The towering wooden-beamed izakaya that inspired Kill Bill's House of Blue Leaves, where lantern light conjures an Edo-era warehouse over plates of fresh soba and charcoal skewers.
Founded in 1924, this beloved tempura institution fries seasonal seafood and vegetables in pure sesame oil piece by piece — the accessible Ginza branch sits atop Matsuya department store.
★ Wagyu sirloin and tiger prawn tempura in rice-flour batter
A ten-seat counter beneath a canopy of cherry blossoms where every course — even the wagyu and prawn tempura — is fried in rice flour: fully gluten-free and halal.
★ Brown-rice (genmai) bread and gluten-free taiyaki
A dedicated gluten-free, rice-flour bakery counter in the basement of Shibuya Scramble Square, making breads, taiyaki and sweets with no wheat, additives or white sugar, and many items are vegan and dairy-free. It is a grab-and-go bakery rather than a sit-down meal, and as a dedicated GF facility cross-contamination risk is low though not certified celiac-safe.
The dine-in fruit parlour of Japan's oldest luxury fruit purveyor, founded in Nihonbashi in 1834, serving lavish parfaits of world-class fruit in a bright, elegant salon.
★ Tomeshi — soy-cooked rice crowned with broth-soaked tofu
Founded in 1923, this Kanto-style oden institution simmers a decades-old dark dashi and is famous for tomeshi — broth-soaked tofu over soy-stained rice.
★ The 'Zeitaku-don' bowl topped with tuna, uni and ikura, finished tableside as ochazuke with sea-bream dashi
A famous counter-only seafood-bowl shop where every bowl is fish over rice with no meat, so it suits pescatarians well; expect a queue, and note the soy sauce and dashi are not gluten-free.
★ Three styles of juwari soba (inaka, sarashina, dattan)
A specialist serving juwari (100% buckwheat) soba with no wheat flour, so the noodles themselves are naturally gluten-free. Note the standard dipping sauce/soba-yu and a shared kitchen mean it is not certified celiac-safe; confirm the tsuyu if you are highly sensitive.
