25 best cheap eats in Tokyo – all for ¥1,200 or less

At this unassuming Shibuya Stream restaurant, a branch of the original in Ebisu founded 40 years ago, you can expect homely dishes at an affordable price. Classic Japanese fare such as salt-grilled mackerel, pork and aubergine stir-fry, and deep-fried chicken karaage are served as set meals, accompanied by rice (cooked in a claypot, no less), miso soup, pickles and a side dish. 

This rice ball speciality store is run by a chef who trained at the popular Onigiri Bongo in Otsuka (also in this list). Yamataro’s onigiri are bigger than the ones at convenience stores, and there are around two dozen varieties of filling ranging from the classic ume (pickled plum) and tuna mayo to more inventive options such unagi cream cheese and spicy ahi poke.

You can’t go wrong with any of the selections on the menu, especially the minced meat with egg yolk (¥420) and sujiko (salted salmon roe; ¥650). Better yet, combine two fillings into one rice ball for an additional ¥100 or so.

The onigiri at Yamataro will only set you back between ¥320 and ¥650 each. So splurge and make it a meal: add on a pork and vegetable miso soup for ¥360 and a side of palate-cleaning pickles for ¥150.

Tucked away on the second floor of a building in the back streets of Shibuya is this restaurant dedicated to serving pork vindaloo. This curry from Goa in western India is inspired by a Portuguese dish first introduced to the subcontinent in the 1500s. It’s made with a mixture of spices including red chillies, cumin, cloves and pepper, plus vinegar, which gives it a distinct sour and spicy taste that differentiates it from any other curry. And this restaurant’s vindaloo is so good, the curry earned the venue a Michelin Bib Gourmand award.

Pork Vindaloo Taberu Fukudaitoryo only offers one thing on the menu. It comes with a bed of rice and chopped salad, topped with a pork vindaloo roux, and a hard boiled egg on the side for ¥1,000. Hungry? A larger portion of curry costs an additional ¥200, but if you only want extra rice or salad, you can get those for free.

The shopping enclave of Ginza is the last place you’d expect to find a Bib Gourmand meal for just ¥1,000. But on weekday lunchtimes, this anomaly of a restaurant, tucked away in a narrow basement in a back alley, serves excellent tendon (tempura on rice) for just that. It’s a steal, considering dinner here will set you back at least ¥5,500.

This place has serious pedigree: the proprietor Chef Abe had previously worked at Nadaman, one of the city’s top Japanese restaurants, for 30 years. Prawn tempura is a speciality...

Onigiri is the perfect one-handed food – soft, steamy rice with a savoury filling wrapped in crisp nori seaweed. It’s cheap and quick, known more for its sustenance than flavour, and easily found at many takeaway and convenience stores. But at Onigiri Bongo, the humble dish is elevated into a thoughtful, proper meal.

The menu features more than 50 fillings, including classics like ume plum and salmon flakes as well as unconventional combos like bacon and cheese, and curry and beef. The onigiri start at ¥350 while lunch sets go from ¥700 and come with two rice balls of your choice plus unlimited tofu miso soup...

Unagi (grilled freshwater eel) is considered a delicacy, but this low-key and inviting eatery offers this luxurious dish as a quick and affordable meal. An unadon, grilled eel glazed with a sweet-savoury sauce over white rice, costs as little as ¥590.

For ¥1,100, you can get hitsumabushi, a speciality from Aichi prefecture which resembles the unaju (unagi served in a rectangular lacquer box) and should be enjoyed in two ways. First, you eat the eel and rice with a dash of wasabi. Then mix things up by pouring dashi broth into your rice and eat the unagi as you would ochazuke (a homely dish of broth and rice).

Specialising in himono fish dishes for under ¥1,000 a set, this favourite haunt of Ginza office workers serves up authentic teishoku (set meal) at lunch. The term ‘himono’ refers to the process of partially drying fish so that the flesh becomes sweeter and more succulent, a curing method that dates back to the Nara period (710-794) – himono was once offered to the royal court as a gift. Most of the dishes here, such as mackerel with crispy skin and salmon, are grilled over charcoal. Sets come with rice, grated daikon radish, miso soup and sesame spinach.

Following its rather upmarket take on conveyor belt sushi with Omotesando’s Kaitensushi Ginza Onodera, the operator of NYC’s Michelin-starred Sushi Ginza Onodera now takes a similarly elevated-yet-casual approach to ramen. Noodle Ginza Onodera, the group’s first venture into this field, is again located in fashionable Omotesando.

Noodle Ginza Onodera’s soup, which is slowly simmered with roast duck and a variety of aromatic vegetables, is intended to reach the heights of umami. The egg noodles themselves are custom-made to an exclusive recipe using only flour sourced from Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido. 

Surprisingly, given the restaurant's pedigree and location, a bowl of shoyu ramen here will only set you back ¥950. You can even get a bowl of tsukemen (dipping ramen) for ¥1,200.

Tucked away in an alley off Cat Street, Menchirashi is a stylish space to savour house-made udon noodles amongst Harajuku’s fashionable crowd. But don’t let its American-diner-with-hip-Japanese-twist interior deter you: prices here are very reasonable, with most udon dishes priced below ¥1,000.

Menchirashi is known for its fried-to-order tempura and onigiri rice balls, both of which make perfect accompaniments to a bowl of udon...

Originating from Sapporo, this cosy restaurant is justly famed for its prawn-stock ramen, made by boiling down the heads of red shrimp to extract their briny, umami sweetness and then nished o with pork back fat and shrimp oil. It’s a luscious soup that tastes of the ocean and you’ll want to clean out your bowl.

For a bargain ¥950 you can choose either the aforementioned shrimp soup or one with the addition of pork, plus a seasoning: miso, salt or soy sauce...

Oreyu’s diverse ramen menu lists more than 30 options – so if you’re feeling overwhelmed, just go with the classics. The Oreryu shio ramen (¥760) is a clean, light-tasting yet flavourful bowl topped with a tender slice of pork, spring onions, spinach and mushrooms. The Oreryu juku shio ramen, on the other hand, is more customisable as it offers three broth options; our pick is the jukusei (rich salt), which features a creamy pure chicken bone broth (no dairy added!)...

This small, warmly lit udon shop in the vicinity of Waseda University offers top-notch noodles on a student-friendly budget. Udon sets start at ¥600 and include free refills of takikomi gohan (rice seasoned with dashi broth and vegetables), while the menu also offers several variations of dipping noodles such as chilled sesame, as well as hot broths like the warming winter favourite of nikujaga (meat and potato) udon. Get there before noon or after 1pm to avoid the lunch rush.

This unassuming noodle shop is tucked away on a side street in Ningyocho and offers a standing-only counter for hungry slurpers. Tickets for both soba and udon can be purchased at the vending machine, with options starting from a mere ¥470.

But what makes Fuku Soba special is its tempura, deep-fried toppings in the form of crispy discs, featuring ingredients such as beni shoga (pickled ginger), small sakura shrimp, burdock or a carrot-and-onion mix (also called kakiage). A tempura soba will only set you back ¥610, with additional fritters priced at ¥160 a piece.

Not too far from Harajuku’s bustling Takeshita Street is Japanese restaurant Beetle, which offers one of the best lunch deals in the neighbourhood. You can choose from a variety of teishoku meals that come with rice, miso soup and pickles, featuring main dishes such as aji furai (deep-fried horse mackerel), menchi katsu (ground meat cutlet), yurinchi (fried chicken with scallion soy sauce), and more, all for under ¥1,000.

The a la carte menu doesn’t disappoint, either, with most dishes costing around ¥500. There’s classic izakaya-style dishes like mentaiko potato salad (¥470), deep-fried ham cutlet (¥460), sashimi (from ¥430), yakitori skewers (from ¥170) and oden (from ¥150). Drinks are just as cheap, with large bottles of Asahi, Sapporo and Kirin beer priced at ¥690.

Looking for a cheap deal in Tokyo’s Korea town? Macchan offers one of the best deals around for both solo diners and big groups all day long. For lunch from 11am until 5pm, you can choose from over a dozen popular Korean dishes, all priced under ¥990, like bibimbap (¥770), Shin ramen (¥770), kimchi fried rice (¥880) and Sundubu Jjigae (spicy tofu stew, ¥990). All orders come with side dishes and refillable rice.

The lunchtime Korean barbeque set – samgyeopsal or cheese dakgalbi – will set you back ¥1,780. But you do get good value for your money, as the freshly grilled meals include unlimited soft drinks, rice, soup, chijimi savoury pancakes and japchae (Korean glass noodle stir-fry).

For a unique eating-out experience, bypass the generic Italian restaurants and head straight for Garage 50 in Kichijoji, where the pizzas are cooked in a retrofitted VW van. It’s hipster, sure, and you’ll be eating off paper plates while sitting on a stool in a garage, but the pizza is of exceptional value at ¥700. The inside of the vehicle has been refurbished to fit a pizza oven and the owner makes each pie fresh upon order. You can’t go wrong with the prosciutto topped with a soft egg, or the basil mascarpone.

Within the flashing neon lights and clutter of Shinjuku, you can take refuge in the calm, old-worldly charm of Hayashiya, tucked into the 5th floor of a high-rise building. It serves yoshoku – Japanese-style Western food – and the menu has barely changed since it opened in 1949.

Signature dishes include the omurice (¥850), a paper-thin omelette cocooned around chicken fried rice and drizzled with ketchup, the hamburg with egg (hamburger patty, ¥880), and the cheese hamburg (¥1,080). An extensive drinks list features wine from all over the world as well as Japanese craft sake.

Cheap and cheerful, Fukuho Gyoza offers plates of six dumplings for just ¥352. While the gyoza are nothing fancy, they are substantial and filling, available with or without garlic, boiled or fried. To spruce up your meal, the sides (from ¥198) include pickled cabbage, miso cucumber, carrot salad and tofu with sesame sauce.

Complete your meal with rice (either served straight or topped with minced meat) and you’ll be satisfactorily sated, with your wallet barely dented. Here with friends (or just very hungry)? An order of 18 gyoza pieces comes in at only ¥979.

Flavoursome Vietnamese fast food is the name of the game at this low-key Ebisu sandwich joint. The excellent baguettes, made in-house, are stuffed with mouthwatering ingredients: we love the roast pork and pâté option, as well as the grilled chicken satay with green onions. There are nine sandwich choices (small from ¥400; large from ¥580) while a banh mi set with a drink, soup or salad is an extra ¥150-300. With prices this low, you won’t mind that there are just a scattering of stools should you decide to eat in.

Treat yourself to a bargain with these omakase sushi lunches, kaiseki dinners and modern European tasting menus

This quintessential Tokyo food experience doesn’t have to break the bank