How to find restaurants where locals actually eat in Japan

Search "best sushi Tokyo" and you'll get the same twenty restaurants every other visitor gets. Those places are fine, but they are booked out by people who searched the same thing. Japan has an enormous number of restaurants, and the ones locals love most rarely show up in English search results. Here is how to find them.

Why tourist searches all lead to the same places

Google Maps ratings in Japan lean heavily on reviews from visitors. Travelers review in English, rate generously, and cluster around stations and sights. So the highest-rated places on Google are often the ones most used to tourists, which is not the same as the ones locals rate highest.

Japanese diners mostly review on Tabelog, and they rate hard. That makes Tabelog the single best tool for finding local favourites. It takes a little practice to read. Our Tabelog guide explains the scores and filters.

Use two maps, not one

The trick is to use both:

1. Find candidates on Tabelog. Filter by area and cuisine, sort by rating, and note places above about 3.5 with a decent number of reviews.
2. Check them on Google Maps. Look at recent photos, opening hours and the closed day, and how far they are from where you're staying.

When a place scores well on Tabelog but has few English reviews on Google, you've probably found somewhere locals love and tourists haven't found yet.

Look one station away

Restaurants right beside major stations and sights pay high rents and feed passing crowds. Go one or two stops out on a local line and the same money buys you a better meal, in a room full of people who live there.

Residential neighbourhoods with a shopping street (商店街, shōtengai) are especially good. They have family-run restaurants that have fed the same regulars for decades.

Signals worth trusting on the street

• A queue of office workers at lunch. Nobody queues for a mediocre lunch set in a city this full of restaurants.
• A handwritten menu in Japanese only. It isn't a guarantee, but it means the place isn't built around tourists.
• Noren curtains out front. A curtain hanging over the door usually means open. When it is taken in, they are closed.
• Lunch sets (定食, teishoku) from the dinner kitchen. Many serious restaurants serve a much cheaper lunch. It is the best-value way to try a place you couldn't book for dinner.

Signals to be wary of

• Staff outside handing out flyers or calling you in.
• Large photo menus in several languages at a place right next to a sight.
• Prices without tax, or a cover charge that isn't written anywhere. Izakaya otoshi, a small starter with a per-person charge, is normal. We explain it in our izakaya guide.

Ask people who eat out locally

Bartenders, the staff at a good coffee shop, or your guesthouse host often know exactly where they eat on a night off. Ask for their own favourite, not for a recommendation for tourists. Many are delighted to be asked, and some will write the name down in Japanese for you.

The catch: the best local places are hard to book

Once you've found a great local restaurant, you'll often hit the same wall. There's no online booking, no English, and a note that says to call. That is not an accident. We explain why in why so many restaurants only take bookings by phone.

For small places, try lunch first. If they don't take bookings at all (look for 予約不可), go at opening time, before the local crowd arrives.

Where to start, by city

• Tokyo: skip the main crossings and look at the residential neighbourhoods on the private rail lines. See our Tokyo guide.
• Osaka: Dotonbori is for photos. Tenma, Fukushima and Kyobashi are where Osaka eats. See our Osaka guide.
• Kyoto: book early and eat early. See our Kyoto guide.
• Fukuoka: the yatai are fun, but the local seafood counters are the real draw. See our Fukuoka guide.