The real reason to go to Tsukiji fish market is not fish at all.

GO HERE: to learn that the best thing to eat at Tsukiji has nothing to do with fish. Most visitors think they must eat sushi in the market, but this is an illusion—good fish can be enjoyed anywhere in the city and often at a better price and with less interminable lines. Instead, eat the thing that can only be had at Tsujiki: gyu-don. Yes, you can find these bowls of beef, onion, and rice everywhere in Japan, but they’re cheap pretenders compared to the rich stew made here. It’s the difference of pizza from Di Fara’s in Brooklyn versus the cheese-laden cardboard of a national chain. One is an act of love and one is an act of efficiency.

ORDER THE: well, gyu-don. Its chief components are beef and onion, but they have been stewed in a stock that‘s been fortified with chocolaty hatcho miso, which is the addition that makes Kitsuneya‘s special. If you‘d like something with more intrigue, order the horumon-don, which is a bowl of stewed cow intestines over rice. Both can be gilded with the addition of a raw egg or ordered over a block of tofu instead of rice.

THE VIBE IS: frenetic, like the market itself. Kitsuneya is a stall with only a few seats at the counter and a couple of standing metal tables on the sidewalk. It sits at the front of the outer market, so the traffic—both human and motorized—never stops.

PRACTICAL STUFF: Open Monday to Saturday from 7 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Closed Sundays, some Wednesdays. No English menu is available and the staff does not speak English. The nearest subway stops are Tsukiji and Tsukijishijo.

Tokyo City Guide Kitsuneya 3
Photo by Xavier Girard Lachaîne

A decidedly not-fishy reason to journey to Tsukiji fish market.

Tokyo City Guide Kitsuneya 2
Photo by Xavier Girard Lachaîne

Kitsune-ya is not as much a restaurant as it is a stall with a few metal tables.

By Kee Byung-keun


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