Most Tokyo food tours run in the evening, last around three hours and promise a dozen or more dishes. The titles look alike, but the tickets do not: some include food and drinks, some only the guide, and some turn away guests under 20. Our verdict rests on facts you can check on every listing.
What the ticket covers
Traveling Tokyo includes food at several eateries and two drinks, and so does Japan Guide Star with 15 dishes at four eateries. The bar-hopping tour with Golden Gai adds dinner and all-you-can-drink. Two of the cheapest tickets cover the guide only: on the izakaya crawl of Travel Japan Together you order and pay at each bar, and on the Tsukiji walk of Traveling Tokyo you buy your own bites. The tour table on our home page shows food and drinks in separate columns.
The age-20 rule
Japan’s legal drinking age is 20, and the bar tours stick to it, even for teenagers with their parents. The izakaya crawl and the bar-hopping tour take guests aged 20 and over only. Japan Guide Star welcomes under-20s in Shinjuku and in Asakusa with soft drinks instead of alcohol, and so does the Golden Gai tour of Japan Wonder Travel. Traveling Tokyo’s Shinjuku tour does not state an age rule, which is why it is not our pick for families. Food tours with kids.
Diets and dashi
Dashi, the stock behind much of Japanese cooking, is usually made with dried bonito, and soy sauce usually contains wheat. On an evening walk you eat what each eatery serves that night, so strict diets rarely fit. The vegan food walk in Shimokitazawa is vegan throughout, the vegan ramen walk runs from Shibuya to Shinjuku, and the Tsukiji tasting tour and the Toyosu auction tour rule out vegetarian, halal and gluten-free guests. Vegetarian and vegan in Tokyo.
Evening in Shinjuku or morning at the market
Shinjuku is where most evening tours start, and the meeting points sit on both sides of the station, so check the exit before you go. Shinjuku food tours compared. In daylight, Tsukiji works best on market days: many shops close on Wednesdays, Sundays and public holidays, and the Toyosu tour meets at 5:00 for the tuna auction. Tsukiji and Toyosu.
Eating on a tour or cooking in a class
A cooking class is a workshop, not a culinary school. In the sushi classes the rice and fish are prepared before you arrive, and in the ramen class near Shibuya the broth is ready. Cooking Sun covers the most in three hours, with up to nine people in its sushi class and eight in the wagyu class, and it swaps ingredients for vegetarian, gluten-free and religious diets. Sushi making classes.
