Food Fridays - Tokyo Quick Eats

Quick eats in Tokyo can be more than just convenience store munchies (although honestly, convenience store food here is pretty awesome and the local Family Mart was still our regular go-to breakfast choice). From ordering from a vending machine to a ready-to-microwave soup that wasn’t half bad, we found some new ways to get quick cheap food.

Don’t want to sit down, but don’t want fast food hamburgurs? There are actual stores with working kitchens in the back and no seats in the front that specialize in take out. Snack, top up, or grab something for the park.

We found that for certain items, prices at these places are even cheaper than convenience stores, especially if you go later in the evening when there are discount markdowns.

Sometimes two stores next to each other will sell a very similar item, but not necessarily at the same price. For example, one more upscale pastry store sold cream puffs for 180 yen, but right across the alley, these very similiar delicious-looking cream puffs were on sale for 108 yen!

Okay, so basement grocery store sushi may sound a bit..uh…fishy…in North America. But in Tokyo, basement grocery stores are common enough, and we were able to grab super fresh sushi at a super affordable price.

Although we didn’t do this, people can go yakitori hop between different places to try different delicious specialties. Some places do have a “service charge” or minimum 1 drink requirement. We opted to stay out because this one place was so good.

Instant soup faster than cup ramen, with possibly less sodium? Perhaps. No need to even boil water for this one. Pop it this little bowl of oden in the microwave for a few minutes and it’s ready to go! I had my doubts, but it actually wasn’t bad. If they sold them at home, I’d buy them.

Whether it’s from a vending machine or the local Family Mart (which we passed by every night) there’s no shortage of cheap cold drinks. Bring one home, add some ice, and sip the night away.

On a morning of sightseeing, we grabbed a breakfast sandwich of sausage, egg, cheese and bread with some very tasty ketchup. Perfectly packaged to wander the streets.

This is Sushiro Shinjuku Nishiguchi, a conveyor belt sushi restuaurant. Skip waiting for servers to come by and order on the touch screen in the booth instead. The screen was one of the largest we’ve seen with a games mode option which I think might give you some free food if you win (we obviously were not victorious).. Tea, utensils, and condiments are all self-serve.

Unlimited meat. Unlimited sides (rice, soup, and finely sliced onions). 45 minutes. $10. Shown here are liver and hearts on the left, salted pork belly and miso-marinated pork neck on the right. The clock is ticking. Ready, set, eat!

The benefits of ordering via a vending machine: order without talking to anyone and pay right away. The vending machine prints a small ticket with our meal details, and we hand it to someone behind the counter to whip up our food, in this case, some piping hot yakisoba.

When that late night hot sauce craving kicks in. Guess what? There’s a vending machine in Tokyo for that!