A map of the best gourmet spots you definitely want to stop by in Togoshi Ginza Shopping Street, a treasure trove of foodie spots

*When eating or drinking, please use the eating space attached to the store and refrain from eating while walking.
*All prices include tax.

Togoshi Ginza Food Walking Map

The "salty" menu offers a wide variety of Japanese, Western and Chinese dishes, and the taste and price are both very satisfying.

Togoshi Ginza Shopping Street, surrounded by many residential areas, is full of gourmet food that is sure to satisfy you with its taste and price. There is a wide variety of genres, from Japanese, Western, and Chinese. Here are five particularly noteworthy restaurants.

[Oden Croquette] "Goto Kamabokoten" - Delicious ingredients only a specialty store can offer

One of the most famous shops in Togoshi Ginza Shopping Street is Goto Kamabokoten. It was originally founded in 1963 as a fish paste wholesaler in Oku, Arakawa Ward, and moved to Togoshi around 1965 to become a retail store.

There are around 20 kinds of oden on display at the store, both uncooked (starting at 76 yen) and cooked (starting at 86 yen). These oden are delicious, but the specialty here is the "Oden Croquette" (108 yen/each). This dish was created in 2009 as part of the "Togoshi Ginza Croquette Promotion Project," a town revitalization project in collaboration with Rissho University and industry, in which the Togoshi Ginza shopping district collaborated.

The outside is crispy, while the inside is soft and fluffy. The filling is made of oden ingredients such as naruto and kelp, finely chopped and mixed with potatoes, and seasoned with oden broth. There is also daikon radish in the middle. The mild and mellow broth makes it delicious even without any seasoning. There is an eating area with tables and chairs next to the store where you can sit and enjoy your meal.

Goto Kamaboko Shop

[Fried chicken] The taste of the holy land is delivered from Togoshi "Nakatsu Karaage Kei"

Nakatsu City in Oita Prefecture is known as the "holy land of fried chicken" due to the large number of fried chicken specialty shops and the fact that it has nationally famous shops. A popular shop that distributes this Nakatsu fried chicken from Tokyo is "Nakatsu Karaage Kei," with its main store located in Togoshi Ginza Shopping Arcade.

The restaurant's roots can be traced back to the specialty fried chicken of "IVY," a restaurant run by the owner's parents in Yabakei, a scenic spot in Nakatsu City. The secret recipe of the original restaurant and a marinade made with plenty of domestic young chicken and apples are the keys to its deliciousness. The restaurant has won the gold medal many times in the East Japan Soy Sauce Sauce category of the "Fried Chicken Grand Prix," and won the highest gold medal at the 12th competition.

There are several items on the menu, the standard being the highest gold medal-winning "boneless thigh meat" (340 yen/100g) and "boneless breast meat" (270 yen/100g). The former is juicy and tender, while the latter is moist and plump despite being breast meat. The batter is made with potato starch, so it's really crispy and delicious even when cooled. In addition to eating it on the go, you'll probably want to buy it as takeout to enjoy at home.

Nakatsu Fried Chicken Kei Togoshi Ginza Main Branch

[Onigiri] Togoshiya: A top-notch delicacy

Onigiri is a national dish for the Japanese. You can easily buy them at convenience stores, but the taste of specialty shops is in a class of its own. Togoshiya is a place where you can eat such carefully made onigiri. It opened in 2020 and is set to open its second store in Shibuya in January 2022.

Togoshiya's selling point is "rice balls made with delicious rice," and they use the best brand rice selected from all over Japan. At the time of our visit, they were using "Tsuyahime" from Yamagata Prefecture, which has excellent grain structure, sweetness, aroma, and stickiness.

There is a wide variety of onigiri available, with prices starting from 230 yen. Pictured are "Sujiko" (560 yen) and "Egg yolk soy sauce + minced meat" (380 yen), both of which are large and packed with ingredients. The rice and nori are fragrant, and go perfectly with the ingredients. If you want to taste a high-class, delicious onigiri, this is the place for you.

Togoshiya Togoshi Ginza Main Store

[Baked Xiaolongbao] "Ryuuki" with its exquisite crispy texture and overflowing meat juice

Shanghai's specialty, baked xiaolongbao, is a familiar dim sum in Japan as well. A restaurant that specializes in this dish is "Ryuuki," with its eye-catching red sign. Although it is primarily a restaurant for dine-in, there are display fixtures in front of the store for take-out sales, and the sizzling display will whet your appetite.

All ingredients, including flour and pork, are domestically produced, and the dough is kneaded, stretched, and shaped by hand. The thick-skinned xiaolongbao are grilled on one side in a special pan, resulting in a blissful taste that allows you to fully enjoy the crispy texture, brimming meat juice, and sweet meat.

Another attractive feature is the price, which is cheaper the more you buy: 2 for 270 yen, 4 for 430 yen, and 6 for 640 yen. It's also recommended to buy them as souvenirs.

Ryuuki

[Hot Dog] "Speranza" - an overwhelmingly delicious hot dog with a delicious meat sauce

The next restaurant we'll introduce is "Speranza," which is quite unique. It's a restaurant that specializes in meat sauce. The recommended food item here is the "Meat Sauce Dog" (500 yen). It's a masterpiece that uses plenty of their proud specialty.

"Speranza" means hope in Italian. The owner was so impressed by the taste of Bolognese (meat sauce in Japan, officially called Ragu alla Bolognese) that he encountered in Sicily during a trip to Italy that he decided to open a restaurant that focuses on meat sauce.

The restaurant offers seven different meat sauces, each with a different ingredient and flavor, but the "Meat Sauce Dog" uses the standard beef and pork type. The mince is coarse, giving it a firm and chewy texture. The sauce is packed with the powerful flavor of the beef and the juicy sweetness of the pork, but is not oily, and is perfectly balanced with the sourness of the tomatoes.

It goes perfectly with the plump sausage, and the cabbage hidden in the back adds a refreshing accent. The bun is neither too soft nor too hard, making this a gourmet treat that rivals any hot dog specialty store.

Speranza

A sweet treat that is loved by people of all ages and genders, typical of Togoshi

During festival season, the background music of festival music plays on the street corners, making Togoshi Ginza Shopping Street a place that is brimming with human warmth. Perhaps that is why there are so many heartwarming sweets available. Here we will introduce two carefully selected sweets.

[Melon Bread] A gentle and cool evolution of "Rice Spirit"

"Bacon" is a rice flour bread specialty store that was opened in 2010 by a baker from a rice farming family, making use of his own background. The bread baked using 100% domestic rice flour has a chewy and moist texture and a gentle flavor that is different from wheat bread.

The dough is fermented using Shirakami Kodama yeast from the Shirakami Mountains, a World Heritage Site. This gives the bread a gentle sweetness and rich flavor. There are 40 to 50 types of bread, and the one we would like to introduce is the "Hokkyoku Melon Bread" (389 yen).

This bread is made by placing cookie dough on top of rice flour bread dough, baking it, and then sandwiching the filling in between. The whipped cream contains lemon juice and several kinds of fruit, including peaches, giving it a refreshing, light and sweet taste.

This menu was created in 2013 with the idea of "a delicious bread for summer," but this specialty is available all year round. It is different from ordinary melon bread or cream puffs, so please try this unique taste.

Rice Spirit

[Gelato] "Xyfort" - a unique, mellow flavor made with tofu

Kishifort operates several discount stores in Togoshi Ginza Shopping Street, Kamata, etc. The next store we will introduce is Kishifort Togoshi Ginza Next, which mainly sells groceries and daily necessities, and its most popular takeout food is soft gelato.

There are many flavors, each priced at 350 yen. On the day of our visit, there were nine different flavors on offer. Not only are there a wide variety of flavors, but the unique flavors are all carefully selected based on the origin of the ingredients. The most popular of these is "Tofu Milk." This flavor uses whole domestic tofu, allowing you to enjoy the simple taste of soybeans.

When you try it, the richness and flavor of soy comes to the forefront. It has a gentler, smoother taste than regular milk gelato, and is exceptionally delicious. The second most popular product at this store is "Sado Salt Milk," and the third is "Komagane Kogen Drinkable Yogurt." If you visit with two or more people, we recommend sharing and comparing the flavors.

Kishifort Togoshi Ginza Next Store

Relaxing and soothing "drinks"

The last category we will introduce is drinks. We will report on a cafe with a cute name and a mango juice specialty store. These are great spots to take a break from your food tour.

[Coffee] Shirokuma Cafe: Enjoy the delicious coffee and rich soft serve ice cream from this famous shop

One of the most relaxing spots in Togoshi Ginza is the Polar Bear Cafe. The shop is filled with stuffed polar bears and other items, creating a relaxing atmosphere. The drinks and food on offer are extensive, making this a shop that is sure to leave you completely satisfied.

The coffee is made using specialty coffee from the famous roastery and cafe "Amamelia Espresso" in Musashi-Koyama, Shinagawa-ku, and has an elegant aroma and deep flavor. Drip coffee is 470 yen (takeout 370 yen), and cafe latte is 580 yen (takeout 480 yen) (both iced and hot are the same price), and drink sets with sweets are also available.

Popular foods include the soft serve ice cream (650 yen for in-store, 500 yen for takeout) made with the finest milk from Hokkaido, which is rich and has a clean aftertaste, and the chewy crepes made with plenty of eggs, which are only available in-store. The most popular crepe is the "Yotsuba Butter and Sugar" (650 yen). We recommend adding a "small soft serve ice cream" (+50 yen) to this order.

The moist and chewy dough is soaked with the rich flavor of salted butter. The cinnamon sugar is exquisite and delicious on its own, but when combined with the soft serve ice cream, it becomes even more luxurious. The regular soft serve ice cream is larger in size, which makes it stand out. There are also plenty of sweets made with soft serve ice cream, such as coffee floats, so be sure to try those too.

Polar Bear Cafe

[Juice] "Mango Star" - a delicious drink that recreates the taste of Thailand

The last place we'll introduce is a juice stand that specializes in mangoes, called "MANGO STAR." The owner fell in love with the mango juice he encountered in Thailand, which led to the start of expansion into Japan, with the first store opening in Togoshi Ginza Shopping Arcade in June 2020. The deliciousness of the juice has become a hot topic, and the store has now expanded to the Tokyo metropolitan area, Tohoku, and Kansai.

The best part is the creamy texture, which makes you feel as if you are drinking the mango through a straw. Another reason for its popularity is that you can enjoy the delicious taste of the local mango at a reasonable price. Of the several menu items, the most popular is the "Mango Milk" (S 410 yen, M 580 yen, L 740 yen).

The melting mango and the smooth touch of milk create a mysterious texture. It's not too sweet, but fruity and tropical. You can also enjoy the texture of the mango, which adds a rich accent to the flavor.

There are also other drinks on offer, such as the simple "Mango Juice" (from 390 yen), the healthy unsweetened "Mango Straight" (from 390 yen), and the refreshing "Mango Yogurt" (from 410 yen), so please choose the one you like.

MANGO STAR Togoshi Ginza Main Store

Togoshi Ginza Shopping Street is the longest in Tokyo and is also the origin of the "XX Ginza" name. If you try eating your way through the streets, you'll be surprised at how fulfilling it is, far beyond your expectations. There are many shopping streets, but this is definitely a spot you should visit at least once. If you like eating your way through the streets, be sure to visit this one.

Interview and text: Hideaki Nakayama

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