Food in Japan is excellent
And it's one of the reasons I always want to go back
The standard is really high
Pretty much everywhere
And even cheap food is good
So for my last day in the area with friends
I said, "Right, let's make the most of it!"
There's only 3 meals left together
Let's make them really good
And I don't know what happened
But it was actually the worst day for food
I guess you can't win them all
I've got this monster banana chocolate almond croissant
It's huge
The topping tastes just like a cookie
This was actually really sickly
I don't know why I chose it for breakfast
I should have gone for a nice melon pan instead
Here's my sweetcorn & kabocha bread
To be honest, it doesn't really taste of that much
And for dinner, we went to Omoide Yokocho in Shinjuku
We're out for dinner at Omoide Yokocho
Which means Memory Lane
It's a couple of alleyways
With small izakaya
Where they serve meat on sticks & that sort of thing
And drinks
Most of them are really small places
We've picked one that has a few things that are vegetarian
Like edamame, they've got potato wedges
Potatoes
They've got garlic on a stick
Which is kind of weird
Some of them have peppers & things as well
Most of it is meat on sticks though
Kampai
Omoide Yokocho is an area by Shinjuku Station
Of small alleyways with tiny restaurants
Most of them are just a counter with about 6 or 8 seats
So it's a really authentic Japanese experience
Most of them serve things like yakitori
And Japanese bar snacks
Omoide Yokocho started off as a black market
After World War 2
And it still has a back alley sort of feel
It was really hard to film
Because a lot of the places are so small
And I didn't want to disturb people
When they're just trying to relax & have a meal
It feels a lot like the food version of the Golden Gai
Which is a similar area
But with bars for going drinking
And there's a video about that on my channel
They've brought us upstairs
They've got more tables upstairs
It's actually a lot bigger than some of them here
It's a lot more modern than I expected
Because they've got a touchscreen to place your orders
It's all in Japanese
And it doesn't have an English setting
So some of the items have pictures on
Some of them I can kind of read the hiragana & katakana
So that's why we went for the mystery meat selection
The pizza's arrived
They're kind of a strange sort of pizza
That's all crispy & it looks deep fried on the bottom
Here's the tray of meats
The menu's all in Japanese
So we've ordered a mystery selection of meats
Dig in everyone!
Go!
The cover charge was 324 yen per person
And for that we get...
This tray of nuts
And we're allowed to stay for up to 2 hours
It's quite normal
For bars in Japan to have a cover charge
Think of it like an entrance fee per person
You get a complimentary snack
Or a small plate of food
It's just something to be aware of
Because they can add up if you go bar hopping
There are places without a cover charge
But you do really need to look them up
Because the majority of places do have one
We've got some deep-fried cheese
It looks like it's got katsu breadcrumbs on the outside
And some cabbage
And these dark bits are leaves
I've just booked my booth for MCM Manchester
You have to book it as soon as booking opens
And at the moment it's 12 noon in the UK
So it's kind of weird I'm doing it from here in Tokyo
We've only been to one place here
It's called Tori-en
I think you're supposed to go to lots of bars
And eat a little bit in each one
But the verdict on this one was-
Not that great
Overall from the plate of mystery meats
They didn't really enjoy it that much
The verdict is:
Torikizoku was better
And cheaper
So - there you go
I thought maybe this place was a bit of a tourist trap
But there were also local Japanese people
From what we could tell, in there as well
So maybe we chose badly
Maybe the other places here are better
There's loads of small places
Serving quite similar things
Some of them had noodles & things as well
And bars along here
So take your pick
Hopefully you'll get better luck than we did!
This place is called Omoide Yokocho
Which means Memory Lane
It's right by Shinjuku Station
You can hear the train tracks in the background
I think it's on the west side of the station
There's a couple of alleyways
There's loads of places in there
It's pretty easy to find
Don't let my experiences put you off
I'm sure the other places are better than this one
And it could have been that we were just unlucky with our choices from the menu
It's definitely better if you eat meat
But I still would come back here
And try somewhere else
I definitely want to pick one of the smaller places
If only for the experience
As I said, for this sort of food
We all really like Torikizoku
Which is a chain with branches all around Japan
Everything is 298 yen
That's the drinks and the food
I didn't film it this time
Because there's already a video on my channel
But we stayed for hours
And had a lot of food & drinks
It's not the authentic experience of a smaller place
But it is a good time
This is dinner for 4 at Torikizoku
13000 yen
With a lot of drinks
Order history...
6 big beeru (beers)
4 ramune (highballs)
2 edamame
Oh man, we sold out of some of that food
We ate all there was!
10 drinks so far...
15 drinks
21 drinks!!!
Really?!
Wow!
That's not so bad...
If you've been to Omoide Yokocho
Tell me what you thought in the comments
I hope you had a better experience than I did
And again, don't let me put you off
If you're thinking of going
I'll see you next week
With a new video on Thursday