Just finished dinner which included the amazing TJ tater tots! Takes me back to elementary school.

i guess you should have planned for this and made the thread "Your top 10 TJ products"!

because of this thread i tried the turkey meatballs and they ROCKED MY WORLD. Just bought 2 more bags. pan seared and a little greek yogurt on the side with some hot sauce....im in heaven. wish they were natural turkey though, free range, etc.

whats so great about it and what do you guys use it for?

classic mistake - first rule of thumb at TJ....just BUY it everything cost $2.99!!!

LOL 186 replies....people are so passionate about TJ. Im definitely one of them...like an excited kid when I score great items there!

I love seeing how every persons list is completely different.

My list:
1. All 4 hot sauces (habanero, chili, jalapeno, and the NEW sriracha!). These are a GREAT and much healthier substitute than most hot sauces and even great on the occasional del taco splurge.

2. Mini cilantro chicken wontons - A great quick snack when you want to just have a few bites around 3pm or late evening. Nuke them and use TJ great gyoza sauce and sweet hot mustard MMMM!

3. Whole grain dijon mustard - Probably the best bottled mustard ever. I use it on chicken and fish with a little yogurt on the side too. OMG amazing.

4. Raw Trek Mix Nuts - individually packaged, love this. Super healthy, not roasted, not salted, and I eat 1-2 packs every day and keep them in my car, office, and home.

5. Pistachio dark chocolate toffee. Oh dear god is all I can say.

Honorable mentions to the amazing gluten free cranberry granola, middle eastern flatbread (makes amazing flatbread pizza!), flax and cinnamon instant oatmeal, organic coconut oil, raw unsalted almond butter, moisturizing cream and coconut body butter, and TJ all purpose cleaner!

YES!!! Andersen was my morning ritual every morning in tokyo. I couldnt get enough of their light as air cinnamon rolls, cherry tarts, and breads. I miss them so much!

All I just got back from Tokyo and had breads and pastries that changed my life. They were danish style but japanese execution. The biggest thing was how light and flaky they were compared to american. I MUST FIND something like these! I went to copenhagen in Culver city and it was easily twice as sweet and three ttimes the weight aand richness of the same size cinnamon roll in Tokyo. Felt sick after i ate it. Any ideas???

neither squid nor eel is shellfish

fun = Amusing, entertaining, or enjoyable. In other words, lively, lighthearted, smile-inducing, joyous.

A place where the beer flows like the majestic Hannoki and the food makes you cry "Oishi!".

best pizza is seirenkan in nakameguro. guy trained in naples and hand built an oven that fires to 1000 degrees.

I have read ichikawa is good but do you recommend any others nottoo far from Tokyo for a great tour with good sake and maybe good food?

We were thinking of going to ramen museum, kirinbeer factory, and maybe chinatown. let us know if any of these are a waste or anything else we should do please.

looking for local casual fun places with good food and charming ambiance. Nothing touristy. thanks!

Any recommendations for a place that has a great wide seafood assortment, and a fun but nice an clean ambiance? dont mind an expensive place, but just dont like places that are too quiet and too "formal"

I should add we would like to be around 20,000 yen each for the meal, but can pay more if its worth it.

My wife and i are visiting and unfortunately we found out that most places are closed, including our favorite place of all time, sushisho Saito (not to be confused with sushi saito). Is there anything similar that is great and open? Omakase, warm rice, good sake, great fish, warm and comfortable atmosphere and good value but price is not a worry. At sushisho Saito you get to try so many things, like 35 pieces, which we loved. Thanks!

My wife and are going there and we have a few things on our list to taste...so far its franklins bbq and maybe la condesa. We live in LA so we have good food here, but I am really looking for less fancy/trendy places and more rustic/charming/casual places. In terms of style of food, I love well done and simple american farm-to-table cuisine...good ingredients and not fussy or pretentious....just good food.

we particularly love places with fun casual outdoor seating or places with nice "farmhouse-style" ambiance. Please make recommendations...we can drive also.

Thanks!

We went to Mori which was amazing of course, but I have been to asanebo and it blew me away, and we Also went to shunji recently which was very different than anything we have had in la and also wonderful. Thanks!

no we are not mistaking. we have read a lot about sushisho saito as a place where the sushi is amazing but not as well known as sushi saito, jiro, etc. thank you for the recommendations!

We really want to try some of the prized japanese meat (and organs), and we love yakiniku style because we get to cook it ourselves to our liking. we prefer more "japanese" yakiniku versus korean style. please let us know your favorites places with great meat selection to try a little of everything and also a nice but fun lively atmosphere for my wife and me! thank you!!!

agreed on all counts. the drinks are horribly overpriced and undersized as well. felt violated after dropping $26 for 2 drinks that were 3 small sips each. the "naan" bread was a joke and i have eaten a lot of naan in my day. it was naan for people who dont like ethnic food, like a lot of the food here i felt. brussel sprouts salty and mushy. squid was dry and overcooked. pretzel was the most edible thing but probably the least delicious one i have ever had. i actually liked the ambiance here and think they did a nice job, but the food was like so many other places in MB...all show no go. but that seems to work for most of the crowd in that area. but glad some people are enjoying this place but i wont go back.

not EVEN a question picca is 100x better.

strange i found the food to be boring and bland and like a not-good copy of gjelina. ah well

cool list...here are some of mine:

broccolini with garlic and chili pepper at gjelina (super simple and amazing)
orecchiete with spicy sausage at osteria mozza
roasted snapper head at asanebo
salt ramen at santouka
chicken gyro at spitz
feta stuffed roasted chicken at petros
uni oyster and caviar at kzo
the crispy tofu and iberico bahn mi at Saam
pecan pie a la mode at mastros
chicken macho taco at del taco (yea i said it)

We will be in tokyo in 2 weeks and so far here is what we have reserved. For us, more important than just good food (or overindulging in decadence), is really great experiences where we feel we are understanding and absorbing the local culture through food and drink. We generally love charming small places and my wife and I love to sit side by side at dinners (sushi bars etc). Here is our schedule:

Day 1: arrive 5pm no dinner plans. Staying park hotel ginza. would like a fun small yakiniku in ginza or nearby where we can sit side by side and try good wagyu, horumon, etc. Any ideas?
Day 2: Tsukiji in morning and lunch at dai, daiwa, bun, etc. No dinner planned yet (maybe fun local yakitori places?
Day 3: Maybe lunch to go from takashiyama shinjuku and go to gyoen gardens. dinner at ryugin.
Day 4: No lunch planned but want to try tempura or tonkatsu. Dinner sushisho saito.
Day 5: Lunch chateau robuchon. Dinner molecular tapas bar.
Day 6: No lunch (ramen maybe?). Dinner birdland. I love horumon and offal...my wife not as much.
Day 7: Lunch Kyubey. Dinner at Beige (is it worth it? I am iffy on beige).
Day 8: No lunch plans but want to have pure and delicious udon..please guide us. Dinner at Aronia de Takazawa.

Also I LOVE whole roasted fish head....where can I get this?

Also if you have any advice on things to see during this time (sakura season), that would be great also. Are there any cute areas with ting drinking and eating places you recommend that have some english speaking owners but arent touristy? We are also looking for a guide potentially for one day to do a food tour.

Thank you in advance!

Does anyone know the name of this restaurant and any experience if it is good? What area is it in? Any other recommendations for horumon in either Ginza or Shinjuku area? thanks!!

That was super helpful thank you. Can you give me some more detail on what places you like to eat at and drink in Ginza? Is there an area where you can grab drinks and food at different places all close to each other that are not too fancy but not too grimey either? Thanks!

Let me preface this with the fact that I dont speak japanese and I have also spent about 50 hours reading through these and other forums, so I am trying not to repeat old questions but looking for some current info. I am visiting tokyo with my wife in 3 weeks and CANNOT WAIT to get there and try many different foods. But we want to get the most from our trip and Tokyo seems like 10 cities in one. Your help is SO much appreciated:

What is the nicest way to say hello when you walk into a restaurant?

Can you order omakase at any restaurant (lets say yakitori, tempura, etc) if you want to leave it in the expert hands of the chef? How would you say this in the nicest way?

Can you order nigiri only omakase and how? how would you say omakase, but no fugu or something like that if you didnt want something in particular?

Does anyone recommend some great yakitori that specializes in horumon, similar to ones that I think bourdain and zimmern have been to?

What is your favorite sushi experience that is around the $250 or less per person in tokyo?

If we show up to Tsukiji around 730AM, will all the fish still be in the market to walk around and look at? Are there places inside to sample little things that you recommend? We will try to go to one of the famous sushi places just outside.

Our plan is to do the more expensive meals for lunch (Beige, Robuchon, Ryugin, Sawada, etc) and then go to more casual yakitori, tempura, etc places for dinner. Does this sound like a good plan to save some $ on the fancy meals and also keep evenings more flexible? Knowing this info, this also segways into the final important question:

We are having a really hard time deciding between the park hotel near ginza and shiodome or the hyatt regency west of shinjuku station. I have started mapping out places we are interested in eating, and it appears that a lot of the nicer places (particularly sushi, french, and kaiseki) that we are interested in are near Ginza. But a lot of people seem to say to stay near shinjuku. I think whats important to us is being close to a lot of energy, and cool little places to grab an espresso and pastry in the morning, and have drinks and yakitori, ramen, tempura, etc at little places in the evening. For lunch we can travel wherever. I dont think we will be traveling outside of tokyo because we only have a week and there seems to be so much to see and eat! Our budget for hotel is up to $300 per night and I guess I shouldnt be surprised that in tokyo you dont get much for that much money. If we were able to get a larger nice room would be awesome, but I guess location is priority. I have read there is yakitori alley near ginza and also "piss alley" near shinjuku, which both sound similar. so any ideas or experiences on what you guys prefer? Is shidone too far from ginza to walk at night? is west shinjuku too far to walk to the heart of everything also? Which area do you think will be better for our experience for the week and are there any hotels in our budget that you love?

Thanks!

I'll be in Tokyo with my wife between march 28-April 6 and would love a food guide for a day....please email me about yyourself! Thanks