Tokyo is a multi-layered city.
Normally, you see shop fronts and restaurants along the street, even in major cities. But in Tokyo, the street level is less than 1/3 of what’s actually on offer. The city is so densely populated that it’s morphed into multiple floors. if you look carefully amongst the street level shop fronts, you’ll see small doors – entrances into a vast array of many, many more shops. Go down a flight of stairs and it opens up into a huge store or restaurant. Restaurants are stacked layer upon layer up the upper floors. I’m not talking about shopping malls that naturally have multiple floors, I’m talking about just shops lined along the street, but have hidden upper and lower levels.
And yet, virtually every single place is packed! It seems the locals know exactly where to go, even if places are hidden behind small doors and narrow corridors. It’s a great way to poke around and find lots of new things in every nook and cranny, but it’s also really exhausting when there is just SO much to look at and do 😛
This was how we found Tian Gou (??), which means “heaven dog”, literally. Why? I have no idea! We’d decided to go up a (tiny) elevator in a squashy building, and the doors opened on one of the floors. The place was packed out, it looked good, and so we decided on-the-spot to eat there 😛
Was a great choice in retrospect, ‘cos the place was fabulous! Basically every dish was delish and we thoroughly enjoyed our meal. Food is just better in Japan – FACT!
Inside Tian Gou
The large, pictorial menus
Fresh home-made tofu. OMG this was amazing!!!!
Raw shrimp sashimi. Ultra creamy and sweet
Pregnant fish. Way too scary for me to eat…
Sizzling sticky rice cakes
Salad with silver fish (can you see the teeny tiny things?)
Omelette roll. So simple, but it was outstanding.
Sizzling beef steak
Roast chicken
Prawns and avocado
Coffee Jelly and ice cream, and sweet potato fritter and ice cream
Half of the dishes that we ordered 😛
Happily fed
