Tokyo Allstar Food Tour

Amazing unique eats and drinks

Amazing! We had very yummy food for all palates but also super interesting and unique foods. All of the places we would have never found by ourselves! Hidden underneath train tracks, Japanese cuisine from a far away Southern island - even got to try a unique snake liquor with the snake still in it! How cool! This is a tour for the more or less adventurous eaters alike. Accommodated food preferences and allergies perfectly. Kids on the tour even enjoyed it. Alcoholic or non alcoholic beverage at the savory food stops. The desserts were also to die for- mochi with chestnut was amazing! And the cracker cookie a delight. We loved all food and it was the best we’ve had so far on the trip- despite going out of our way as foodies and having tasted lots of delicious food around the world.

So worth it.

My family had a wonderful tour with Jacob. Eating in locations no tourist would know about. Authentic food and an amazing experience. Jacob knows so much about all the different areas of Japan and what best food they have. A great afternoon.

Was great!

Excellent food and tour guide. We had a great time. We tried places we would not have otherwise known to try and learned a lot. It was a wonderful experience. Great communication both before the tour with logistics and during the tour.

Great Ginza tour

We went about a week ago on the All Star tour with Norma as our guide. We had a great time. The food was really good. Found out some interesting things about Ginza. Norma was great. Would strongly recommend.

A very tasty experience

Great time with tour guide and food was delicious and catering for all dietary requirements is a fantastic.

Fantastic tour. Highly recommended.

Well organised tour, perfect pace, interesting and fantastic food and stories. Some great tips for eating in Japan including a few key Japanese phrases and etiquette.

Great Tour! motoko was the best!

Thank you, this was the best tour ever. The food was awesome, and Motoko, our tour guide, was thoughtful and really looked after the children as if she was family! The food choices were fantastic, yummy, and we also got a good tour of the Asukasa area! Highly recommend!

Fab evening

We thoroughly enjoyed our tour with Hannah B - not just a food tour but we also got lots of interesting insights into the city as well as experiencing yummy food. Thanks

Best food tour!

This was the best food tour we went on while in the city! Kay was our guide and was excellent! She taught us so much about Japan and how to eat like a true local. Everything we tried was incredible and we left so full and happy! I would highly recommend for anyone visiting Tokyo!

10/10 Food Tour

We had an incredible time on our arigato Japan food tour! It was such a great way to learn some history of the city and enjoy food with the locals. Jacob was an awesome guide and we would recommend him to anyone looking to do a food tour through Tokyo. We will be sure to rebook on our next travel to Tokyo.

Out and about in Ginza

Thank you to Motoko, our tour guide for a fun and memorable night! We enjoyed the food and your company very much. Thank you so much for sharing the history of the places we visited. We would love to sign up with you and your company again and again! Thank you very much! Doe and cousins

Tokyo food tour in Ginza

The food tour was well organized but we wish it was a bit more kid-friendly. We notified our kids age way in advance but we were still taken to some experiences where kids were not welcomed. It felt like a waste. The food was good and our guide Sandra was very knowledgeable and kind.

Disappointing and overpriced

To provide some context, I live near Vancouver BC where we have a wide variety of quality Japanese restaurants. We were not looking for an introduction to gyoza and sushi. We chose this tour as it seemed to offer a more sophisticated food experience. Positives: guide was knowledgeable and spoke excellent English; first two stops were great and offered good food with the highlight being grilled/smoked bonito. Negatives: we had to pay for a second drink (two drinks were supposed to be included we realized later). The last three stops were a cookie shop, tea shop and fruit daifuku shop. The cookie and tea shop just seemed like shopping stops and really didn't offer anything unusual if you've had green tea before. The daifuku shop was interesting and high-end, but three dessert stops out of 5 seemed lopsided. The other thing that was annoying is that we kept running into the same tour groups at the different eating venues, which didn't make this feel like a unique or carefully curated selection of eateries. Given the number of restaurants in Tokyo I think a much better job of choosing venues should be possible and there should be at least three savoury stops before getting to the sweets.

Excellent Food tour

This was our first night in Tokyo and the tour was a great way to find out about Japanese food and lifestyle. Hannah was an excellent tour guide. Very knowledgable and inclusive for the whole group. The blackened tiny was delicious. Thanks

A fun experience!

And a great way to meet other travellers too. Our tour guide Hannah was kind, enthusiastic, and very knowledgeable. And she also takes great pics too! Highly recommended

Great experience

Motoko took us to a great variety of places and we had some delicious food, notably the briefly BBQ’d bonito and burdock with ‘whitebait’. The dessert at the end of the tour was also delicious and a massive sugar rush though by that stage my friend and I were fuller than we’d felt for ages. Still, we forced it down! Far too good to leave. We liked the pace of the tour and Motoko was an easy, friendly guide speaking excellent English. While she explained the reason for starting at 4, it would have been far preferable to start at 6. Couldn’t the places be booked in advance so that the tour could be accommodated even when places were busy?

Delicious and fun Ginza food tour

We had the best time with Hannah B on our food tour in Ginza. Hannah did an excellent job of teaching us the history of the area and showing us around. We had a ton of fun and the food chosen was so different from the other food we found on our own. Delicious! Would highly recommend. Thanks Hannah!

Tour not worth the money.

The guide of this food tour was very nice and informative. We had no problems with him at all. The food tour consisted of 5 different venues; with what we thought was a high cost. However, with 5 different food venues we thought it would be worth it. The first two venues (seafood and noodle shops) were great and enjoyed by all. The third venue was a cookie/pastry shop where we were handed a cellophane wrapped thin dry biscuit/fortune like cookie; that was all. The fourth venue was a tea shop where we sampled 3 different small cups of green tea; took about 5 minutes (nothing else provided). The last venue was dessert and it was very nice. Basically, the tour was not worth the money based on venues 3 and 4.

Don’t miss this food tour

It was fabulous. So much food… all delicious. A great introduction to Japanese food and culture. Shigeki was professional and entertaining. Very knowledgeable. Would highly recommend this tour.

Great!

My wife and I had a wonderful time with Shigeki! It was a great way to get to see the Ginza area, as well as to learn more about Japanese culture. It felt like the perfect amount and variety of food. Highly recommend!

Food tour in Ginza

My husband and I did a food tour in the Ginza area, and Shigeki was our guide! This was a great way to try local Japanese food and learn more about the history and culture. We tried a variety of food and drinks at places that we would have never found ourselves. Thanks to our excellent tour guide, Shigeki, for sharing a memorable experience!

Good food, not worth the price

We have done a lot of food tours and this was the lightest. Two of the stops were mainly for advertising purposes where the shop owner lets you taste tea or cookies with the hope of selling you things. You don’t really need a food tour to sample. Josh our tour guide was knowledgeable and friendly. Overall light in food options, so don’t recommend. Highly priced.

Best experience!

Had the best time with Yu Iizuka as our guide! All the spots were amazing and definitely places we wouldn’t have found on our own. I love sushi now lol. Loved all of his insight and background knowledge on the food and Japanese history and culture in general. Thanks Yu for sharing so much of yourself. Hope we can meet again soon!

Must do in Tokyo

An amazing way to spend an afternoon in Tokyo. The food was delicious (impossible to find by ourselves), the guide was amazing and all of us (5 in the family) had a terrific time.

Wonderful tour on our first full day in Tokyo, highly recommend

We loved our food tour with Shingeki! Delicious seared bluefin tuna, udon, Japanese sweets and much more, and all in spots that we never would have found on our own or been bold enough to venture into. Shingeki was a gracious, charming and informative guide. Our whole family (2 adults and 2 kids ages 18 and 12) loved the experience — highly recommend!

Arigato - Tokyo Allstar Food Tour

We had a fantastic afternoon/evening Allstar Tokyo food tour around Ginza with the very informative and entertaining Yappy. Four courses in four different venues (two mains, two desserts) and Yappy shared a wealth of information about not just the food but all sorts of other Tokyo-related details as we walked, including best places to eat in our next holiday stops, Kyoto and Osaka. Thanks Yappy for a great time!

Great way to explore Tokyo!

We almost decided to skip this tour after a couple other terrible tours of other parts of Japan (with other tour companies!) earlier in the week. So glad we didn’t. Yappy was amazing. Definitely a tour worth doing. He is fun, knowledgeable and engaging, and the food is great. If you do one tour in Tokyo, do this one.

Ginza food tour excellent and highly recommended

Yappy led our tour of 9 people. He was fantastic and full of positive energy and information about the Ginza area and it’s history as well as Japan. We had some really good food with lots of variety. Vegetarians will find it hard though! The smaller venues are the best with lots of atmosphere.

Great food local ambience

We went to restaurants popular with the locals that we could not have tried by ourselves. Delicious food especially the mochi. Expect a lot of walking from one place to the other around Hinza

Exceptional Ginza Area Eats

Everything about this tour was wonderful. Our guide Josh was exceptional. Warm, informative, funny and every stop was a yummy surprise. It was a very interactive tour and Josh was the perfect host. Thank you!!

Fun night out in Tokyo!

Very good way to see a small part of Tokyo, experience authentic Japanese food and meet new people. Our guide Shige’ was very good. Personable, professional and knowledgeable. Thanks!!

Great evening out

We really enjoyed our evening with "Harry" who was informative and friendly. We didn't have to walk far, probably no more than a city block but covered snacks, a green tea specialist, 2 restaurants with different regional cuisines and dessert! 4pm to 7pm and didn't feel rushed and the other people on the tour were very nice too. My only critisism would be the cost which we found to be on the high side.

A must do tour !Harry ( Hayato ) was an excellent guide

Fantastic tour Harry was a great guide . Delicious food ! Informative evening filled with unique foodie experiences.

Fun tour with great restaurant stops

A wonderful tour! We thoroughly enjoyed each of the two restaurants and 3 quick stops that Kay to us to. Kay was a great guide and was hilarious and fun! She kept our group entertained with her facts and teaching. The food stops were all delicious and we enjoyed trying new things. Much different than a street tour which made it unique!

All star food tour lives up to it’s name

fabulous tour with our guide Josh, many thanks! Food was delicious and great to eat in places we would not find on our own; informative and entertaining, great value Highly commend as a great way to see and experience the “real” Tokyo!

Great food!

A very nice tour with great and surprising food. A very knowlegable and pleasant guide with lots of fun and interesting info. Thanks Josh!

Must do food tour

We really enjoyed the wide variety of food and drinks we tried. Delicious. Definitely did not leave feeling hungry. Yappy our guide was friendly and informative, he gave us lots of tips on dining in Japan. Would definitely recommend to anyone visiting Tokyo.

Unique and delicious

Insightful and delicious tour which featured places tourists would never find on their own. The guide was great and each place we visited was unique. Plenty of food and good vibes.

Awesome!

We were fortunate to have Norma and Endo-San and a small group of just myself, my husband, and one other person. Our guides were friendly, outgoing, and super welcoming. We had a blast getting to know them and the food of Tokyo. The conversation and information was amazing. We had a fantastic time and would definitely do it again!

Like being the star of your own travel food show

I've done three Arigato Japan food tours, one in 2019, and two this year (2023). Not only were all of them fun and delicious, but they were all standout memories of my time in Japan. Here's the thing. When you get back from Japan, everyone will ask you, "What was the coolest thing that you saw?" Unless you spent your entire trip in your hotel, you'll have no shortage of touristy sightseeing answers you can provide. But none of them will really convey how magical and awesome and otherworldly it is to spend time in Japan (especially Tokyo). These food tours not only unlock food and sightseeing options that would otherwise be inaccessible to tourists, but they deliver the closest feeling I've come to a food travel show type or experience. The kind of show where the locals help you identify the tourist traps and pull back the curtain to reveal the genuine, delicious food they wish more people knew about. More often than not, those standout food experiences have been in places I would have never thought to go to, or featured menus and signage I couldn't decipher on my own. Or, in a few cases, gorgeous restaurants tucked inside of office buildings whose existence is only indicated by a nondescript Japanese sign out. Unless a local shows these spots to you, there's simply no way you'll even know they exist, much less know what to order once you get there. Needless to say, I highly recommend these tours. And when you get back home and someone asks you what the best part of your trip was, instead of reeling of the list of Instagram hotspots, you can tell them about that night you spent with a local guide eating and laughing your way through meals and drinks and desserts that all stand out as distinct memories you'll still remember years later. The only warnings I'll give are that: 1. You may break a sweat when you're walking to all these places. I found it to be a great way to prepare my gut for each new destination, but if walking is not your thing then maybe skip this (and probably Tokyo too, since it's hard to avoid walking here). 2. You will probably get uncomfortably full. I don't think they want anyone walking away from these tours feeling like they didn't get enough to eat. I unlocked new stomachs I didn't know I had. It was worth it, but it helps to pace yourself early on. p.s. Shout out to our Tokyo guides Yappy & Kumie, and Miyuke (Micky) in Kyoto.

A Tasty Stroll Through Tokyo

Our tour guide, Norma, was fantastic. She's like a family member giving us a food tour. The 1st stop was the appetizer part which included seared bonito fish, drinks, and more. The 2nd stop was a tea shop where we sampled several green teas including cherry blossom green tea. The 3rd stop was dinner which included soba and other hot and cooked food. The 4th stop was a cookie and snack place. The last stop was dessert. You will definitely get full and all the stops were wonderful. This is a must-do.

Amazing experience.

Yappi was a fantastic host and tour guide of the amazing eateries around Ginza, thank you for a really enjoyable evening for our large group of 10. The off the radar areas that you introduced me to were great to know for the week that I spent in Tokyo after our tour.

Like Sightseeing with a Friend

In 2018, I had a whirlwind trip to Japan solo for 4 days for a Pokemon event. On short notice, I took a leap of faith, and traveled by myself to Narita, Yokosuka, and Tokyo. After leaving the familiarity of Yokosuka, being a US military base, I quickly grew overwhelmed in Tokyo due to my lack of preparation. However, one thing I was cognizant enough to do in advance was to purchase the Arigato Travel All Star Tour for my last night in Japan. Despite being almost crippled with anxiety to even leave my hotel room, I ventured out. Your tour guide and the accompanying guests in my group all spoke English, we're incredibly thoughtful and funny, and made me feel like I belonged. It instantly became my favorite and most memorable part of that short adventure to Japan. Now, 4+ years later, I finally have been able to organize a return trip of 9 days with my husband (whom I told all about my tour with gusto) during the cherry blossom festival. I instantly knew that Arigato Travel would be a core function of that trip. As a result, we booked 11 tours (including one virtual) with Arigato Travel over the course of our time there, often two per day, across Tokyo, Fuji, Kyoto, and Osaka. I can't tell you how much reassurance and excitement swelled in me as I saw the booking confirmations roll in. Thank you for everything you guys do!

Not what I expected

Not quite what I expected unfortunately. American guide (living in Japan & speaking Japanese) with too much focus on other stuff than food. Pretty basic information about the dishes and customs surrounding eating in Japan. The dishes were far from spectaculair and we ended getting an icecream in a shopping mall.. Would not recommend.

Great experience!

Took the Food Tour with Norma, and it was fantastic! It was a small group of people - 5 altogether. We visited a number of restaurants and had a really good culinary experience tasting various special Japanese dishes. It was a real treat!

The best food tour I've done!

Whether it's your first visit or your 100th visit, hands down you should do one of these food tours with Arigato Food Tours. The best way to experience a culture is through food. A must do and you will discover all the hidden gems!! 100% recommend!!

Delicious Food and Excellent Cultural Information by Yappy.

We recommend this tour to any other tourists to experience this Japanese Cultural Food Tour. Thank you Yappy, we had a wonderful evening. My husband and our two children 15 and 12 greatly enjoyed the evening. After the tour was finished Yappy went out of his way to guide us to show us where to buy some needed items. Our guide Yappy spoke excellent english and he was very pleasant to talk to.

Best your ever!

Yukata had great knowledge of the area and the food was delicious! Would do it again definitely! The food choices gave a introduction to the diversity of Japanese food.

Hidden Gems

Thank you Norma for a fabulous 3 hours of good food, culture and history. We thoroughly enjoyed this experience and would highly recommend this adventure to folk of all ages.

Amazing food tour

We had such a fantastic food tour with Mario from Arigato! The food was delicious (sashimi, noodles, skewers, chicken, dumplings and more), as were the drinks (beer and cocktails). He organised vegetarian options at every place for the vegetarian in our group. We never would have found those places on our own. It was also great to learn about Japanese culture and Tokyo. Don't hesitate to book!! Pretty expensive but well worth it - a real highlight of our trip.