8 Must Try Food At Takeshita Street in Tokyo – From Gram Pancakes to Zaku Zaku to Totti Candy Factory

As the wife and I walked along Takeshita Street, we saw plenty of interesting food to eat here. This vibrant thoroughfare (also known as Takeshita Dori) in Harajuku, Tokyo is lined with a tidy sprawl of cafes, restaurants, youth fashion boutiques, shopping malls, cosmetic shops, and more. Takeshita Street is most famous for its delicious Japanese crepes; I spotted at least three crepes shops along this short street. However, other than crepes, I also found lots of other delicious food here. Therefore, I have compiled a list of eight awesome places to eat at Takeshita Street below.

1. Calbee Plus

Calbee Plus is a snacks shop run by the world famous Japanese snack brand, Calbee. The popular items are the Poterico (a derivative of the Jagarico potato snack) and fried potato crisps which are made on site. You can even add Royce chocolate sauce, ice cream, or cheese on the chips. There is also a variety of Japanese snacks for sale.

By the time the wife and I visited Calbee Plus in Takeshita Street, we were already very full from all the other food we had eaten. Therefore, we didn’t buy anything to eat here.

However, we went to the Calbee Plus outlet at Tokyo Station on another day, and this time round we ordered the signature Poterico Cheese (JPY 310). This tasted similar to the Jagarico, with a very crunchy bite and rich salty flavour. The distinct cheese fragrance was quite pleasant too.

Calbee Plus
Opening Hours: Daily 9.30am to 8.30pm

2. Eiswelt Gelato

This was my favourite food at Takeshita Street! Eiswelt Gelato is a new ice cream shop that sells adorable animal-shaped gelatos. The shop was founded in California by a young college graduate in 2015. The Tokyo outlet is her second branch.

The gelatos have super cute names such as Teddy, Piggy, Chicken, Bunny, etc. You can also order multi-flavour gelatos such as “3 Piggy” or “5 Piggy”.

I bought the Froggy (JPY 580) which is a Japan exclusive flavour. This was probably the most adorable ice cream I had ever seen! And it tasted great too. It had a rich green tea flavour, along with a smooth but firm texture.

Compared to normal ice cream, the gelato tasted less creamy and had a richer density. This is because the gelato is made with whole milk, while ice cream is made with cream.

The wife went with Piggy (580 Yen), and chose the Strawberry flavour. It had a pleasant strawberry flavour that was sweet but not cloying. It will suit people who do not have a sweet tooth.

Eiswelt Gelato
Opening Hours: Daily 10am to 8pm

3. Gram Harajuku

Gram is a Japanese cafe famous for its super fluffy soufflé pancakes. The cafe only serves the pancakes at 11am, 3pm and 6pm daily. Only 20 pancakes are served at each time slot.

Therefore, as you can imagine, it is rather hard to get your hands on these pancakes!

Tickets are given out one hour before each serving time, but make sure you arrive even earlier because there is always a queue. For example, if you want to make it for the 11am time slot, you should aim to arrive at around 9.30am.

The pancakes come in a tower of three and cost JPY 950. It has butter and powered sugar toppings, and is paired with whipped cream and maple syrup on the side.

Unfortunately, the pancakes were sold out by the time I reached the cafe. This was one of the regrets of my trip!

Gram Harajuku
Opening Hours: Daily 11am to 9pm

4. Marion Crepes

Marion Crepes is a crepe shop known for its delicious Japanese style crepes. This popular shop has over 80 branches across Japan.

Looking at the menu, I was literally spoilt for choice; there was a dizzying selection of over 100 crepe combinations!

There are two main types of crepes: sweet crepes and savoury crepes.

The sweet crepes come with Nutella, strawberries, banana, ice cream, etc. The savoury crepes contain curry, tuna, and cheese fillings.

In the end, I ordered the Strawberry Chocolate Chocolat #34 (JPY 530). This sumptuous crepe consisted of a scoop of chocolate ice cream, strawberry slices, a cracker, and a generous portion of whipped cream. The finishing touch was a drizzle of sweet nutella.

I really liked the crepe skin! It had a smooth texture that felt really good in my mouth. The ingredients inside turned into a luscious sweet mush in my mouth, punctuated by the crunch of the slightly salty cracker. This was definitely one satisfying treat!

Marion Crepes
Opening Hours: Daily 10.30am to 8pm

5. Santa Monica Crepes

Santa Monica Crepes is another popular crepe shop at Takeshita Street. It offers a large variety of crepes too. The prices are slightly more affordable than Marion Crepes.

It is hard to miss this store with its bright pink food-truck design.

The most popular item is the Strawberry Banana Ice crepe, which contains strawberries, bananas, vanilla ice cream, whipped cream and chocolate sauce.

Santa Monica Crepes
Opening Hours: Daily 10am to 9.30pm

6. Totti Candy Factory

Totti Candy Factory is a Japanese candy store famous for its colourful giant cotton candies. The wife and I decided to share one Harajuku Rainbow (JPY 900), which is exclusive to the Takeshita Street outlet.

At first, I didn’t know how I should eat the large cotton candy. I tried eating it directly but ended up getting cotton candy on my face.

I realised that a better way was to just pull off pieces of cotton candy and fold them into smaller edible portions. Using this method, we finished eating the cotton candy within ten minutes.

The cotton candy was quite sweet and tasty, but there was nothing really special about it. Basically it tasted like typical cotton candy. But its super pretty design makes it a must-try food at Takeshita Street.

Totti Candy Factory
Opening Hours: | Mon to Fri: 10.30am to 8pm | Sat, Sun & PH: 9.30am to 8pm |

7. Zaku Zaku (ザクザク)

Zaku Zaku is a store known for its signature Croquant Chou (JPY 250), which is a cream puff with an elongated shape. It is freshly baked in the store every day.

According to the company, the custard cream filling is made with milk from free range cattle in Hokkaido, which explains its freshness and delicious taste.

This uniquely-shaped cream puff was indeed really delicious! The skin was really crispy and had the aromatic flavour of lightly musky almond nuts.

Biting in further, I got to taste the luscious custard fillings, which had a wonderfully sweet flavour. We finished the entire cream puff in just a few minutes.

Zaku Zaku also sells a Soft Serve (JPY 450) that comes with almond toppings. I didn’t try this though.

Zaku Zaku
Opening Hours: Daily 10am to 8pm

8. Chakasho

Chakasho is a new bubble tea shop located beside Etude House in Cute Cube. It offers the popular brown sugar bubble milk tea. The pearls are made with brown sugar.

According to reviews, the drinks are really delicious. Therefore, be prepared to queue if you plan to check out their bubble tea.

Chakasho
Opening Hours: Daily 11am to 10pm

Map of Takeshita Street Eateries

Click on the picture to enlarge

This shopping street is located directly opposite Harajuku Station on the Yamanote line (Takeshita Street Exit). I have also created a rough map of the eight places above. It should be useful in helping you to plan your food hunt along Takeshita Street! This is the google map location of all eight joints.

This article is part of our super awesome Ultimate Tokyo Travel Guide For First Timers. Everything you need to know about Tokyo is just a click away!