12 best restaurants near Shinjuku Station

One of the most popular ramen restaurants in Ueno, Kamo to Negi specialises in duck noodles. Its simple recipe of just Japanese duck and leek – as its name suggests – simmered over low heat for two days, produces a beautifully clear stock that’s light yet flavourful. Add in a custom blend of three different types of soy sauce and you get a soup that sings with the meaty sweetness of duck without being gamey. Kamo to Negi also takes pride in not using any chemical additives in its ramen, while the excellent house-made noodles are springy and firm to the bite.

A regular bowl of ramen here will only set you back ¥980. But we recommend you upgrade to a bowl with extra slices of duck meat (¥1,260), or go the whole hog with the special (¥1,480), which comes with wonton, onsen egg, bamboo shoots and additional slices of duck. 

This branch in the newly opened Eato Lumine food hall on level B1 of JR Shinjuku Station (inside the ticket gates near the west exit) has 14 counter seats. And yes, it’s just as popular as the Ueno store. So be ready to queue – fortunately the line moves along briskly.

This unpretentious izakaya in Nishi-Shinjuku has a casual and old-school atmosphere that immediately puts you at ease as you kick off your shoes and relax on tatami mats. Chef Yoshimitsu Honda oversees a menu highlighting genshiyaki, ironware-baked rice and robatayaki, where skewers of meat, fish and veg are grilled over a high heat and passed to diners from over the counter.  

You can order skewers like the roasted Awaji onion (¥640) or signature dishes like the salt-grilled nodoguro (black throat sea perch, ¥5,990) a la carte, but we recommend taking advantage of the course meals. For ¥5,500, you get a selection of sashimi, assorted appetisers, grilled fish, vegetables and rice along with an all-you-can-drink deal that covers 20 types of sake served hot or cold, as well as beer, soft drinks and Shochu-based drinks. Perfect for an impromptu outing with friends, Kanagari blends the charm of traditional Japanese dining with the easy-going vibes of a neighbourhood joint.

Shinjuku Lambne is an elegant yakiniku (barbecue) restaurant, but instead of beef, as is common for most such eateries, it serves up various cuts of premium lamb sourced from Australia.

The dinner menu is an encyclopaedia of edible lamb parts as the restaurant offers 16 different cuts including tongue, heart and liver alongside more common servings of loins, ribs and shanks. Don’t worry if you’re new to yakiniku. The restaurant provides explanation sheets (in Japanese only) detailing how to grill, and even instructional YouTube videos that are easy to follow. On the table you’ll also find a handy timer to help with the grilling.

Lunch deals are really good here. On weekdays, the ¥1,870 lamb hamburg set offers a satisfying platter of four grill-it-yourself lamb hamburgs served with salad, kimchi, lamb tartare, rice and miso soup, plus a sorbet to finish. You can even order two extra pieces of hamburg at no extra cost. The other three lunch options (from ¥2,860) are more conventional barbecue offerings, with various cuts of lamb paired with rice, miso soup and side dishes. These are available any day of the week.

Located behind Shinjuku's Takashimaya department store, this hugely popular tsukemen (dipping ramen) restaurant has hungry customers lining up an hour before the opening time, especially on weekends.

Starting at ¥1,000, the ebi (shrimp) tsukemen is the hero here. Unlike regular ramen, this is eaten by dipping thick, chewy noodles into a hot, dense soup made primarily with shrimp. There are a few variations on the theme, including ebi miso tsukemen and the more daring ebi tomato tsukemen (both ¥1,000). Big eaters will certainly appreciate the portions here, as they are huge.

Toppings range from the conventional, like ajitsuke tamago (ramen egg) and chashu pork, through to more surprising options such as basil sauce and mozzarella cheese.

Located on the second floor of an old wooden house in Golden Gai, this tiny noodle restaurant comes steeped in the atmosphere of the neighbourhood, with a smell that hits you as soon as you walk in the door. And no wonder – the speciality here is pungent niboshi ramen, made by boiling vast amounts of dried sardines for 12 hours to create a distinctive, boldly flavoured soup.

We recommend the Niboshi Ramen (¥1,300), which comes generously laden with slices of chashu pork, menma (seasoned bamboo shoots), scallions, nori seaweed and a soft-boiled egg, along with a mix of curly and wide, flat noodles. As an added bonus, Nagi is open 24 hours a day, meaning you can start and end a heavy night out with a bowl of their noodles.

A long-standing tempura institution, Tsunahachi has established 23 restaurants across Japan since its inception in 1923. This Shinjuku venue, however, remains its flagship. Tempura Shinjuku Tsunahachi prides itself on sourcing fresh seafood daily from the Toyosu Market. It also uses premium sesame oil for frying, resulting in tempura that neither tastes or feels greasy. 

Weekday lunch offers the best deals. The cheapest set will only set you back ¥1,870, which gets you two prawns, one type of seafood, three kinds of vegetables and a kakiage (fritter), all fried upon order and served piece by piece along with rice, pickles and miso soup.

Come dinner, the menu becomes more extensive, with prices ranging from ¥2,970 to ¥9,680. The five course options each come with rice, miso soup and pickles; the difference lies in the type and amount of seafood. Rest assured, you’ll always get the Japanese tiger prawns, with their plump flesh encased in light, crispy batter – just what Tsunahachi is known for.

Sobahouse Konjiki Hototogisu is only the third ramen restaurant in the world to get a Michelin star. The signature shouyu soba is made from three types of soup stock – pork broth, wa-dashi (Japanese stock) and hamaguri clam dashi – and topped with truffle sauce as well as porcini oil and flakes for that bold umami punch.

However, the restaurant recommends the shio soba – and we concur. The elegantly balanced base stock blends two types of salt (Mongolian rock salt and Okinawan sea salt) and it’s the perfect foil for the hamaguri clam and red sea bream soup’s distinctive seafood sweetness. The noodles are then finished with Italian white truffle oil, porcini mushroom sauce, pancetta bacon bits and inca berry sauce. This adds a pesto-like robustness and depth in the overall flavour. It is moreish, and you’ll be compelled to finish the soup till the last drop.

Numbered tickets are required to dine here, which will be distributed from 9.30am for lunch and 5.30pm for dinner.

While Nakajima's kaiseki courses are priced upwards of ¥11,000 during dinner, you can enjoy the set lunches from a mere ¥990. These are substantial meals too, complete with rice, miso soup, pickles and tea.

Sardines are the star at lunch, and there are four main course options: you can have them deep-fried; simmered in shoyu stock; as sashimi marinated in sesame and ginger; and our favourite, the ¥1,100 yanagawa nabe set (a casserole dish of deep-fried sardines in a bubbling shoyu broth, topped with egg and onions).

Afuri ramen is known for its refreshing chicken and dashi soup with an added yuzu tang, but the ramen served at this outlet inside Shinjuku Subnade shopping mall is all about spice. Here you'll find a special menu featuring spicy noodles that aren't served at any other Afuri shop.

Afuri Kara Kurenai uses chicken broth base, seasoned with a mixture of white soy sauce, chilli powder, fresh chilli puree, special spicy miso, chilli oil, and – because it wouldn’t be an Afuri bowl without it – a dash of its signature yuzu juice.

First-timers should go for the standard Yuzu Kara Kurenai Ramen or Tsukemen which comes with bamboo shoots, scallions, a heap of sliced Japanese green onion and a generous slab of chashu pork. The spice can be adjusted to eight different levels ranging from not-so-spicy to extremely spicy. Those who can handle the heat should opt for the oddly named Yuzu Kara Kurenai Ramen 28-chome, which is topped with additional chilli flakes to make it even spicier.

It’s hard for first-timers to the yokocho to distinguish Tachan from its busy neighbours. With its charcoal grill and homely décor, Tachan blends in with theother skewer spots on the street, but the food it serves puts it head and shoulders above the rest. A sister shop of Sushitatsu, Tachan specialises in seafood dishes such as marinated tuna as well as grilled vegetables and skewered meat that are barbecued over charcoal.

An abundance of fresh produce, including locally sourced vegetables and the catch of the day, is displayed at the countertop. In summer, ceramic bowls are filled with fat clams and deliciously crisp sweet corn boasting the best flavours of the season. The signature tsukune, chicken meatballs with minced nira onion served with an egg yolk in a sweet-savoury sauce, is without question the best in Tokyo. As an izakaya, Tachan charges an otoshi (table charge; ¥300) which includes a complimentary appetiser. 

With its spacious and polished interior, Yasubee’s main store by the train tracks on the outer side of the yokocho doesn’t seem as though its been there for long, but the restaurant has been running in Omoide Yokocho since 1951. Apart from providing the most elbow room in the vicinity, Yasubee’s list of nihonshu is the most extensive on the scene, making it a heavy hitter when it comes to the art of pairing food with sake. Here, you’ll find rice wine from sake breweries all over Japan, each with unique aromas and flavour profiles. 

Just like the sake list, the food menu offers a variety of dishes for every kind of palate. You’ll see standard izakaya items like delicate saikyo yaki (grilled white fish marinated in miso) as well as more unusual offerings such as skin of fugu (pufferfish), seasoned with citrus vinegar and topped with spring onions. An old-time favourite is the motsu nikomi, a collagen-packed stew of beef shank, tendon and tripe. The broth has been boiled for hours, drawing out the fat from the meat, and its richness goes brilliantly with a glass of bright rice wine. 

This little udon shop, with six seats at the counter and just two tables, serves freshly made noodles that go down nice and smooth, plus great side dishes like tempura and deep-fried tofu. You should really try its signature 'carbonara udon', where the noodles are topped with grated cheese, a runny soft-boiled egg and a thick slice of bacon tempura, much like its namesake Italian counterpart.

Don’t be put off by the long wait at Shin. The laborious work and artistry that go into making the fat wheat noodles will make it worth your time. The dough is aged overnight to achieve its optimal moisture and salt levels before being cut and cooked to order, to maintain the noodles’ signature springy, chewy texture.

It's also worth noting that the restaurant now operates on a ticketing system rather than having you queue, so stop by early (from 9am) to grab a ticket to secure a spot.