Tokyo / Shinjuku / Food hall

The Isetan food hall

伊勢丹新宿店の食品フロア いせたんしんじゅくてんのしょくひんふろあ

The most complete depachika in Japan — wagashi, bento, French pastry, sake, and a fruit shop where a melon is a gift.

Worth itFood · Shopping · Rainy day · High-end

Every Japanese department store has a basement food hall, and Isetan Shinjuku's is the one the others measure themselves against: the sweet makers of Kyoto and Kanazawa with their seasonal wagashi, the bento counters that sell out by one, French and Japanese patissiers side by side, a sake shop with a tasting counter, and Sembikiya, the fruit shop whose perfect melons and grapes are what Japanese people bring to a hospital or a boss. Eat it in Shinjuku Gyoen, ten minutes away; that is what the garden's no-alcohol rule and the store's bento counters were made for. The store itself, a 1933 Art Deco building, is the best-edited fashion floor in the country.

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A hand-drawn sketch for orientation — each place links to an exact map.
Tip
Go before noon for the bento; after five most counters discount what is left.
Best time
11 am on a weekday.
Allow
45 min
Station
Shinjuku-sanchome (Marunouchi / Fukutoshin / Shinjuku lines), direct
Official site — hours, prices, closures
www.mistore.jp/store/shinjuku.html · Map

Appears in

In this area: Shinjuku

Garden Essential

Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden新宿御苑

An imperial garden of English lawns, French avenues and a Japanese pond — the finest cherry blossom and autumn colour in Tokyo.

120 min · Shinjuku-gyoemmae (Marunouchi line), 5 minutes; Shinjuku, 10 minutes
Viewpoint Essential

Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building observatories東京都庁展望室

Tange's twin-towered city hall, with two free observatories at 202 metres and Fuji on a clear morning.

45 min · Tochomae (Oedo line), direct; Shinjuku (west exit), 10 minutes
District Essential

Golden Gaiゴールデン街

Six alleys, two hundred bars, eight seats each — the writers' and film-makers' drinking quarter that outlived every redevelopment.

120 min · Shinjuku-sanchome (Marunouchi / Fukutoshin / Shinjuku lines), exit E1, 5 minutes

All places — Shinjuku →