I love Japanese food. During our travel during the selfish year, Japanese food is the one cuisine of which I never got tired. Considering that we spent over forty days in Japan, that is quite a feat. Here are two tasty restaurants that we discovered during our last time in Tokyo.

Yuian Izakaya: A Great View and Good Food

Although Mr. Selfish and I are quite partial to the 35 Steps in Shibuya, we decided to give another izakaya a try. We found rave reviews for Yuian Izakaya (2-6-1 Shinjuku Sumitomo Building 52F) online and booked it for our last night in Tokyo. It is located in Shinjuku on the 52nd floor of an office building, which makes for great views during dinner.

Upon sitting down, we were given complimentary cold appetizers. We then ordered a few chicken dishes – karaage with a special sauce and chicken meatloaf with an egg. Both were quite good but I especially enjoyed the karaage since I never had karaage was such a delicious accompanying sauce before.

Next, we ordered some fried pork and cheddar cheese balls, as well as grilled rice balls with miso soup. The pork balls were excellent and reminded me of hot dogs with cheese in the middle. The rice balls, on the hand, were just average. Mr. Selfish and I are used to rice balls with some type of fish in the middle but these just had pickles.

I recommend Yuian Izakaya if you’re looking for an izakaya in Shinjuku. However, I would still go to the 35 Steps in Shibuya if I had the choice. Of course, if you’re looking for a view, there is none to speak of at the 35 Steps.

Jinnan Curry: Quick and Cheap Curry

Mr. Selfish has an affinity for Japanese curry. It has become his comfort food even though he never had it as a child. The two previous times we visited Tokyo, we meant to visit Little Shop, which is supposed to be a tiny but delicious curry shop in Shibuya. This time, we made it to Little Shop, but it was sold out. As a consolation prize, we went to Jinnan Curry, which is just a few blocks down on Bunkamura Street in Shibuya.

It was one of those little curry shops where you order at a machine and give your tickets to the staff at the counter. We ordered the pork katsu and the chicken curry dishes.

While it wasn’t as good as Go Go Curry, it was still pretty tasty and, of course, quick and cheap.  It’s also beneficial to try other curry places to confirm that Go Go Curry should reign king in our curry hierarchy. The next time we go to Tokyo, we’ll be sure to try Little Shop and reassess our hierarchy then.

Next up is Mr. Selfish’s post on the Robot Restaurant in Shinjuku. All I can say is that I didn’t have much expectations going in for the Robot Restaurant but they were blown away.