9 best breakfast and brunch restaurants in Tokyo

Adjoining this exemplary bakery in Roppongi is a rustic, homely café, whose all-wooden interior brings to mind the vintage atmosphere of a traditional Japanese home in the countryside. The menu features deceptively simple café fare but with restaurant-quality execution – there’s emphasis on fresh, quality ingredients.

On weekdays, breakfast is served from 7am to 10am. The menu, though limited, offers crowd-pleasing morning meals from avocado toast (¥1,450) and sourdough pancakes (with fruit and bacon, ¥1,200) to corned beef eggs benedict (¥1,450) and shakshuka with roasted vegetables (¥1,600).

Come mid-morning (from 10am on weekdays, all-day on weekends starting from 8am), the menu gets a tad more elaborate. You can still order some of the aforementioned breakfast dishes as well as heartier options including wagyu burgers (from ¥1,700), pastrami sandwiches (¥1,600), and a light but filling tuna tartine (¥1,900) with a beautifully bright onion dressing.

You can pile on the meal, with a la carte offerings such as fried chicken (¥800), sunny side egg (prepared with an Alice Waters’s famed egg spoon, no less; ¥250) and deep-fried potatoes (¥680). Coffee is just as excellent, provided by Fuglen Coffee Roasters. Breakfast 7am to 10am weekdays; brunch from 10am weekdays, all-day from 8am weekends

Thanks to its secluded location in a back alley, the rustic Bistro Rojiura offers a slice of calm and quiet from the frenetic energy of central Shibuya, even though it’s less than ten minutes’ walk from the perennially busy scramble crossing. It’s also a place that sustains on a steady stream of regulars, who often flock here for its indulgent French toast (¥1,560) with bacon and burrata cheese.

Let’s start with the French toast: thick slices of milk-soaked bread are steeped and basted in butter before being baked in the oven. This results in a soft, pudding-like toast with sugary, caramelised edges. The moderately thick bacon has a smokey bite while the house-made burrata cheese is creamy yet chewy. Pour in maple syrup and you have the ultimate sweet-savoury brunch dish. 

You’ll find other morning staples on the breakfast/brunch menu (from 8am, last orders at 1pm) including croque madame (¥1,430), salmon and cream cheese bagel sandwich (¥1,260) as well as chicken curry on rice (¥1,360). There’s a one drink order minimum, with options such as coffee from Switch, homemade ginger ale and kombucha, juices, beer and wine. Brunch from 8am (last orders 1pm)

Tucked away on a quiet back alley in Roppongi, this Mercer Brunch outlet (the brand has several across the city, including in Omotesando, Ginza and Ebisu) feels like a respite from the neighbourhood’s nighttime shenanigans. It has an open-air section centred around an open hearth, shielded off from the streets by plants. In other words, a relaxing spot for the mid-morning after.

Brunch is all about French toast, and Mercer does it really well. Made with brioche, the toast has a slightly crisp exterior, an almost-milky pillowy soft centre, and best of all, it smells of butter. You can get the toast as is (three pieces, ¥1,600), but you should really make it a meal by having it alongside grilled chicken (¥2,200), buttermilk fried chicken with eggs (¥1,900), grilled salmon with eggs (¥1,900), sirloin steak with eggs (¥3,200), or any one of the six other French toast plates.

There’s omelette, too, of course, but made more indulgent with lobster prawn and tomatoes (¥1,800) or bacon and mushroom (¥1,800) – all served with homemade bread. Brunch 11am-3.30pm (last orders 3pm) weekdays, 10am-5pm (last orders 4pm) weekends

Tsumugi is part of the information centre for Tsukiji Hongwanji Temple. The spacious, modern café is decked out in warm wood and soft lighting, centred around a large communal table that seats 12. The best part is, all tables afford a full view of the temple through the floor-to-ceiling glass walls. The impressive signature breakfast here is the 18 Hinmoku No Asagohan.

For ¥2,200, the 18-dish set meal comprises a bowl of rice porridge, a bowl of miso soup and 16 little plates of various seasonal dishes, such as duck with sansho pepper, konnyaku shiroae (yam mixed with tofu and sesame), tamagoyaki (Japanese-style omelette), tofu with yuzu and white bean paste, and matcha jelly. Breakfast 8am-11am

The perfect hangout before or after a day out in Yoyogi Park, Path serves breakfast and brunch – including their famous, super-fluffy dutch pancake  – from 8am to 2pm. Get there early to secure a seat and wait around 30 minutes for this oven-baked deliciousness, topped with uncured ham, burrata and copious amounts of maple syrup. And we do mean early: its popularity means that there may be a small queue before the 8am opening. Brunch 8am-2pm

Early birds rejoice! This American-style café and diner in Hiroo is a proper breakfast and brunch hangout. Open from 7.30 every morning (except Mondays) and serving fresh pancakes, eggs, bacon and more, Jade5 is a welcome reminder that breakfast in Tokyo isn’t all grilled fish and pickled veggies. Even better, the breakfast staples here are on offer all day, so you can sleep in and still wake up to french toast. Brunch from 7.30am

In an elegant, spacious setting down a hidden alleyway in the heart of Shibuya, Rubia serves its unique modern Mexican brunch menu from 11am-3pm on Saturday and Sunday. The set meal is a good deal for the calibre of food and location – a salad, soup, side dish, drink and your choice of main dish for ¥2,800. Better yet, a majority of the mains (such as tetela and memela) are vegan.

The soup is seasonal and is served with bright dots of herb and chilli-infused oils while the tacos are modern, Japanese twists on Mexican classics. As for the tacos, which is one of the options for main, you can opt for chicken or vegan potato filling. Brunch 11am-3pm (last orders 2pm), Saturday and Sunday

This bakery café is run by Kate Jaksich, who previously managed San Francisco’s famed Tartine Bakery and Jerry Jaksich, who worked at farm-to-table restaurant Chez Panisse in California. You can browse through Parklet’s freshly baked goods at the front of the store, while the back room displays a series of artworks by local Japanese artist Yoko Takahashi and other creators from the West Coast.

The stars of the menu are Parklet’s own sourdough bread and sustainably made coffee. If you have time, we recommend sitting down at the café. For something sweet, the housemade ricotta cheese and yuzu curd toast or vanilla cashew nut butter toast with honey and a sprinkle of sea salt goes well with a cup of Overview coffee. Early risers can try out Parklet's sweet and savoury porridges as well as granola bowls served until 11am. Breakfast and brunch from 8.30am

It’s not often you find a restaurant in Tokyo which churns out dependable southern American-style fried chicken, waffles and other cajun favourites. This is where the cosy and friendly Soul Food House comes in. Serving lunch, dinner and Sunday brunch, this restaurant is the perfect place to get your chicken and waffle fix along with Creole-inspired sandwiches, mac and cheese, salads and more. Order the ultimate chicken and waffles, which comes supersized with bacon and fried egg, all drizzled in maple syrup. Brunch from 11am-3pm (last orders 1.45pm) Wednesday-Sunday