A note on the words: kinki is a prized red deep-sea fish, here simmered whole in sweet soy (nitsuke); kawahagi is filefish, eaten with its own liver whisked into soy sauce; kohada is vinegar-cured gizzard shad; akami and otoro are the lean and fattiest cuts of tuna. Prices are as of this writing (August 2026), and lunch here is cash only.
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Takeno on Tabelog (English) — opening hours, payment details and the Japanese address are kept up to date there, not here.
Drinkers, thank you for waiting. It is Hangover Meshi time.
Thank you for your patience — at long last, this time it is “Takeno”, the Tsukiji dining hall where you go to eat superb fish! A famous house, and the place to go if what you want, above all, is delicious fish.
Evening reservations are notoriously hard to come by, but I thought “surely lunch is possible?” — tried it, and got a table straight away^^ I could not wait to see what fish dishes awaited.
Step inside and the walls are covered in menu strips!
They say Takeno’s menu has no prices on it.
That is the line, anyway! The lunch set meals and the like do have prices written down properly, so relax^^ But the menu strips posted around the room carry no prices. Presumably because they change with what comes in that day.
Well — ordering freely is unlikely to end in disaster!
First, beer!
At Takeno the beer is bottled only! Back to life!
Hearing that a deep-rooted old Tsukiji dining hall makes its own potato salad, there was no question of not ordering it!
Potato dressed with cucumber, onion, carrot and ham in mayonnaise — the royal road, the taste of somebody’s mother. The floury give of the potato, and a shake of pepper making that simple seasoning sing. It goes very well with beer, I think.
Next, kawahagi sashimi (filefish)!
Firm, translucent white flesh sliced thin, eaten with the liver served alongside, whisked into soy sauce and wrapped around each piece.
The liver-soy style.
Whether or not that liver appears is what decides the worth of kawahagi sashimi!
Bite in and the refined sweetness of the white flesh meets the dense, deeply aromatic richness of the liver spreading out behind it. Kawahagi liver is said to surpass fugu — and that savour is irresistible!!
Oh! They have given us several cuts, including something that looks like otoro!
Start with the akami, the lean cut: a strong, iron-tinged savour and dense fibrous texture — the foundation and the essence of tuna. Truly, tuna means akami! The cut that looks like otoro is a slice of pure melt-worship, the sweetness of the fat dissolving on the tongue and vanishing. That fat, beading the soy sauce away — wonderful!
The silver skin gleams beautifully; the vinegar-cured flesh lies glossy in a row. The balance of vinegar and salt is where the craftsman shows his hand — neither too strong nor too weak, cured exactly enough to lift the fat and savour of the kohada.
In the mouth, the bright acidity of the vinegar rises first through the nose, then the rich fat characteristic of silver-skinned fish, and finally the delicate sweetness of the flesh lingering at the end. Kohada is delicious!!!
And this one is not to be skipped either! Turban shell grilled in its shell!
They cut it up properly for you, so it is very easy to eat and easy to share. The bitter part — the liver — is what really goes with sake!!
And how could one not order tempura at an old dining hall drawing on the fish power of the Tsukiji outer market!
Sillago, maitake mushroom, small scallop adductors, simmered conger eel and more, fried in a light, crisp batter.
In the mouth, the crackle of the batter first, then the delicate way the white fish flakes softly apart — irresistible! The character of each ingredient is left cleanly intact. You can go the clean route with tentsuyu dipping broth, or with salt to bring the ingredient itself forward — two ways to enjoy it. The tempura is delicious; you must order it!
The simmered fish is a compulsory order.
Takeno means simmered fish!
Kinmedai, kinki and nodoguro were all listed on the menu, and when they showed us “today it is kinki!” — this was the one item with a price written on it!
Kinki is a red, high-grade fish caught in the deep waters off Tohoku and Hokkaido; Hokkaido specimens can exceed 10,000 yen a fish, a genuinely scarce thing. Being able to eat one for 6,000 yen feels rather good value!
Takeno’s simmering liquid balances soy sauce, sake, mirin and sugar into a rich sweet-savoury broth, worked slowly into the kinki — the essence of an old house. One bite: first the plump, gelatinous give of the skin, then the delicacy of the fat-laden white flesh falling softly apart, and finally the deep savour of the broth spreading through the mouth. The fat on it is extraordinary; skin springy, flesh crumbling — this is the summit of simmered fish.
It must be magnificent with a bowl of rice!
And so — deeply satisfied! Every dish was delicious.
We ordered beer, sake and barley-shochu sodas and whatever we felt like eating without worrying much, and the total came to around 25,000 yen. For that much food and drink, a little over 10,000 yen a head strikes me as reasonable, if anything! Takeno is precisely…
…a precious survivor of the old daytime-drinking culture, in a Tsukiji drifting ever further towards tourist pricing!
“A shop that has been running since before Tsukiji became a sightseeing destination” — a great house worth visiting at least once!
Takeno (izakaya / Tsukiji Station, Tsukiji-shijo Station, Shintomicho Station)
Tabelog lunch rating ★★★☆☆ 3.7
I ate here and paid for it myself. Nothing on this site is a comped meal.
One more for the road?
