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If you haven’t dined at a buzzy, smoky Tokyo izakaya, you really haven’t dined in Japan. And while izakayas can be as diverse and as specialized as the imagination allows, one name ticks all the boxes for a quintessential Japanese izakaya experience, and that’s Shirubee.
The place is just off the main drag of Shimokitazawa, a trendy student neighborhood filled with cheap drinking spots, live music venues, and vintage stores in seemingly equal measure. Not dissimilar to the neighborhood itself, Shirubee looks traditional and a little old-school, but it’s injected with a sense of youthful fun. It offers your standard izakaya fare, which is cheap, delicious, and diverse. If you can pull up a seat at the U-shaped counter to watch all the kitchen happenings, pots bubbling with oden stew, fish sizzling on the hot plate, and skewers being flame-grilled, it’s dinner and a show, Japanese style. —Lucy Dayman 
<a href="https://raku-co.com/?page_id=26" target="_blank" rel="noopener">raku-co.com</a> 
+81 3 3413 3785 
<a href="https://maps.app.goo.gl/gLfgkHcmcLoucHgaA" target="_blank" rel="noopener">1/F Pinecrest Kitazawa, 2-18-2 Kitazawa, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo, Japan</a>

Fish being seared with a blowtorch at Shirubee Shimokitazawa in Tokyo.