What to eat in Ikebukuro, Japan | Ikebukuro travel guides

Ghiottone

Nishi-Ikebukuro 3-27-1

5 min. walk from west exit

Excellent pasta and salads, in portions that are ample for two. The crab spaghetti is very popular. No non-smoking tables.

Shakey's Pizza

神宮前6-1-10

Down Sunshine-Dori on the way to Sunshine 60, on the left, there's a Shakey's Pizza. There are lunchtime buffets with great pizza the way only Japanese like to serve it.

Kaiten Sushi

St. Rope Ikebukaro Building 5Floor

A very nice "conveyor belt" sushi restaurant

Malay-Chan

locate the Metropolitan Art Space and the bus loop that services that area. Walk to the curve of the loop, cross the main street (Geikijo dori) there and walk up a little street that winds left, then right. Then walk about 2 blocks farther

A small Malaysian restaurant on the west side of the train/subway station that is a little hard to find.

Mutekiya

on the east side of Ikebukuro, opposite Junkudo Bookstore

Good ramen.

Tobu and Seibu basements

Urban Japanese keep their grocery stores beneath their department stores. If you go to the B1 and B2 levels of the massive stores flanking the Ikebukuro station, you will find endless acres of raw and prepared food. Buy a bunch and take it back to your hotel fridge.

Al-Flah

on the righthand-side of the Royal Hotel in Ikebukuro, on the 4th floor

A halal supermarket and restaurant that sells halal food, including vegetarian curries. The store also conveniently has a bollywood-movie section.

Namja Town

10:00-22:00

in Sunshine 60 on 2 & 3F

Namja Town has some big food shops in Sunshine City: the gyoza studium, the ice cream city, and the dessert empire of Tokyo. The gyoza stadium offers gyoza varieties from many famous restaurants in Japan. The ice cream city has many kinds of ice creams from around the world. The dessert empire of Tokyo features some famous cakes. Namja Town is exhilarating but incomprehensible if you don't speak Japanese. In the ice cream section, for example, there is a shop selling over 100 varieties of ice cream in single-serving cups, almost none of which have a single non-Japanese word on the label. Still, it's easy to try various gyoza by pointing at picture menus.