops at Beacon, venison, frog, boar and horsemeat at Tetsugen Nikusho, Basque-style pork at Lauburu
Western: Pierre Gagnaire a Tokyo (French), Two Rooms (grill); Benoit (Mediterranean), Relleno Sugawara (International)
Budget: Kua 'Aina (sandwiches), Umeiya (dumplings), Limapuluh (cafe)
Drinks: sake at Galali
Dessert: Chinese desserts at The Sweet Dynasty, fruit parfaits at Berry Parlour
Decor: fish tanks at Den Aquaroom
This guide covers the area along Aoyama-dori between Shibuya station and
Gaienmae. Please check the Gaienmae and
Harajuku
area guides for other restaurants nearby.
Omotesando Hills is in the Harajuku section.
See area restaurant map.
Shibuya to Kotto-dori
This artsy bar and gallery space serves wines and cocktails, burritos and "fresh herb cuisine" in a colorfully decorated setting. There's a Y2500 buffet dinner Friday and Saturday nights (7-10pm), and many parties and musical events during the week.  Shibuya 1-3-18, Villa Moderna. (directly across from Aoyama Park Tower) Open 5-11pm. Closed Mondays. | |
The large menu features unusual meats like rabbit, boar, deer, horse and frog as well as more common ones. You'll find a nice sake selection and over fifty kinds of shochu. Budget around Y5500. Shibuya 1-5-6. Open 6pm-1am (LO; 10pm Sun) daily. | |
Tasteful lighting highlights the sleek design at this sophisticated dining bar. Bizuri serves unusual drinks like shochu mixed with green tea and modern pan-Asian cuisine. Popular with the ladies. Shibuya 1-6-10. Open 11:50am-11:50pm. Closed Sundays. A small, friendly little bar that offers lots of live music and art events, including belly dancing. Shibuya 1-6-3. Open 11:30am-11pm. Closed Sundays. | |
The smart interior here is a very Tokyo-exotic mix of baked-mud walls, heavy wooden furniture, and organic-looking extra-terrestrial lighting fixtures like something from the set of "Alien". But you're really here for the wine - over 100 different varieties, from all regions of Australia and New Zealand. [See FULL REVIEW.] | |
 Beacon (Steak house). 6418-0077 This swank dining spot from chef David Chiddo (Cicada, TY Harbor) bills itself as an "urban chop house" - basically a steak house, but with more seafood choices. The kitchen uses only top-class ingredients - long-grain-fed Angus beef, wild Aussie jumbo prawns, organic Scottish salmon - and the menu offers good value for money (budget around Y8500 for dinner and drinks). The wine list focuses on smaller New World vineyards, with some twenty choices by the glass. | |
Kina (Izakaya). 3400-2244 A hip, stylish izakaya with affordable prices, and one of the few late-night outposts in this area. The decor is tasteful and modern, with stone surfaces and dark wood adding an element of solidity. The menu is organized around charcoal-grilled specialties, including free-range chicken, Kagoshima-bred pork, and Japanese domestic beef. [See FULL REVIEW.] This tomato-centric Italian restaurant/cafe offers full-course dinners from Y3500, plus a la carte tomato salads, pastas and grilled meats. More than twenty different tomato varieties are featured, and various tomato juices are sold by the bottle. Tomato-based desserts are available during teatime. Shibuya 2-2-2, Aoyama Luka Bldg 1F. Open 11:30am-2:30, 2:30-5, 5-9:30pm (LO) daily. A casual cafe where you can drop in anytime for a drink, a sandwich, or a full-course meal. The menu is California-style French, with both European and Asian touches. There's also a well-thought-out selection of wines at good prices. Jingumae 5-53-67. Open 11:30am-10pm (LO; 7pm Sundays) daily. International cuisine and drinks at this sprawling, tourist-friendly restaurant and cafe-bar. Jingumae 5-47-6. Open 11:30am-11pm daily. Benoit (Mediterranean). 5468-0881 From French celeb chef Alain Ducasse, a Mediterranean restaurant covering the cuisines of Italy, Spain, North Africa and Greece. The dining room is comfortable and attractively laid out, with nice views of Aoyama-dori, Shibuya and Shinjuku. Service is professional without being stiff. The wine list has some nice choices for under Y9000, and wine by the glass is fairly reasonable. Prix-fixe dinners from Y8,000, lunches from Y4500. | |
The former chef from the New York Grill (Park Hyatt) has teamed up with veterans from the Oak Door (Grand Hyatt) to create a glitzy new dining destination in central Aoyama. This international-style grill offers excellent fish- and beef-centered prix-fixe dinners (Y6500 and Y8500 respectively), with full-course lunches ranging from Y1750 to Y2950 (+10%sc). The spacious dining room has an open kitchen and comfortable booths looking out over the Aoyama-dori fashion parade; there's also terrace seating in the bar area. The walk-in wine cellar has some 1800 bottles to choose from. | |
Attached to the Two Rooms Grill, the bar and lounge area offers cocktails and a wide choice of wines from around the world in a lovely setting, with a big outdoor terrace looking out over Harajuku and points north. 10% service charge, but no table charge. | |
This tomato-centric Italian restaurant/cafe offers full-course dinners from Y4000-7000, and a buffet lunch for Y2500 (Y3000 weekends). More than twenty different tomato varieties are featured, and various tomato juices are sold by the bottle. Kita-Aoyama 3-15-5, Portofino B1F. Open 11:30am-2:30, 2:30-5, 5-9:30pm (LO) daily. Tasty, sometimes unusual pizzas and well-constructed pastas at this budget Italian cafe chain. Minami-Aoyama 5-10-1. Open 11:30am-11pm daily. Hawaiian-style burgers and deli sandwiches, plus Kona microbrew beers from Hawaii. Minami-Aoyama 5-10-21. (on the corner of Kotto-dori and Aoyama-dori, across from Max Mara) Open 11:30am-10pm (LO) daily. | |
KaMu (Mediterranean). 6411-0075 Pied-noir cuisine - is it southern French cooking with North African influences, or the other way around? Either way, the chef here creates inspired, modern cross-cultural dishes like lentil stew with spicy lamb sausage and carmelized fennel, and roast-garlic bisque with marjoram couscous fritters. The wine list is impressively diverse, starting at Y3300/bottle, although there are only a few choices by the glass. The retro-flashy dining room is amply chandeliered. Budget around Y4500-6000 for dinner.  Minami-Aoyama 5-11-1, Minami-Aoyama 511 Bldg B1F. Open 11:30am-2, 5-11pm. Closed Sundays. | |
The hito-kuchi gyoza (bite-size dumplings) here come in a variety of flavors, but don't miss the shiso and garlic specials. Minami-Aoyama 5-12-4. Open 11:30am-2:30, 5-10:55pm (LO) daily. | |
Chef Kenji Sugawara was one of Japan's pioneers in the art of California cuisine, and his "Tokyo international" style is unique and exciting. Menu descriptions include plenty of exotic Asian ingredients and spices, but they're handled delicately, adding subtle flavors that are skillfully balanced. The glassed-in open kitchen adds some energy and liveliness to the cozy dining room, which seats just 14. The wine list is small but diverse and reasonably priced; budget around Y6-7000 for dinner with drinks. Minami-Aoyama 5-12-6, Dai-ni Wada Bldg B1F. Open noon-2, 6-10pm (LO). Closed Sundays. | |
This elegant, very relaxed bar features gigantic fishtanks filled with exotic tropical fish from Okinawa and environs. The menu includes tasty original cocktails and light food items. There's a Y700 per person table charge. | |
The Nezu Museum's cafe looks out onto a beautiful wooded garden - a lovely, serene setting for a cup of coffee or an afternoon snack. The menu offers coffee, matcha latte and desserts as well as light meals - pastas, sandwiches, meat pies and salad Nicoise. Lauburu is dedicated to the art of serious eating - specifically, the serious consumption of pork. Billed as a French/Basque country-style bistro, the food here is prepared simply - no rich, complicated sauces or sculptural statements on the plate, just good honest country cooking. [See FULL REVIEW.] Minami-Aoyama 6-8-18. Open 6-10pm (LO). Closed Sundays. | |
East of Kotto-dori
If you're in the mood for a luxurious dessert, this gorgeously decorated basement cafe serves "haute couture parfaits" from fresh seasonal fruit (Y1400-) and fruit teas (Y950-). Upstairs is Comme Ca Cafe, the very artistic cake shop on the first floor. Open from noon on weekends. Minami-Aoyama 5-10-19, Masahiro Aoyama Bldg B1F. Open 2-10pm (LO) daily. All kinds of sardine dishes, plus a number of beef-tongue items (perhaps for nutritional balance). Seating is a bit cramped, and customers are packed in like, um, fish in a can. (The main, more spacious, branch is in Higashi-Ginza near Tsukiji Fish Market.) Minami-Aoyama 5-9-9. Open 5-11:30pm (LO) daily. Organic coffee and cakes, sandwiches and soups; everything is vegetarian/vegan (so don't expect any latte in your cafe). From the owners of the popular Cafe 8 vegan hotspot. Minami-Aoyama 5-5-21. Open 8:30am-10:30pm daily. This cute and very spacious cafe has big front windows looking out onto the fashion-shopping alley next to Kotto-dori. The menu offers sandwiches, galettes and assorted pastries for mid-afternoon snacking, as well as a diverse cocktail selection for later in the day. Minami-Aoyama 5-8-1. Open 11am-11pm daily. | |
Those with a fondness for cartoon-character dolls and action figures will find a kindred spirit in Yoshitomo Nara, whose paintings and sculptures of devilish children are as disconcerting as they are cute. A joint project with the Graf design firm, A to Z Cafe, with its original artwork, mismatched furniture, and liberal use of worn wood and corrugated iron, is a cool place to spend the afternoon. [See FULL REVIEW.] | |
A relaxing, quiet space inside a museum devoted to the whimsical works of sculptor Taro Okamoto. Minami-Aoyama 6-1-19. Open 11am-7pm. Closed Tuesdays. | |
The excellent French kitchen attached to the Blue Note jazz club. Full-course dinners from Y5000 upstairs; tapas and lighter snacks down on the first floor. (If you're going to a show at the club, you can coordinate your dinner here with starting time for the performance.) Minami-Aoyama 6-3-16. Open 5:30-11pm (LO). Closed Sundays. | |
Traditional Thai and Laotian cuisine; Cay also doubles as a nightclub and performance space. Minami-Aoyama 5-6-23, Spiral Building B1F. Open 11:30am-2, 6pm-midnight. Closed Sundays. | |
One of Tokyo's older French wine bar-restaurants (now relocated to newer quarters), with a decent selection of French dishes to go with your chosen bottle. Minami-Aoyama 5-1-25, Kitamura Bldg B1F. (on Aoyama-dori a few doors down from Andersen) Open 11:30am-2, 6-9:30pm. Closed Sundays. | |
This branch of the ubiquitous budget Thai chain has a larger-than-average menu, good food and take-out service. The decor is also a cut above the norm. Minami-Aoyama 5-1-25, Kitamura Bldg B1F. (on Aoyama-dori a few doors down from Andersen) Open 11am-9pm (lunch to 2) daily. | |
Danish-style stews and other main courses in the restaurant area above the bread shop, and European-style breakfast in the morning. Minami-Aoyama 5-1-26. Open 8am-9pm (LO) daily. This particular branch is one of Tokyo's better bakeries, with many varieties of fresh bread and pastries, baked on the premises. They also sell premade sandwiches to go. Minami-Aoyama 5-1-26. Open 7am-9pm daily. Excellent made-to-order sandwiches and salads in the basement deli area underneath the bread store. Minami-Aoyama 5-1-26. Open 9am-9pm daily. A small, homey izakaya specializing in chicken. They do a chicken version of shabu-shabu that's worth checking out - Y2700 for all you can eat. Minami-Aoyama 5-1-3, La Mia Bldg B1F. Open 11:30am-3, 5-11pm daily. Spectacular chicken wings and other chicken specialties, and a tasteful, traditional Japanese interior. | |
Late-night pastas at budget prices. Kita-Aoyama 3-6-26. Open 5:30-11pm (LO). Closed Sundays. The basement of Crayon House has an organic vegetable shop and two separate natural-food restaurants: "Hiroba", serving Japanese food, and "Home", with French cuisine. "Hiroba" offers an interesting buffet lunch for Y1,200. | |
East of Omotesando
Excellent charcoal-grilled yakitori and other chicken dishes are the specialty at this branch of the Aburiya Fudo group of restaurants. Hidden away in a quiet shopping plaza just off Omotesando crossing, this spacious open-air cafe is an island of calm in busy Aoyama. The extensive food menu includes pizzas, pastas, paella, salads and appetizers; in the afternoons the teatime menu offers a wide selection of desserts. Minami-Aoyama 3-13-21, LaPlace Aoyama. Open 11am-11pm daily. | |
Authentic Hong Kong-style desserts straight from the source, plus plenty of good dim sum, noodle dishes and other a la carte items at this very popular shop. Kita-Aoyama 3-5-14. Open 11am-10pm daily. | |
Full-course lunches are Y1500-1800. In the evenings you can have anything from a clubhouse sandwich to a full-course meal. Dinner main courses are in the Y2000-2500 range. Kita-Aoyama 3-5-15. Open 11:30am-10:30pm (LO). Closed Mondays, some Sun. Live music, dancing, and a good deal of drinking. Open Mon-Tue 6:30-midnight (no music); Wed-Thu 6:30-1am; Fri-Sat 6:30-2am. Kita-Aoyama 3-5-2. Open 7pm-1am. Closed Sundays, Mondays. Modern Spanish cuisine and a good wine list; dinner is around Y5000 per person. Jingumae 4-2-17 B1F. Open 11:30am-2:30, 6-11pm (LO). Closed Mondays. | |
Brazilian-style all-you-can-eat churrasco grilled beef and other meats; dinner is Y4000, weekday lunch Y2480. Jingumae 4-3-24 B1F. Open 11:30am-3pm, 5:30-11pm (LO 10) daily. Sweet and savory Breton-style crepes, with hard cider to wash them down, in a pleasantly decorated open-air cafe. Jingumae 3-5-4. Open 11:30am-11pm (LO, 10pm Sun) daily. | |
Tokyo's second-most-famous tonkatsu restaurant, located in an unusually decorated former bathhouse. In addition to pork cutlets there's also a full menu of set meals and seasonal a la carte items. Jingumae 4-8-5. Open 11am-10pm (LO) daily. | |
Far off the beaten path, on a backstreet between Omotesando and Gaienmae, Nalu Cafe packs a little something for everyone into a tiny space. It's a smart cafe/art gallery that serves take-out during lunchtime, located above a groovy hair salon in the basement. You could, theoretically, pop in for a drink or a slice of cake while you're waiting for your perm to set downstairs. [See FULL REVIEW.] Jingumae 4-9-2. Open 11am-11pm daily. | |
This stylish little izakaya offers excellent food, a good sake selection, and an entire menu page devoted to different varieties of salt - 12 of them in all. Charcoal-grilled seafood and vegetables are among the food highlights. Budget around Y2500 without drinks. [Go to branch review] | |
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