Shimbashi Hidden Gem Walking Tour

We had such a great evening exploring Shimbashi. Justin took us to places we would never have discovered on our own. Most importantly, the food selections were fantastic. Justin's knowledge and appreciation for Japan comes through as he tries to create an experience rather than a show & tell of a bunch of drinking spots. This attention to detail made the night memorable. Highly recommended.

I had alot of fun and enjoyed delicious food experiences on this tour. Justin - our guide was very knowledgeable regarding the food scene and took us to some wonderful places that I would never have tried or entered on my own. I highly recommend this tour.

We had an incredible experience. Yappy and Andy showed us a great time, taught us so much about customs, history and were so much fun to be with.

Our Chinese guide ‘Joe’ was the perfect companion for our food tour in Shimbashi. All the places he took us to were authentic and the food was delicious. We enjoyed his company immensely and had lots of laughs throughout the evening. He was very knowledgeable and managed to find the right balance with us. A wonderful evening, thank you so very much Joe x

Justin was an amazing tour guide and the food was spectacular! Almost had to skip the final meal but I heavily recommend not skipping the desert.

We had such a fun evening with Justin exploring the Shimbashi area! He was entertaining and gave us insights and tips about Japanese culture and food. He took us to places we would have not found ourselves. He was a thoughtful and attentive host. This Shimbashi food tour is highly recommended.

My husband and I took the Shimbashi Hidden Gem food tour with guide Hannah G in May 2026. This was honestly our favorite activity of our entire trip. The Shimbashi tour is unique because it takes place in the evening in an area of Tokyo where tourists don't frequent because it's a business and office work area. By chance, the other tour participants did not show up so it was just the two of us and the guide. I am a vegetarian and Hannah was so incredibly helpful in accommodating me while also not skimping on feeding my meat eater husband. She asked us what we were interested in and what foods we had been wanting to try on the trip and did her best to help us make that happen! We ate a variety of different things at many places and even had a sake tasting. My favorite was a small rotating sushi bar that was full of locals and chefs - a place I would have never had the courage or thought to go in myself. She was so knowledgeable and you could tell really cares about Japanese culture and all of the fun and interesting stories and facts she shared with us. We learned so much from her - not just about food but about Japanese folklore, lifestyle, work culture, family life, sake, and so much more. We added the extra karaoke session afterward and had a blast. I cannot recommend this tour enough! Hannah, if you are reading this, thank you!! We are so appreciative of our unforgettable experience and we had the best time.

Excellent tour with very knowledgeable guide (Emmanuel). He introduced the Izakaya culture, food and background and we had together an entertaining evening.

We had an excellent food tour with John on our second night of four in Tokyo. It was the perfect introduction to the best isakayas, restaurants and food in the area around our hotel. John was a great host - friendly, very knowledgeable (with an answer to all of our many questions!), and chose the tour spots perfectly. We had some delicious food, trying things we may not have been brave enough to on our own! The tour was around 3 hours and great value for money-we would highly recommend to all first time and even repeat visitors to this fabulous city and country! Arigato gozaimasu!

We had a lovely tour although the weather was dismal, pouring with rain! John took us to the salaryman’s district and the stories and information he held was fascinating. We were restricted to food because of my wife’s dietary requirements, but that we had was very tasty. The drink was good too and we were too engrossed to take more photos.

We booked a three-hour experience and were fortunate to have Rai as our guide. Despite the rain, he brought us to four fantastic spots, each unique and memorable. He even stayed an extra hour so we could complete the full tour. I would recommend it to anyone visiting.

Great experience, great food! Ethan was a very knowledgeable guide and a pleasure to spend a few hours with, visiting five or six small venues that we would never have found by ourselves.

Ethan was our guide for this incredible tour. He was engaging, knowledgeable, and was an all around great guide. The food and beverage selections were unique and of very good quality. We had a great time and enjoyed seeing the sights as we traveled from restaurant to restaurant. We highly recommend this tour.

Had a wonderful time on my first all-too-short trip to Japan and took two of Arigato’s food tours while in Tokyo. On my first night, I met up with our guide Ethan (also originally from Colorado!) and two others at Shimbashi Station, where we started our tour by learning about the history of the area. On the way to our first food stop, we detoured to a local shine & got to make an offering. (Thanks for teaching us the proper etiquette!) Over the next 3 hours we traveled small alleys to our food stops: a time-limited all-you-can-drink wine bar with flamed Wagyu & corn fritters; a sake bar; a place with skewers of veggies & seafood; another with shrimp-based ramen (you can order half noodles if you’re too full), then a taiyaki filled with sweet red bean for dessert on the street. Ethan warned us ahead of time, but it was still hard not to overindulge…you’ll definitely want to pace yourselves! (The shrine visit & taiyaki were unexpected bonuses as I planned both for later days.) It was a great way to end my first day in Tokyo / Japan!

Ray was amazing! He was very knowledgeable of the area, the restaurants and their owners. He mixed in some history and storytelling with our tour which was very helpful. Highly recommend!

We had a wonderful time on the food tour Great range of food and drink stops and Ethan was a welcoming , informative , knowledgable and helpful guide . Loved the Wagyu beef plus wine stop , the sake and snacks stop and everywhere else too . And the shrimp ramen and fish dessert were fabulous also. Great company 5 stars

Jacob our guide, was great! We learned so much about the Japanese culture and foods! Getting to see what "locals" actually eat was so fun and delicious! Jacob even recommend other places for us to visit during our stay! Thank you Jacob!!

Went on a Friday evening with guide Hannah and a small group of other travelers from all over. The drinks were great, the food was great (though a small handful of items perhaps considered adventurous for people used to Western food. I tried them and liked them, and Hannah made sure to order plenty of other food for those who weren’t as keen to try). First we went to a wine and beer bar with unlimited drinks and tasty small bites, then to a traditional izakaya where many salarymen were already winding down after a long work day, allowing us to experience the after-work culture of Japan. After, we went to a sake tasting and lastly, we enjoyed a hot bowl of ramen that was the perfect end to the tour. On the way back to the station, Hannah was nice enough to buy us dessert from a nearby shop. She is an excellent guide, as you could tell she knew her food, drinks, and the culture of what we experienced on the tour. Tip: get to the meeting point at least 15 minutes early to find the meeting landmark. It’s usually visible directly in front of the Hibiya/West Exit, but when I went there was a pop up market blocking it from view, so I was scrambling around trying to find it.

Highly recommend this tour, our guide Francois took us to 5 different stops on a Friday evening to experience the Shinbashi nightlife alongside the local salarymen (and ladies). Despite skipping lunch we were very full by the end, plenty of food and drink! Our guide gave us lots of useful facts and etiquette advice etc

Highly recommend the hidden gems tour in shimbashi for a truely local experience. It was so much fun and ray was awesome. Highly recommend.

Our guide, Akiko, was fabulous. She spoke excellent English and was very knowledgeable. She was able to be flexible and show us what we were wanting. She accommodated our variety of food allergies and dislikes. The food was amazing. We highly recommend her.

I think our tour was actually called - Cocktail and Whisky Walking Tour in Shimbashi Our tour guide Shigeki was an amazing guy!!! My wife and I are locals so we know a lot about Tokyo, but we were on the tour with friends from Australia and Shigeki was really able to give us an excellent experience with lots of information about the food, cocktails and local area. The bars that he took us to were honestly outstanding - Japanese cocktail - Folklore bar and the Sherlock Holmes bar were the highlights I think. Each one was a little different from the last with its own specific focus Definitely recommend this tour and other tours from this provider!! Thank you, Arigato Japan!!

Amazing tour. Food was excellent, the tour was fun and interesting and Daniel our guide create an evening experience for our group that we would do again if we could.

This Hidden Gems food tour around Shimbashi was an unexpected highlight of our trip. Our group tour turned into a private one as we were the only ones meeting Ray that evening. For starters, Ray was such a lovely, lovely guide. He took us to places we would have never even thought we could actually visit, sharing his knowledge of the place with us. The food was absolutely delicious, and so were the drinks and the sake tasting! Ray gave us this little souvenir and one of the best evenings of our trip. He even stayed to help us find the correct exit to meet a friend afterwards. If you're reading this Ray, thank you again for your smiles and the friendly atmosphere, it was a total pleasure to meet you and hopefully we can come back for more hidden gems! - Maria and Will

Enjoyed an informative and fun tour with our guide. He had thought about what we would like and even came armed with a small and thoughtful gift. We were taken to places we would probably not have found ourselves and learned about Japanese food and etiquette. In fact some of the etiquette earned us much kudos during our subsequent 3 weeks in Japan. Overall, a highly enjoyable, informative and fun tour.

We took the Shimbashi night hidden Gems tour with Dani as our guide and it was very good and informative. Really started to appreciate the background to the lifestyle of the folks living around Shimbashi’s busy and fantastic nightlife. Dani gave us a great insight into the area and stories behind and we experienced visiting various interesting restaurants and bars. I recommend it highly. Enjoyed it.

Dani was a great guide. Really interesting and helped us understand a lot more about Japanese food. We had a fun evening and enjoyed everything we ate and drank. We went to five places but we didn’t feel rushed. We went to places we wouldn’t have found on our own.

Booked the "Hidden Gem Food Tour – Evening" from the website. Visited 4 different locations for Ramen, Steak, Skewers and desert. Among others we ate Shrimp Ramen and wagyu beef stew that were amazing. The only "downside" was that all locations we visited were on the same neighbourhood, (within 1-2 blocks) and would have liked to explore a broader area. That said, the point of the tour was to delicious food, which was 100% achieved

My wife and I were on our first trip to Japan and wanted to have an introduction to Japanese cuisine. Our guide for the tour was Lucas and he was fantastic!! Not only did he introduce us to various Japanese dishes and drinks, he taught us so much about the history of Shimbashi and its "Salary Man" evenings. We visited about 5 different restaurants and had multiple dishes at each one with Lucas explaining each dish and how it was generally eaten or ordered Japanese style. Can't say enough about Lucas himself. A very enthusiastic host/guide with so much knowledge to offer. You can't go wrong.

We had a really enjoyable evening! The food was great - typical salaryman eating and drinking establishments, in places we would never have looked, and we were warmly welcomed at each stop along the way and had a wide variety of food and drink. Very well worth the money becaus our guide, Akari, was so charming and informative. We learned a lot about the culture of Japan and the history of Shimbashi, but also we just chatted with her, she was so friendly, natural and easy to talk to, and we learned so much about life in Japan that way, too. Totally recommended, thank you so much!

What an incredible experience! Our guide Akari Ha and Hallie was so lovely and knowledgeable!! They joined us in the experience which made it more authentic and fun. Just an amazing evening out with incredible food and drinks and conversation! Definitely more than a 3 hour tour but that made it more fun and special as we felt like we were out with friends. Thankyou to the amazing ladies that took us out!!

This review is for the evening food tour in KYOTO. Eduardo (a PhD student living in Kyoto from Mexico) was our guide. He was very personable and made an effort to connect with each of us. I thought the tour might include going to food markets and then to dinners, but the tour was 50% history/facts of the area and 50% visiting a selection of restaurants in Kyoto on a walking tour. We tried different cuisines and were FULL half way thru the tour!

We were fortunate to have booked and experienced a great foodie tour in the back alleys of Shinbashi with Ray as our guide and another English couple. Ray is a very knowledgeable and enthusiastic tour guide who comes from Kazan, capital of the Russian republic of Tartastan of all places, but being married to a local Japanese lady, and living in Japan for many years, he has consumed much relevant information about the Shinbashi area, Japan in general and its customs in particular to share with his guests. The tour included an excellent range of Japanese food and drinks at places that we would never have found by ourselves and therefore lived up to its naming as Hidden Gems. With Ray's commitment to impress, our particular tour ran for nearly 5 hours with an included local shrine visit, with our consent. For us 70 year olds, it was however a little too long by the time we returned to our hotel. That said a great tour which we would highly recommend with Ray as your guide!

Our tour guide Lucas was very informative, brought us to some very good restaurantsee and was fun to hangout with! He made the evening a very memorable one telling us all about the history and culture surrounding Shimbashi.

Sandra was our guide and she was FABULOUS!! The food was amazing and we tried things we never would have known about in our own. Interesting history as well. Sandra was extremely knowledgeable and engaging

Guide was excellent. First food stop excellent second food stop terrible Third food stop for drinks. OK fourth stop terrible

Ray was a wonderful tour guide! The restaurants he chose were not only extremely tasty but also a great amount of variation. We also enjoyed the chance to experience the all you can drink as part of the tour. Ray did an excellent job at accommodating our food restrictions. He was also enthusiastic about capturing our memories through photos that he shared. We loved the mini lessons on the surrounding area and Japanese etiquette! Overal it was great food and a nice way to try new things in an efficient way!

Our guide, Ray, was fun and knowledgeable. I appreciate that he clearly had a good relationship with the restaurants we visited. We made the typical tour a little challenging for him because I don't drink alcohol and my friend doesn't eat pork. He was quick thinking on his feet and made sure we had a great time despite our restrictions. He even gave us a little gimmick to remember how to say "Thanks" before a meal in Japanese. He was a great guide and I'm thankful we had the opportunity to have a tour with thim.

We took a hidden gem gourmet tour with Lucas, and it was amazing! We lived in northern Japan, learned more about the area, and had a great time eating delicious food. Lucas answered all our questions and it was a lot of fun to be with him!!

My wife and I took this trip last night and we had an awesome time. Our guide Ray was awesome, super knowledgeable about both Japanese food as well as their modern work/business culture. You get a ton of food, the 3rd stop was a bowl of Ramen which is an entire meal in itself, as well as a beer, wine, and sake tasting. 10/10 would definitely recommend as it's been my favorite tour so far on my trip to Tokyo.

We really enjoyed our hidden gem food tour in Shimbashi. Francois was really knowledgeable about the Japanese food and took us to food stops we wouldn’t have ever found or tried on our own. You get 4 food stops, all of which were delicious and opportunity to try some Japanese drinks, like plum wine for example. We also had a sake tasting stop. Make sure you’re hungry!

We had the pleasure of doing a private tour with Hannah and Akari, and they were amazing! Hannah shared so much history about Shimbashi with us, while Akari was able to tell us so much about customs and not common knowledge about Japan as a whole. They were so kind, helpful, and a lot of fun. I would rebook any tour with them again. We will 100% be booking all tours through Arigato Japan Food Tours.

This was a great food and alcohol tour by Hannah to some of the traditional places in Shimbashi. We started with a sake tasting. We went on and had several food tastes and other drinks, ending with dessert. Hannah told us about the history of the place as we walked along. It was a small group of five. We have been on many very good food Tours. This was as good as the best.

Hannah was a great tour guide and we appreciate her enthusiasm despite the rainy (and at one point, snowy) weather. She was happy to recommend an alternative spot to the sake tasting given we don't drink which was fabulous. She also let us choose between two ramen restaurants which we appreciated. She made us feel like we had alot of choice and say over the tour which was nice and we never felt rushed. The food was delicious (the wagyu spot was our favorite) and there was more than enough to have us feeling full by the end. We enjoyed this private food tour and would recommend it! The only small piece of feedback is that some of the food items listed in the tour description (eg okonomiyaki) were not part of our tour.

We had a fantastic time during our hidden gems tour of Shimbashi. Our host, Sandra, was early to arrive and very welcoming and personable to our whole group. We got much more food and drink than we thought we'd get for the price over the course of the 5 stops. It was great to have someone to guide us through and show us places we never would have found on our own. She also had tables arranged and orders placed for us, which took so much stress out of things for our large group of 8. I'd recommend this tour to anyone who really wants to get to know the area and get a great sampling of Tokyo's best food!

Sandra was amazing, took us to so many amazing places for wagyu, sake, the best ramen of my life (shrimp noodle) along with a too many other places to name. Great, fun, area, great tour, super organized. Shinbashi was also our favorite area in Tokyo so I would highly recommend this!

Kay was so excellent with our food tour! So many incredible opportunities and taste experiences and varieties that we got to enjoy! She was also very accommodative with a sudden change in dietary restrictions and made moves to help accommodate all of these changes (thank you so much 😊). She was also incredibly informative and knowledgeable about the surrounding areas; we really wanted to dive deeper into understanding the culture around us and she helped answer all of our questions 🙂 this, on top of the food and everything else, was such a wonderful and perfect experience. The only thing we wished we had done differently was book with her early in our trip!

We had a fantastic time being shown around and advised knowledgeably by Sandra! There was plenty of food available, all of it was very good- and so was the wine!! The venues were quite varied, but all within walking distance of the station and our group's enthusiasm and interest didn't flag at all. Sandra was fun and very informative throughout- highly recommended. So, an interesting, unique and enjoyable experience! If you get the chance, go for it!! Jeremy and Auriel

We thoroughly enjoyed our tour. It featured a nice variety of locations, great food, friendly and knowledgeable guide. We recommend it.