A food tour in Togoshi Ginza, a novel shopping area in southern Tokyo

Tokyo is known for its out-of-the-box “Shotengai (local shopping area)” collection, which is packed with tons of local shops selling local crafts and treats.
Some of the most popular shotengai areas in Tokyo are Nakamise in Asakusa, Ameyoko in Ueno, Nakano Broadway in Nakano, Yanaka Ginza in Nippori, and Kichijoji Sunroad in Kichijoji.

Today we’ll take you to a food tour in Togoshi Ginza, a less-crowded shopping area in the southern part of Tokyo near Gotanda, where you can enjoy savory local snacks without jostling!

Accommodating more than 400 shops, Togoshi Ginza apparently is the longest shopping center in Tokyo, which stretches for about 1.3km. The shopping center is located near Togoshi Station on the Toei Asakusa Line and Togoshi-Ginza Station on the Tokyu Ikegami Line.

Located near the residential area of Gotanda and Osaki, Togoshi Ginza is a daily shopping place for the locals, so you’ll have plenty choices of food; ranging from instagenic natural donuts to pork onigiri sticks.

So let’s start our food journey in Togoshi Ginza!

We made our first stop at Tontan, a tiny restaurant known for its juicy pork rice bowl and pork onigiri sticks.

The pork rice bowl is an eat-in menu, so we decided to try the pork onigiri stick instead.

Sold for less than 300 yen, this pork onigiri stick is a rice satay wrapped with thinly sliced, marinated pork belly.

This onigiri stick is not only soft and juicy, but also tasty since the sauce and pork broth seep into the rice. It’s definitely a great food to munch on while walking around Togoshi Ginza area.

Tontan

Business hours: 11:00 – 23:00 (L.O.: 22:00)

Google maps: https://goo.gl/maps/epCtzLKDvttaPQm18

 

Our next stop is Beicon!

Beicon is a local bread shop in Togoshi Ginza and it’s known for its yummy gluten-free breads.

Most of the breads are made using locally produced rice flour and natural yeast, but some of them are also made using flour. If you have gluten allergy, it’s better to ask before purchasing these breads.
Beicon is also known for its adorable face breads, which available upon reservations (price varies).

We bought this incredibly cute panda bread, which is filled with sweet custard cream.
Isn’t it cute?

Beicon

Business hours: 9:00 – 20:00

Closed on Thursday

Google maps: https://goo.gl/maps/oN3g4Zo4SsrUgb3M9

 

We’ve been eating since morning, so we decided to visit Solco, a salt specialty shop in Togoshi Ginza.

Solco offers various types of salt taken from both Japan and overseas, and all of them are packed in small and slim bottles.
The price of the salt varies, but expect to pay over 700 yen for a bottle of salt here.

Great to purchase as souvenirs, you can actually ask the shopkeeper to wrap your salt into a chic gift box. We purchased 2 bottles of salt and a pack of Japanese rice and asked the shopkeeper to pack them in a small box.

Fancy, isn’t it?
The price of each gift box varies depending on the price of the salt, but expect to pay at least 2000 yen for a gift box.

Solco

Business hours: 12:00 – 6.p.m.

Closed on Tuesday, 1^st Monday of the month, and on summer holiday

Official website: http://solco-english.mystrikingly.com/

Google maps: https://goo.gl/maps/CUChTyAWwmk5E7dj8

 

We were craving for some caffeine, so we stopped by a small and cozy café called Yorimichi Café.

The café is located at the corner of Togoshi Ginza Street, and apparently this cute and woodsy café has been serving coffee and food to the locals since 2014.

So apparently the café is famous for its mouthwatering dishes. One of the most popular dishes sold at this café is the red beans toast.

The café brews different coffee beans everyday, both directly taken from local and overseas coffee farms. We ordered a special brew coffee and cold brew coffee. Both coffee taste great; well-roasted full body coffee with less acidity.

The café is not only cozy, but incredibly adorable too!

We also ordered coffee jelly because we’re craving for cold treats. Coffee jelly, which combines coffee jelly, creamy milk, and vanilla ice cream, is one of the most popular Japanese-style desserts in Japan.

Yorimichi Café

Business hours: 11:00 – 19:00 (L.O. 18:30)

Closed on Tuesday

Official website: https://yorimichicafe0201.wixsite.com/coffee-love

Google maps: https://goo.gl/maps/wvCBsnr3Ua2R1nmg9

 

After having a wonderful coffee break, we headed to floresta nature doughnuts to get few pieces of adorable, yet, instagenic donuts.

So we bought these incredibly cute animal donuts!
Known as “Oyako doubutsu donuts (mom & kid animal donuts)”, these donuts are sold around 400 yen.
This time we got the panda and chick donuts, aren’t they cute?
A little bit expensive compared to other donuts, all donuts here are made using strictly selected natural ingredients only.

floresta nature doughnuts

Business hours: 10:00 – 20:00

Closed every 3^rd Tuesday of the month

Official website: https://www.nature-doughnuts.jp/

Google maps: https://goo.gl/maps/ovPr6fLpj5MQdVtu7

 

floresta nature doughnuts was our last destination for this journey, and we love this area so much because it has a lot of choices of local treats to try.
The price of the food is reasonable too, so definitely this place is a YAY and must be included in your itinerary for Tokyo next time!