Ootoya

Name: Ootoya
Type: Japanese Style Restaurant Chain

Location: The Ootoya restaurant chain has heaps of restaurants in almost every major area of Japan making it very easy to find when you want to. A lot of places, such as Shibuya for example have two.

Info: Web Site, E: Email Form

After seeing these Ootoya signs all over Tokyo for my first two years in Japan, I still had no idea exactly what kind of restaurant they were or even if they were non smoking, but after being introduced to Ootoya by a friend of mine, I've never looked back.

Ootoya is a very wide spread restaurant chain that has branches all over Japan. They're all 100% smoke free and offer some of the freshest modern Japanese food I've seen here. Most "sets" they serve come with the main dish, pickles, rice and the best miso soup you'll ever taste. I've actually found myself on several occasions going to Ootoya just for the complimentary miso soup, it's that good!

The interiors are always well designed and the staff friendly. Ordering is very easy but unusual as you order and pay for your meal before you sit down. Which I guess is good if you're in a rush as you can run as soon as you finish eating. Note that one of the branches in Shibuya (near my favourite comic book shop, Blister) requires you to sit down and order old school restaurant style. This branch seems to be the exception though.

Ootoya is a very nice surprise for a first timer and one that I guarantee you'll come back to again and again once you try it.

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Orion Shokudou

Name: Orion Shokudou
Type: 100% Organic Japanese Food
On the Web: Their Blog (in Japanese, use Google to translate).

In Brief: A small, but 100% smoke free restaurant which serves 100% Organic food with no additives or artificial flavourings! And at a great price!

Review: Honestly a personal favourite of mine, I've eaten here several times and LOVE the chicken curry with ten different kinds of organic rice, though they do serve more than just that. It seems to be well-known for its ramen noodle with organic soup bouillon (though, I've honestly never tried it). The staff are very friendly though some Japanese language ability is required to order as ordering is done via a ticket vending machine with all the buttons in kanji and the staff don't appear to have a high level of English speaking ability. Not a bad thing. We are in Japan afterall.



Station: Higashi Nagasaki
Location: Just 2 stations (on the Local! Semi-Express, etc will go right through it) on the Seibu Ikebukuro Line from Ikebukuro and about a 2 minute walk from the Higashi Nagasaki station.