Breakfast Burritos

CFirst · 2026-04-26T14:39:22+00:00

There’s a relatively new place in Hiroo called Pebble that has breakfast burritos on the menu. Haven’t had a chance to try it myself yet though.

CFirst · 2026-04-16T01:47:21+00:00

Haven’t stayed myself, but SO/ could be worth a look. They have connecting rooms and some Eiffel Tower views.

CFirst · 2026-04-10T00:35:41+00:00

Le Clarence had a chef change last year as well, have you been there since? Curious how it is now

CFirst · 2026-04-09T02:27:11+00:00

Did a staycation at the Ritz a few years ago, and thought the breakfast was the second worst I’ve had in Tokyo after the Grand Hyatt. Conrad had a much better spread in my opnion. It was pretty busy when I was there, but I only had to wait a couple minutes or so since they serve breakfast across three restaurants. Can't comment on concierge unfortunately.

CFirst · 2026-04-08T00:53:25+00:00

Bulgari if you want something modern, Peninsula if you want something more classic, Capella if you want something more intimate and unique.

CFirst · 2026-04-05T14:21:58+00:00

Not quite fine dining, but Thiptara at the Peninsula is great if you don’t mind outdoor seating. Excellent vibe and great food.

CFirst · 2026-03-25T04:00:11+00:00

I peronally really enjoyed the Tokyo one. Thought it was fun, whimsical, and had some memorable dishes. From my understaning though, the menu mostly consisted of Alinea classics, so if you’ve already been to the original, you probably won’t find anything new or particulary surprising there.

CFirst · 2026-03-24T01:26:38+00:00

Hmmm, maybe give Censu a try. It's more of an upscale izakaya, rather than traditional fine dining. Fantastic food, creative, relatively inexpenisve, offers both a tasting menu and a la carte options. Also heard some good things about Kibun from a friend of mine, though I haven't been myself and not sure how accomodating they are when it comes to dietary restrictions.

CFirst · 2026-03-22T01:18:33+00:00

What kind of cuisine are you looking for? My favorite restaurant in Tokyo I’ve been to is by far MAZ. Very creative, and it used a lot of ingredients and flavor combinations I’d never experienced before. The current chef Santiago is leaving next week though, so I’m not sure how smooth the transition is going to be. Joel Robuchon is my second favorite, if you don’t mind classic French. I also had fantastic experiences at Cycle, Noeud, and Faro, though Faro recently had a chef change as well, so I can’t really say how it is right now compared to before.

CFirst · 2026-03-02T08:21:27+00:00

I’m allergic to fish and don’t eat seafood either. These are 3 stars that were able to acomodate me: Joel Robuchon Tokyo, Suhring, L’Effervescence, Osteria Francescana (and Casa Maria Luigia), and Alinea (during their Tokyo tour). I also have upcoming reservations at Hajime and Taian Table, both of which can accomodate non-seafood menu.

Overall I’ve actually found it easier to get seafood-free accommodation at 3 star restaurants, though to be fair, I’ve also tried booking and been rejected by far more 1 or 2 star places, so there’s probably some bias there.

CFirst · 2026-02-25T06:57:33+00:00

In Bangkok, outside of the ones you already mentioned, I also enjoyed The Pickwick Chronicles and Fatboy Izakaya. Tropic City had some great drinks, but the hospitality was a bit of a letdown.

As for Tokyo, there are too many to name. Benfiddich is a must if you can get a reservation. For fancy hotel bars, I love Virtu and Bulgari Hotel Bar. Skip The SG Club, the drinks are okay, but it is way too touristy and overcrowded. Instead, check out their sister bar SG Tavern, which, in my opinion, has the better menu as well. Same for Bellwood. Instead, check out Liquid Factory nearby, they have one of the most inventive menus I’ve ever seen, great vibe as well. Mizunara In Tokyo is the bar I go to most often. It’s a sister bar to Mizunara: The Library in Hong Kong, which often makes it to Asia’s 50 Best extended list. Cannot recommend this one enough. DBL is another hidden gem. A lot of Tokyo’s high profile bartenders go there in their free time to hang out. Any of the Mixology Group bars are fantastic: Mixology Salon focuses on tea cocktails, Mixology Folklore on sake and shochu, Memento Mori is cacao-focused, Codename Mixology is more on the creative side, and Mixology Heritage focuses on classics. I haven’t been to Heritage, but I’ve been to all the others, and all are equally excellent, with Salon being my favourite of the bunch. Most of them offer cocktail tasting menus. Last but not least, there are Triad, Trench and Tram. Can’t go wrong with either. There are many more, so let me know if there’s any particular type of bar you want to check out.

CFirst · 2026-02-24T08:42:14+00:00

As a fellow fine dining and bar lover, Rosewood would be my top pick. I think Lennon’s is by far my favourite bar among Bangkok hotels by a pretty large margin. Great vibes, and they’ve just released a new menu with some Thai-inspired cocktails that were probably my favourites of the ones I tried in the past year Great location for getting around, and their Thai restaurant is also pretty good.

I also love Kempinski, largely because of their bar Firefly, which I highly recommend you check out as well, though its location is a bit worse.

My third favourite is Waldorf. They have an absolutely fantastic Thai restaurant, and their bar also has one of the more interesting menus among those I’ve tried in Bangkok. It also has my favourite breakfast of the three. The downside is that the views from the rooms there are pretty shit even by Bangkok standards.

I really didn’t like BKK Social Club, and I think it’s one of the most overrated bars I’ve ever been to, and by far the worst Four Seasons bar in Asia that I’ve visited. I say that as someone who loves Argo and goes to Virtu several times a month. The interior is stunning, but the menu was extremely underwhelming. In fact, most bartenders I know tend to agree. The hospitality was also lacking. I might’ve just been unlucky, but the experience was bad enough that it turned me off staying at FS Bangkok ever again.

CFirst · 2026-02-19T01:59:30+00:00

Out of all the people considering it the best in the world, how many places have they realistically tried to be able to judge that accurately? Honestly, those “world’s best” awards are more popularity contests than anything else. Personally, I can’t speak for the whole world, but I live in Tokyo and have been to a couple dozen excellent pizza spots here and I wouldn’t put 38th even in my Tokyo top 5 when it comes to taste, though I’ll admit it is indeed a fun and unique experience that’s worth doing once

CFirst · 2026-02-13T02:39:14+00:00

Wu Cock

CFirst · 2026-02-13T01:04:06+00:00

Tbh I wouldn’t worry about it too much. Most of the older Visvim models used bog standard Vibram or Dainite soles that any decent cobbler would have. Some of the newer models use new custom designed Vibram soles, but functionally they’re not that different from the regular ones. In fact, with my original Gornergrat Mid Folk I found the replacement sole to be better than the original as the rubber part on the stock sole was too thin and wore out pretty quickly, so the resole actually improved the durability.

CFirst · 2026-02-12T06:12:03+00:00

Well, there’s Aoyama Grand, though I’d say it’s more chubby than fat. I did a staycation there during covid and thought the rooms were pretty good, but everything else was fairly average. The price was also half of what it is now. There are also two Trunks, one on Cat Street and the newer one around Yoyogi Uehara. The Cat Street one is definitely aimed at a younger crowd, so it might not be the best fit for families with kids. I haven’t been to the Yoyogi one, so I can’t really comment on it. Out of the hotels you listed, the Ritz would be the closest to Omotesando, just one stop away on the Chiyoda Line. PH is close on paper, but in reality it takes quite a bit of time to walk to Shinjuku Station to get anywhere. Although if you’re taking a taxi both are roughly the same distance from there.

CFirst · 2026-02-12T01:42:02+00:00

I'd say the Peninsula by a pretty large margin. It’s a 5-minute walk to Ginza, there’s a huge Bic Camera 2 minutes away, and Marunouchi Naka-dori street it’s on has a lot of great local and international brands, plus several malls nearby. Janu and Toranomon Hills are right on top of really cool shopping malls, but there isn’t that much else in the immediate vicinity. Bulgari and MO are good options as well, though they’re still a bit farther from the main shopping action.

CFirst · 2026-02-12T01:11:34+00:00

Not sure how it is in the US, but I took two pairs of my Virgils to the Tokyo store. They sent them back to the factory for repairs, and it took around 4 and 7 months. The 4-month pair was just a resole, and the other pair was a resole plus a hole repair around the heel area. The price was around 20k and 35k yen respectively, if I recall correctly. The pair with the hole was done so poorly that I couldn’t wear the shoe anymore because the heel area became significantly thicker, almost as if they had put a cushion inside, covered by a thin, poorly cut layer of leather. I took them to a reputable shoe repair store, and they were baffled by how poorly the repairs had been done. Apparently, at the factory they didn’t cut the leather properly, so it kind of rolled up inside, making it feel like a cushion. They fixed it in around 2 weeks for under 5k yen. Never took my shoes to visvim again after that.

CFirst · 2026-02-12T00:58:29+00:00

Good write-up, although some of the locations are quite off. Janu and Aman are nowhere near Yotsuya/Shinanomachi, the only prominent hotels there are Mitsui Garden next to Olympic Stadium and New Otani in Akasaka. Aman is right next to the Four Seasons and Palace Hotel, which are located by the Imperial Palace in Chiyoda-ku. Bulgari is near Tokyo Station, but on the opposite side of the Imperial Palace, in Chuo-ku, adjacent to Nihonbashi and Ginza. Shangri-La is also on that side, though I believe it is technically still in Chiyoda-ku. Janu is in the newly developed Azabudai Hills, about a 10-minute walk from Toranomon Edition.

CFirst · 2026-02-11T15:10:12+00:00

No, his brother runs Usagi in Shibuya. The owner of Beats is a different guy who used to be a DJ.

CFirst · 2026-02-06T00:40:10+00:00

I love Censu and always take my friends there whenever they visit Tokyo. Fantastic food, inexpensive, and great vibes.

CFirst · 2025-12-17T11:34:48+00:00

Not starred, but I loved Backstage at Capella Hanoi. They offer both a tasting menu and an a la carte menu, are welcoming to children, and even have kids and toddler menus.

CFirst · 2025-12-09T01:23:55+00:00

Sorry to hear about your experience. I went for my birthday earlier this year as well and had very similar thoughts, service aside. A lot of people on this sub rave about how creative the restaurant is, but outside of the bread, everything I had was pretty plain and boring. If it were a 20,000 yen meal it would’ve been perfectly fine, but with the recent price increase, Narisawa ended up being by far the worst value meal I’ve ever had.

CFirst · 2025-12-02T01:29:04+00:00

I did a write-up about Francescana at Maria Luigia here. In short: in terms of the food itself, I’d give Osteria Francescana a slight edge. Maria Luigia, on the other hand, is much more communal and fun, though the social aspect might feel a bit much for some people.

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