The Tsukiji Outer Market is located adjacent to the former world-famous Tsukiji Wholesale Market, known for the super tuna auctions that were held before sunrise most mornings. Though the popular sell-off is now moved to a new location in Toyosu, the outer market still remains the same. The streets are narrow and filled with restaurants, grab-and-go snack stands, and vendors/shops with boxes that are stacked with fresh produce, dried goods, and kitchen-related items.

With over 300 shops and restaurants, it could be overwhelming as to what to try at Tsukiji Outer Market. Here are the 8 places we’ve tried at the market and our verdict on if they were truly worth the hype or not.

Overall Rating: 3.5/5

Honestly, Bear and I only stopped here because we were starving after getting into Tokyo from the airport and at 10pm and this was the only place that was still open. We heard much about this place and know it’s a popular destination for tourists that we knew going in that the sushi and sashimi we were getting would not compare to the local sushi restaurants in Tokyo. We got the Magurozanmai Special – which comes with o-toro, tuna, broiled toro, negitoro, and tuna roll. You could tell Bear was really hungry because he also got an assorted sashimi platter. For the price, I was pretty satisfied with the quality of the tuna, the broiled toro was my favorite. It’s a good starting point if you’re looking to discover what your favorite cut of tuna is.

Overall Rating: 4.5/5

There’s honestly no where you can go wrong to get freshly-sliced sashimi/Bluefin tuna at Tsukiji Outer Market. There are a so many variety of eateries that offer a tasty raw fish menu that ranges from Kaisen-don to Chirashi-suzhi to sashimi. There are also plenty of stands that just sell freshly cut sashimi to-go, we opted for the half & half at this stand because we wanted to try different types of eateries at the market instead of eating a full meal.

Overall Rating: 3/5

We stumbled across this as we were walking to the famous Tamagoyaki shop and call me American, but I really wanted inarizushi at the moment. I was craving vinegar sushi rice tucked inside the sweet and savory dashi based fried tofu pockets and when I saw that the Inaris were topped with my favorite crab and ikura, I had to get one to try. I will say, the crab was not aromatic, it almost tasted frozen and I wish the fish roes were bigger that the juices from the fish roe would pop in my mouth and the savory juices would’ve paired perfectly with the sweetness from the marinated beancurd pouch. Overall, I would skip this stand if you’re conserving tummy space.

Overall Rating: 5/5

I’m a little embarrassed to admit, but growing up I was extremely picky and would not eat any type of sushi besides Tamago and Ikura. After doing my research that the best places to get Tamagoyaki was actually at a fish market, I was sort of bewildered. There are many tamagoyaki shops in Tsukiji but the one we decided to tackle was the famous Yamacho. Their tamagoyakis are made carefully by skilled chefs and customers can watch while waiting in line. We ate the freshly made tamagoyaki on the spot – the texture was so gentle and delicate, sweet yet savory from the dashi broth – it was everything that I thought a good tamagoyaki would taste like.

Overall Rating: 2/5

After reading many blogs, the Shumai at this Chinese eatery kept coming up that Bear and I thought we’d give it a go. Growing up with weekly Sunday morning dim sum meals with our families, we had high expectations for how this should’ve tasted. The flagrant aroma of the giant juicy shumai filling wrapped with a thin layer of wonton skin wrapper, in addition to worchestire sauce for dipping, made it look so promising. What we were envisioning was a giant bite of juicy Chinese meatball infused with soy sauce, Chinese wine, white pepper, oyster sauce and a hint of sesame oil, but the actual was far from our expectations. It was such a led down, the meat tasted like it was fused with too much flour that made the consistency taste almost like a dough rather than the authentic shumai filling.

Overall Rating: 4/5

Yoshizawa Shoten is a butcher shop established in 1927. They carry various high-end brands of beef and they also sell to top-rated restaurants. Besides premium cuts of beef, they also sell various ready-made snacks such as their famous menchi-katsu. Their menchikatsu are made from Matsusaka beef (Japanese Black cattle), creating a higher fat-to-meat ratio when creating the katsu. We were highly content with the crispy fried outer layer and the juices from the meat came gushing out as Bear took the first bite. It’s packed with so much flavor that we didn’t need any tonkatsu sauce to pair with it. Our only complaint was that we wish it was hotter when handed to us. After a couple of bites, the fat from the meat patty and the fried bread crumbs does get too much though, we’d recommend getting one to share for a party of 2.

Overall Rating: 2.5/5

The sea urchin buns are filled with gooey fresh sea urchin fillings that just tempted us to try them. While the bun itself was warm and soft, the filling was tasteless and too buttery for liking. It lacked the sea urchin taste that we were looking for. They sell a lot of other stuff like snow crab bun and Kaku/Maru-mochi. But feel free to skip this stand, it was definitely one of the tourist trap.

Overall Rating: 5/5

If you only have stomach space to try one thing at Tsukiji Outer Market, please make the gyu-don at Kitsuneya. Their beef and onions are stewed for hours in a hatcho miso stock that makes each bite absolutely divine. We recommend adding a raw or soft-boiled egg over the gyudon and mixing the runny yolk with the beef and rice – the combination of the three is absolutely delicious. If you’re looking for something more exotic, try the horumon-don, which is another of their specialty bowls with stewed cow intestines over rice.

Tsukiji Outer Market is one of the best places to get the freshest seafood in Tokyo. But as you can see from our list, there’s plenty of other foods if you’re not a big sashimi fan. You’ll want to get there early as some stands close once they sell out, it’s also a great place to go for picking up souvenirs for your friends back at home as they have other goods such as local tableware and regional snacks.