Hon no Machi — Jimbocho Book Town Guide
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Jimbocho is Tokyo’s book town — and, between the bookshelves, one of its best places to eat. Century-old soba shops, a beer hall from 1909, kissaten coffee houses where people open the books they have just bought, and curry that has made the neighborhood famous. This guide gathers the restaurants and cafés Hon no Machi, the town’s monthly magazine, has visited and written about, with links to each full article.
Contents: Kissaten: A Coffee and a Book Curry and Yoshoku: Book Town Classics Soba and Japanese Cooking Souvenirs to Take Home
Kissaten: A Coffee and a Book
Where do you open the book you just bought? Around Jimbocho and Ochanomizu, kissaten — traditional Japanese coffee houses — have kept the same flavors and atmosphere for decades.
Kissa Hotaka
A mountain-lodge-style coffee house across from Ochanomizu Station for 70 years, which began as a coffee corner in a tailor’s shop. Try the toast with marmalade and butter and the house blend of five beans — and hear the owner, a descendant of a Date clan retainer, on the Edo history just outside the door.
Kissa Poupée
A Showa-era kissaten on a Kanda-Nishikicho back street since 1970; its name is French for “doll.” The signature is an authentic European-style special curry whose recipe the founders received from the chef of a famous restaurant, plus the house spaghetti “Milanese.”
Mamekobo
A house-roasting coffee company whose head roasts beans from morning to night at its Jimbocho roastery — 50 to 60 kg a day. Regulars come for the “daily coffee,” chosen from 30–40 kinds of beans and changed in the morning, at midday and in the afternoon. Beans to take home, too.
Book House Cafe
A children’s bookstore with a café right in the middle of the picture-book shelves, a gallery at the back and a hideaway bar, Lilypad, opening onto the back street — an oasis in the old-book district for families and grown-ups alike.
Curry and Yoshoku: Book Town Classics
Jimbocho is famous for curry and for yoshoku, Japanese-style Western cooking. A beer hall from 1909 and a hotel dining room playing jazz on vinyl are part of the town’s flavor.
Luncheon
A beer hall on Yasukuni-dori Avenue founded in 1909. Up a retro staircase: omelet rice with silky egg, fall-apart beef stew, and escargots served as a beer snack. Since the founding only the manager pours the draft beer, and the restaurant stays open straight from lunch to dinner.
Ochanomizu Hotel Shoryukan (Jazz Olympus)
A hotel founded in 1950 where manga legend Osamu Tezuka once stayed. From midday its breakfast room becomes “Jazz Olympus,” serving a famous spicy, Indian-style red chicken curry to jazz on vinyl. Please check with the hotel for hours.
The Adirondack Café
A café and bar filled with records and collectibles the owner gathered in New York, with live jazz nights. Named after the Adirondacks, where the family went camping before returning to Japan — and a dining room with New York flavors.
Soba and Japanese Cooking
Neighborhood soba shops and set-meal restaurants have long fed the area’s printers, publishers and editors. Recipes passed from parent to child still draw lunchtime lines.
Asanoya
A soba shop in Kanda-Sarugakucho, near Suidobashi, that turned 100 in 2025 and long fed the neighborhood’s printers and publishing staff. Try the burdock tempura soba, the deluxe tempura bowl and itawasa; the fourth generation makes the soba every morning.
Hasebe
A Jimbocho set-meal restaurant that marked its 100th year in 2024. The third-generation owner heads to Toyosu Market at 4:30 every morning; bluefin tuna sashimi is the top seller, fish set meals draw a line at lunch, and at night there is sake from all over Japan.
Daisen and Toyodaen
A tea shop founded in 1923 and the soba restaurant the owner’s son opened share one roof. Two couples talk about a soba dipping sauce rested overnight and about tea culture today — and the tea makes a good souvenir.
Kanda Matsuya (contribution)
A Colombian-born writer walks through Kanda Matsuya, a soba restaurant founded in 1884, as well as Kissa Hotaka, Record-sha and Isseido Bookstore, reading Kanda’s “layers of time.” His favorite at Matsuya: tempura soba.
Souvenirs to Take Home
A classic Kanda taste to take home.
Kanda Awahei
A senbei (rice cracker) shop founded in 1884, whose “gekikara” (fiery hot) senbei of the 1980s gave Japan the word itself. Everything is made by hand, from grinding the rice. We visited just as Maya Amamiya, the sixth generation, began working in the shop.
More member restaurants and cafés
These member shops have not been featured in an article yet.
- Coffee Kura — British-style elegance down to the teacups, from an owner who loves Jimbocho. (Yazaki Bldg. 2F, 1-26 Kanda-Jimbocho)
- Kanyoro — Chinese cuisine since 1911, linked with Zhou Enlai. (3-14-2 Kanda-Ogawamachi)
- avocafe — A café of avocado dishes, with live music and exhibitions. (1-2-9 Kanda-Jimbocho)
▶ See all member shops on the Jimbocho map ▶ Shop directory ▶ Kanda Used Book Festival 2026
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