Best restaurants at Chaos Kitchen in Shibuya Parco

If you’re looking for a fun eatery to visit with a large group of friends, head to Kushikatsu Arata for some fast-casual food. These deep fried skewers cost ¥120 to ¥280 a pop and are served with a housemade dipping sauce made from a dozen of secret ingredients. Aside from popular meat skewers like beef and pork, there’s also an array of seafood including shrimp and salmon, as well as veggies like shishito peppers, and tomato with cheese. If you’re here during the day, don’t miss out on the Osaka spiced curry, exclusive to the Shibuya branch between 11am and 4pm.

This Fukuoka-born restaurant is known for its mouthwatering hamburg patties, cooked on a teppanyaki-style grill right at your table (from ¥1,090). Hamburgs and steaks come with six different condiments for dipping, but the chefs recommend taking your first bite plain, to enjoy the umami flavour. The restaurant even has a step-by-step tutorial on the best way to prepare and eat a humburg. An additional ¥350 will get you a set meal with unlimited rice, soup, salad and vanilla soft serve. Halal options are also available.

With a total of ten ramen restaurants in Tokyo and a Michelin-starred outpost in San Francisco, ramen master Tomoharu Shono opened his newest location in the basement of Shibuya Parco. This modern ramen eatery doesn’t have a paper menu or ticket vending machine; instead, orders are placed through a tablet found at each seat. 

The most popular dish may be the shoyu ramen, sporting a generous slab of beef and a perfect soft-boiled egg, but we can’t go past the dandan noodles. The creamy sesame broth is mixed with sansho pepper, giving the dish a numbing, spicy kick. Jikasei Mensho also offers a vegan version which is almost impossible to tell from the original. The noodles are made from quinoa, making them lower in carbohydrates and gluten while maintaining the signature chewy consistency.  

All dishes are served in gigantic translucent cups which were made specially for serving Jisakei Mensho’s ramen. Roughly the size of a tall drinking glass, they fit perfectly in one hand, so you can easily finish every last drop of broth.

Hidden among the cool restaurants of Shibuya Parco’s Chaos Kitchen, this shitamachi (downtown) izakaya-style restaurant serves only vegan dishes. The main dish is the mock karaage made with soy meat instead of chicken, which comes in five different flavours including grated radish, Chinese black vinegar, Sichuan style hot and spicy, sweet and sour, and teriyaki mayonnaise. The outer coating of the tapioca flour gives the chicken an extra crunch while the inside is tender and juicy.

The gyoza is also a popular item, filled with minced veggies and soy meat. You can order each separately but we recommend the teishoku (set meal), which comes with a bowl of rice, soup, and pickled mustard greens for about ¥1,200.

Chinese-inspired side dishes – all at ¥550 – include the nikumiso moyashi (miso-flavoured ground ‘meat’ over sprouts) and kyuuri no namashoga (cucumber marinated in oil and ginger). Whether you’re here for lunch or dinner, don’t miss out on the free-flow lemon sour for ¥400, which gets you unlimited refills until all the ice in your cup melts.

This unassuming shop tucked away in a corner serves traditional Japanese desserts. Kanmi Okame specialises in ohagi, a glutinous rice ball wrapped in sweet bean paste. The ohagi comes in five different flavours, including a seasonal one, and it's served with your choice of matcha or green tea for ¥800. Portions are larger than your average Japanese dessert, so make sure you save some room for it all. If you just want a sweet snack, half-size portions are available for ¥450.