8 best restaurants for gourmet and innovative onigiri rice balls in Tokyo

This popular onigiri shop along the Togoshi Ginza Shotengai shopping street offers over 40 types of rice balls. To ensure the freshest taste, each onigiri is made to order using fluffy rice from Yamagata prefecture, salt from Okinawa and crisp nori seaweed from the Ariake Sea in Kyushu.

Fillings here are generous, and you can pick from classic flavours such as tuna mayo and ume (pickled plum), as well as more distinctive offerings like fried pork with kimchi and wasabi sukiyaki. Feeling overwhelmed by the choice? You can't go wrong with any of Togoshiya's three most popular flavours: soy sauce-marinated egg yolk with minced meat, mentaiko (pollock roe) mayo, and classic oven-baked salmon.

The venerable shop is also known for its Togoshi Maru fried chicken, marinated in a sauce made from a blend of several spices and fried to crisp perfection. It makes the ideal side to enjoy with your onigiri. Rice balls here start at ¥280.

This takeout-only onigiri joint is the perfect place to grab a quick and satisfying breakfast or lunch. The rice balls here are not only delicious but beautiful, and you can pick them up as such (from ¥180 a piece) or enjoy them as part of a cute bento lunch box. 

Taro Tokyo has tested over 20 varieties of rice from all over Japan and more than 30 kinds of salt and nori seaweed to find only the best ingredients for its rice balls. Depending on the filling, the staff will make your onigiri with one of three types of rice – white, black or brown – to best match the flavours and textures of each ingredient.

Some of the signature flavours include thick sliced grilled mackerel, scallops with salted koji butter, and wagyu roast beef with truffle sauce. You’ll also want to keep an eye out for seasonal flavours such as the current spam, egg and perilla onigiri. What’s special about Taro Tokyo is that they give you sheets of nori seaweed separately so you can wrap your onigiri just before you eat it for optimal crunch and bite.

Whimsical onigiri dealers Risaku take their rice balls seriously: they have 30-odd filling options to choose from and bring in only the highest-quality ingredients from all over Japan. The shop uses Koshihikari rice from Gunma prefecture for its onigiri and miso from Kagoshima and Gunma for its soups. Other ingredients for fillings and sides are also carefully selected and brought in directly from trusted suppliers, including cod roe from Fukuoka and ume plums from Tanabe, Wakayama prefecture.

Popular flavours include salted pork with pickled radish, cream cheese with cod roe, conger eel, and grilled miso. Rice balls can be enjoyed in the store or ordered for takeaway, but we suggest securing a spot at the counter to have either a morning or lunch set. The former is the best deal here, coming with an onigiri or two, plus miso soup and/or side dishes – all for ¥600.

This rice ball speciality store is run by a chef who trained at the popular Onigiri Bongo in Otsuka. Yamataro’s onigiri are bigger than the ones at convenience stores, and they offer around two dozen varieties of filling ranging from the classic 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. But if you’re still undecided, go for the minced meat with egg yolk and sujiko (salted salmon roe). 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 to ¥650. 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.

This takeaway-only food stand in Nishi-Azabu has given the humble onigiri rice ball a gourmet upgrade by using top-shelf ingredients as fillings. Komegumi is operated by the same people behind the popular tonkatsu (deep-fried pork) specialist Butagumi, which is also nearby. As such, Komegumi complements its onigiri menu with a selection of Japanese side dishes as well as its signature Butagumi tonjiru (pork and vegetable miso soup).

There are about five to six types of onigiri offered each day (starting at ¥250). They are hand-crafted with koshihikari rice from Ibaraki and wrapped in nori from Hyogo prefecture. Fillings range from tender braised pork belly to mixed veggies from Hiroshima and Atlantic salmon.

For a full meal, you can make it a combo by choosing an onigiri, side dish and soup. You’ll even get a ¥100 discount with the purchase of at least three items.

Located just behind Sensoji in Asakusa, Yadoroku is the oldest onigiri specialist in Tokyo. Choose from a range of classic fillings including salmon, ume (pickled plum), tarako (salted pollock roe), shirasu (whitebait) and okaka (dried bonito flakes), all for an affordable ¥319-¥770. If you're adventurous, try out some of the more unique ingredients such as hatogarashi (red pepper leaf boiled in soy sauce) and narazuke (Japanese cucumber pickled with sake lees). 

Lunch sets are available from ¥814 and include two rice balls, miso soup with tofu, and takuan (pickled radish). For ¥1,100, you can have three rice balls with your lunch set.

Omusubi Stand Andon takes their onigiri seriously. The shop uses premium rice from Akita prefecture while the fillings come in tried-and-tested flavours such as ume plum, salmon, minced meat in miso, chirimen sansho (dried whitebait mixed with sansho pepper) and iburigakko cheese (smoked takuan pickles with cream cheese), to name just a few. Their hefty onigiri start at ¥250 a piece and even two will make a filling meal. Lunch sets are also available and come with miso soup and a number of small seasonal sides.

The restaurant also doubles as a multi-purpose space comprised of four floors: the first houses the onigiri stand, while the second offers a library and eat-in space. Come evening, Andon turns into a standing bar where you can enjoy small plates and sake from Akita prefecture.