East City Travel Guide

Deciding what to eat in Tokyo can be a bewildering experience, and not just because you might be at a loss working out what's on the menu, or even on your plate. The problem is that, with at least 80,000 restaurants in central Tokyo (compared to New York's 15,000 and London's mere 6000), you're swamped with choice. Virtually every type of cuisine is on offer, from African to Vietnamese, not to mention endless permutations on Japanese favourites such as sushi, ramen, tempura and yakitori . With so much choice there's no need to panic about prices: for every mega-expensive restaurant there's a cheap noodle bar or shokudo (eating place) dishing up curry rice, the Japanese equivalent of beans on toast.

Food crazes come and go with astonishing rapidity. For the moment Chinese and Korean cuisines are in and there are cafés dishing out bagels all over the place. Ever reliable are the noodle bars, shokudo and chain restaurants , where the Japanese go when they need to fill up without fear of the cost. Tokyo has a plethora of such places, with many clustering around and inside the train stations. Bento shops , serving set boxes of food, are also good and plentiful, especially at lunchtime in shopping areas.

For Japanese fast food , head for Yoshinoya , which serves reasonably tasty gyudon (stewed strips of beef on rice), and Tenya , which offers a similar low-cost deal for tempura and rice dishes. You'll find plenty of McDonald's and KFC s around town; a good local chain is Mos Burger , serving up rice burgers, carrot juice and green konyaku jelly (a root vegetable). Also check out the various chain cafés for their light meal options, and leaf through the pub, izakaya and live music listings, too - many places, such as Ebisu's What the Dickens and Takodanobaba's Footnik serve good food too.

At any time of the day or night, convenience stores such as Seven-Eleven, AM/PM and Lawsons sell a wide range of snacks and meals which can be heated up in the shop's microwave or reconstituted with hot water. For more upmarket goodies, make your way to the basement food halls of the major department stores.