A note on the words: monjayaki is a Tokyo dish of very loose batter and chopped fillings, cooked flat on the griddle in front of you and eaten straight off the plate with a small metal spatula — runnier and more of a snack than okonomiyaki, its thicker Osaka cousin. Mentaiko is spiced pollack roe; mochi here means the chewy rice cakes stirred in with it. Baby Star is a brand of crunchy fried noodle snack, scattered in for texture. A lemon sour is shochu, a distilled spirit, with soda and lemon. Ameyoko is the open-air market street that runs under the railway in Ueno. Jiro-style refers to Ramen Jiro, the Tokyo chain whose bowls come piled with bean sprouts, pork fat and raw garlic. Prices are as of this writing (August 2026).
Tokyo Monja Club Odashi, Ueno on AutoReserve (English) — opening hours, the Japanese address and online booking are kept up to date there, not here.
I want something good to eat today too. This is Hangover Meshi. So: Ameyoko lately is nothing but serious Chinese restaurants, and it gives you the feeling of having wandered into some other Asian country rather than Japan. At the same time I have the impression that a great many monjayaki places have moved in recently. Is it for the inbound visitors, I wonder. Or did they multiply because you can now eat it in Ueno without going all the way to Tsukishima or Asakusa? Either way, as someone who likes monjayaki, there can never be too many.
Unlike okonomiyaki, monjayaki has the advantage that you can eat it in a light, snacking sort of way.
And since these places are essentially izakaya, they are very easy to walk into!
So the one I hunted down this time opened on September 24, 2025!
Brand new: Tokyo Monja Club Odashi, Ueno.
First an ice-cold lemon sour! There is no sense going too hard from lunchtime.
Marathons and drinking: keep your pace!
Right, which monja shall it be.
Looking at the menu there are a lot of unusual, novelty monja.
Judging by the photographs, a lot of them are built to look good, perhaps.
I see — I had noticed some sort of board sitting on the table.
It turns out to be a display stand for the monja. Making it photogenic is welcome!
Just as the name says, the contrast between the big, bright red cod roe and the white of the mochi is beautiful! You cook it yourself, of course.
Another good thing about monjayaki is that if you get into the swing of it, it turns out well.
Yes, delicious. It lives up to the name Odashi — the monja carries the scent of dashi. Mentaiko, mochi and cheese is the royal road of combinations, so of course it works. It suits a drink and it keeps the conversation going.
Next I ordered the old-fashioned monja.
The other way round, you see! There are simply too many new-arrival monja.
I nearly went for the Jiro-style monja, but maxing out the garlic smell from lunchtime seemed unwise, so: back to first principles.
Grill the meat first, then set to and build it.
Yes, this one is good too. Baby Star noodle snack and red pickled ginger. An orthodox pork monja. Tasty.
So, two dishes and done. Being able to use a place this way is what is good about monja in Ueno. Because there are all sorts of drinking places around it, you can drop in, eat and move on to the next. In somewhere like Tsukishima it is all monja, so there is not much point in bar-hopping. In that sense, this is monja that only Ueno can give you. It was delicious, so: recommended!
Tokyo Monja Club Odashi, Ueno (Izakaya / Keisei-Ueno Station, Ueno-okachimachi Station, Ueno-hirokoji Station)
Tabelog lunch rating ★★★☆☆ 3.4
I ate here and paid for it myself. Nothing on this site is a comped meal.
One more for the road?
