Are you questioning if you happen to ought to be part of a Shinjuku meals tour? Food excursions may be an effective way to orientate your self in a brand new metropolis, you’ll discover some hidden meals spots and study extra concerning the meals tradition however like all tour they are often pricy so that you need to make certain it’s one thing you’ll get pleasure from. In this overview we take a better have a look at the Magical Trip Shinjuku Food Tour, with out giving freely the actual spoilers, so you possibly can determine if this tour is for you.
We’ve performed fairly just a few meals excursions in Tokyo at this level. While this was our first time with Magical journey in Tokyo, we now have had a good time on our earlier excursions with them together with my favorite Kyoto meals tour by way of Gion at evening. When we had the possibility to affix Megumi on the Shinjuku Food Tour on our current spring journey we couldn’t wait.
Magical Trip Shinjuku Foodie Tour
We’d travelled again from relative calm of Matsumoto that afternoon into the guts of Shinjuku on a Saturday night, we have been feeling the overwhelm. Someone else choosing the dinner spots was going to be a giant aid. Honestly, I wasn’t positive the place to begin as we have been carried alongside by the surging night crowds after we headed out from the resort at round 5pm to orient ourselves across the station space.
In sharing our expertise on the Shinjuku meals tour, please word that the locations we visited and the guides main the tour will range over time, we’re seeking to give a glimpse into the expertise right here and our ideas on it.
At 6pm we met our information, Megami and the opposite couple who have been becoming a member of the night tour on the northwest aspect of Shinjuku station. From there we headed off to discover Kabukicho, the neon lit leisure district on the ‘east aspect’ of Shinjuku station.
The night is run as a sort of progressive meal the place you’ve a course at every of three stops. As a slower eater I discovered this labored rather well for me giving time to eat and benefit from the environment at every place. In between eating places we obtained to stroll off a bit little bit of the complete feeling earlier than we sat all the way down to benefit from the subsequent course and as we walked we discovered some hidden spots and noticed some key areas of Shinjuku alongside the best way that will assist orientate us for the rest of our keep.
Our first restaurant on the tour was a sushi restaurant however as we now have come to count on from Magical Trip they’ve discovered one thing a bit totally different. In this case it has an Edo theme with lengthy picket tables and bench seats. We’re proven to our seats and given a customized ‘Magical Trip’ collaboration menu to select from.
I go for the fashionable sushi board whereas Drew takes the extra adventurous choice together with each fashionable and Edo interval sushi choices. It was a dish loved by townspeople again within the day and the type resembles the nigiri sushi we all know at the moment made with shaped vinegared rice and uncooked fish laid excessive however it’s big, a great 3 occasions the dimensions of regular sushi!
There can be a soup, extra hearty than the standard miso, served with greens and a thicker fish base. It tastes good, however I do know higher than to refill on soup so early within the night.
There are additionally choices for vegetarians, these with a bigger urge for food, or these much less concerned about uncooked fish, together with soba noodles and grilled eel.
As a part of the tour, we select from a great vary of drinks, each alcoholic and non-alcoholic. Drew had a beer at this cease whereas I went with the momo chu, a peach Shoshu highball, which is quite common in Japan. It’s alcoholic however this one is scrumptious and never too sturdy, not less than it doesn’t style too sturdy, they’ll have a little bit of a kick.
We have round 45 minutes between ending at our first cease and our second venue. During this interlude we’re taken on a strolling tour of the world. It’s a leisurely tempo and there’s lots to see. We wander by way of the slim lanes of Kabukicho the place tiny doorways and slim staircases lead into the hidden bars and izakaya hidden past, this a part of city received’t come absolutely to life for just a few hours but however it would undergo into the early hours of the morning.
We stroll previous the lineup of maids and others seeking to entice vacationers to their numerous bars and institutions. Honestly, most look bored or severely sad to be there, and who can blame them? We spot Godzilla peeking out above the brand new Gracery Hotel and proceed on to discover that newer addition to Shinjuku.
We are proven a spot to get an elevated view of Shinjuku that’s each free and public entry and but we’re the one ones there having fun with it. The metropolis lights are mesmerizing beneath, however it’s quickly time to maneuver on to the following a part of our meal.
Another factor I actually get pleasure from about doing a meals tour early in our keep in an space is that as you focus on your meals preferences and issues you have an interest in making an attempt along with your information, they’ll typically level out good and common locations to strive one thing that you just move so you possibly can head again there. There have been just a few locations we handed in the course of the night that I mentally famous to seek out our manner again to within the following days.
We have been informed that our second vacation spot could be Japanese BBQ. We cease exterior a specialty Wagyu restaurant. Again, it’s not someplace we’d have stumbled upon ourselves. It seems to be virtually closed from the entrance, however as we make our well past the entrance counter and up the slim staircase, it’s clearly not.
Our desk has been put aside for us, and we make our solution to it instantly. A fuel BBQ plate is within the centre, and a sequence of plates and bowls are laid out. There is a menu specifically ready for Magical Trip, this time providing a collection of wagyu or a vegetarian choice. I’m positive the greens are scrumptious, however the wagyu is asking, and it’s what all of us select.
There can be a various drinks menu of beer, native wines, spirits, and mushy drinks. Including a drink at every cease is a superb function of this tour. It does make it really feel like an precise course of the meal that you’re taking time to cease and admire quite than a tasting and racing off once more.
The meal contains soup, rice, recent salad, and pickles. Given what we now have already eaten, we’re given the choice to skip the rice, and I enthusiastically welcome that selection. However, these with a bigger urge for food can have the complete meal set.
The meat is clearly the star, and we every get to grill a chunk of wagyu from 4 totally different cuts that supply a spectrum of flavour and fats marbling. This manner, you get it cooked to your individual liking, and with meat this good, it could be arduous to go mistaken except you bought distracted and overcooked it, however it’s such a enjoyable, interactive a part of the meal that it’s unlikely.
A novel side of this restaurant we loved is that you’ve got a salt ‘coaster’ or Himalayan salt block on which you relaxation the meat for 1-2 minutes after you take away it from the grill. This completely seasons the meat, however you possibly can add wasabi or dip it in a teriyaki-like sauce if you need. I want resting on the salt block, however it’s scrumptious with wasabi and sauce.
The Wagyu Olympics are run throughout Japan each 5 years to seek out the farm that provides one of the best wagyu beef. In 2021, it was received by a farm in Kagoshima, on the very backside of Kyushu, which provides the meat to this restaurant. It was a terrific alternative to strive a Japanese BBQ restaurant with a Japanese-speaking information.
For our remaining candy course, we went to a dagashi izakaya—one thing new to us! Dagashi is penny sweet; in Japan, they name it American sweet. It’s the processed packaged sort quite than conventional Japanese confectionery known as wagashi. An izakaya is an off-the-cuff Japanese bar that sometimes additionally gives meals.
Now I usually don’t eat processed sweets, synthetic colouring and all that, so I might need anticipated to be a bit disenchanted besides that the place was completely oozing character and enjoyable, you possibly can’t assist however get caught up in it. It can be becoming to finish a night in Shinjuku. Shinjuku shouldn’t be conventional Japan; Kabukicho, specifically, clings carefully to its Showa-era (post-war) roots and Americanisation. If you boil down Kabukicho and add a contact of caprice, then this candy izakaya is it.
The place has a post-war Tokyo vibe and themed decor. You are seated at a sales space, order your drink, after which take your basket to load up on snacks. There are each savoury and candy choices, however I’ve to confess that at this stage, I spent most of my time rummaging by way of the candy cabinets and baskets, some distinctive others very nostalgic.
The drinks additionally fitted the period; I had a melon soda cocktail, and Drew tried Hoppy. It’s what Hoppy Street in Asakusa is known as after, however we haven’t truly tried it earlier than. Beer was virtually not possible to get after the conflict and undoubtedly not within the common finances, so Hoppy was created, a non-alcoholic carbonated drink that tasted barely like beer; add a slug of sake (no matter potent spirit is out there), and it’s the following neatest thing. It is certainly drinkable and value a strive when you’ve the possibility, however that alcoholic melon soda I might order it once more!
What we loved most concerning the Magical Trip Shinjuku Food Tour
An incredible native information.
Megami is from Western Japan however has lived in Tokyo for a few years. She (or Magical Trip) clearly had a great relationship with every institution we visited and shared attention-grabbing spots and knowledge each in the course of the meal and whereas strolling between venues. The information actually does make or break a tour and, in our expertise, Magical Trip have nice folks.
Small group.
The Magical Trip excursions are small teams, which is essential someplace like Shinjuku, the place you’ll need to maneuver by way of the crowds, sustain along with your information and likewise need to hear what they’re sharing concerning the space you’re passing by way of.
I undoubtedly additionally put a pin in Google Maps for just a few of the spots she identified in passing so we might head again and take a look at a few of their dishes within the following days.
They fastidiously choose and accomplice with every place you go to.
- The meals and drinks have been scrumptious and of fine high quality.
- They develop a menu and drinks record with every place you go to that’s only for their tour so that you get to decide on what you need to eat and drink, after all your information offers prime pointers alongside the best way.
- Each place had our desk ready for us on arrival, so our time in every place was maximised, and the night felt full however not rushed.
Is the Shinjuku Food Tour good worth?
We felt it was. We had a memorable night and loved all of the totally different foods and drinks choices. No meals tour in Japan is cheap, however Magical Trip excursions are sometimes a bit extra inexpensive and are very effectively deliberate and executed.
Other Magical Trip meals excursions
This was the Shinjuku Foodie tour, which we completely loved, however if you happen to aren’t staying in Tokyo, or Shinjuku is someplace you already know fairly effectively, there are different good choices to contemplate.
They run extremely rated excursions in Kyoto and Hiroshima. Or whereas in Tokyo, you may need to discover one other vacationer centre like Shibuya or the Tsukiji market or head someplace barely off the vacationer path just like the outdated city of Yanaka Ginza.
