A note on the words: som tam is the Thai green papaya salad, pounded in a mortar with lime, chili, peanuts and fish sauce; otoshi is the small appetizer an izakaya brings unbidden and charges you for, effectively a cover charge. Zero-jikai, “round zero,” is the drink you have before the drinking party officially starts. Prices are as of this writing (August 2026).
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Shibuya Gapao Shokudo on Tabelog (English) — opening hours, payment details and the Japanese address are kept up to date there, not here.
I want to eat something good today too. This is Hangover Meshi. This time, Shibuya. I had arrived forty-five minutes early for a meeting, and wondering how to kill the time I decided to drift into a place nearby for a light drink. Around Sakuragaoka in Shibuya there are plenty of stylish drinking spots, but not many that are easy to walk into alone, so after wandering about I settled on Gapao Shokudo. It happened to be quiet, and I thought surely they would not mind one person having a quick drink. In I went.
Ordering nothing at all would be poor form, so I decided to have a salad.
What I chose to nibble on was the green papaya salad.
And a beer while I wait ^^
Since I have dinner plans, this counts as a round zero.
I had better go easy on the food. The beer is good.
And here is the som tam Thai.
The portion is, well, a little large. If they did a just-right size of this plus a few small plates for around 1,500 yen I would order that without hesitation. But you cannot have what is not on offer.
This som tam Thai is very much the real thing (then again, Gapao Shokudo is the real thing generally).
A good lemony acidity and a properly hot seasoning. Green papaya with that distinctive crunch, and then the oil of the peanuts and the scent of cilantro on top of it — it is simply delicious. This is perfect with a drink, surely. It is a salad, but with a dressing that strong and that much to chew on, it could honestly stand in for dinner on its own.
Before I knew it I had ordered a second beer.
And then the otoshi arrived. They had forgotten it.
So that was all. I was there about forty minutes, I suppose. Two beers and a properly good som tam. Those two things filled the time nicely and I enjoyed myself. Now I am off to eat the real dinner. Since I only had a bit of salad my stomach is in fine order ^^ It is easy to walk into on your own, so I recommend using it this way. (Though if I am going anyway, I would have liked to eat Thai food properly. Another time.)
Shibuya Gapao Shokudo (Thai / Shibuya Station, Shinsen Station, Daikanyama Station)
Tabelog dinner rating ★★★☆☆ 3.5
I ate here and paid for it myself. Nothing on this site is a comped meal.
One more for the road?
