Sun Hotel

The chef’s starting point is the ramen his grandmother cooked for him when he was a child. He added ‘Toy Box’ to the name because he wanted to create ramen that holds the same excitement for his guests as a box of toys does for a child. Soy sauce ramen, the shop’s flagship offering, is constantly tinkered with to improve it. In search of a depth of gustatory experience, over 10 types of soy sauce are combined in the broth. Yet the ramen is a dish of simple happiness; noodles from the good old days.

Asakusa is a second hometown for the chef, who has lived here since his apprenticeship. He inherited both spirit and skill, along with tools and serving ware, from his mentor. He reveres the old teachings of the sushi world but does add a few twists of his own. He adds sweet potato shochu to rich soy syrup; to rolled omelette, he adds soy milk. The character for the chef’s surname of ‘Oku’ developed from a combination of the characters for ‘house’, ‘rice’ and ‘palm of hand’; a sign, he contends, that he was destined to run a place where he would fashion rice meals with his hands.

The name means ‘behind’, as in ‘behind the MICHELIN two-star restaurant out front’. In contrast to HOMMAGE, the purveyor of creative cuisine, noura is a homelike bistro that sticks to the basics. French onion soup, fish quenelle and duck confit are some of the French regional dishes on offer. Steak frîtes, a French comfort food, are a crowd-pleaser. This is French food culture for everyday life.

A competitive performance in yakitori run by two brothers, both hailing from other disciplines of Japanese cuisine. Dinner is served prix fixe, with the brothers taking turns serving. Chicken skewers are mainly served salted, keeping the focus on the flavour of the locally raised chicken. As the name ‘Shutei’, meaning something like pub, suggests, the neatly cut snacks and yakitori keep the sake going down smoothly. A number of choices are available for the final dish. Enjoy the ‘baton relay’ of the oyakodon, with the younger brother grilling the chicken and the elder brother wrapping it in eg

Black, white and orange are the tricolore of ‘Watanabe-ism.’ Black represents faith that cannot be tainted; white, the freedom to become any colour; and orange, the flame manipulated by the chef. On offer here is a fusion of French and Edo food cultures. Sobagaki is emulsified using French techniques; local Japanese elements include kaminari-okoshi, a roasted and flavoured mochi cracker; and monaka, a sweet of azuki bean paste sandwiched between crisp wafers. Watanabe-ism has deep roots in Asakusa-Komagata.

This family has been serving onigiri in Asakusa for three generations. Ingredients are arrayed inside a glass case, as at a sushi shop, to be formed into onigiri on the spot. Offerings range from salmon and dried plum to rarer items such as herring roe pickled in sake lees and opossum shrimp preserved and simmered in sweetened soy sauce. Offering a wide range of ingredients allows customers to choose based on their physical condition; the area was once home to numerous bars and pubs, so customers would drop in for morsels to soothe constitutions punished by a night on the town.

Beloved in Asakusa for three generations, this yoshoku restaurant treats demi-glace sauce as the soul of its kitchen. The most popular dish here is beef stew. Omurice is served with a choice of demi-glace or ketchup, a nod to the legacy shared between the former chef and his guests. The restaurant’s logo, a medieval-style shield adorned with the French tricolour, was inspired by a gift from a regular — a gesture that speaks to the warmth and goodwill of Tokyo’s traditional neighbourhoods.