Tokyo: A 7-Eleven Sandwich, a Micro Pig Cafe, and Japan's Best Neapolitan Pizza

Convenience store

Get: The egg salad sandwich and a mango cream puff

The most surprisingly delicious thing we ate on this entire trip, and it wasn't even a Japanese dish. We went back a second time just for the egg salad sandwich, soft, squishy, and eggy enough to earn a 10 out of 10. The mango cream puff was a first for us, bouncy on the bottom, crispy outside, and tasting like real mango, we compared it to a mango pudding from Phoenix Bakery back home.

Micro pig cafe

Get: A required food order plus a 30-minute play session

A 30-minute session playing with micro pigs, genuinely cute and fun, though the required food order wasn't memorable. Come for the pigs, not the menu.

Onigiri (Japanese rice balls)

Get: Five ginormous rice balls with fillings like kimchi, egg, and mentaiko

We trekked over to Meguro specifically for Ichijyu Onigiri Ichiryu Manpuku, and it was worth it: five huge, shareable rice balls packed with different fillings, all delicious, and the whole thing came to less than $15 USD.

Japanese pasta

Get: A creamy pasta with bacon and egg yolk, and the mentaiko pasta with Japanese salted eggs

A spot we return to every time we're in Japan because it's consistently this good, both in food and service. Peter's creamy bacon-and-egg-yolk pasta and Lisa's go-to mentaiko pasta both delivered exactly what we expect from this place by now.

Tempura lunch

Get: A tempura lunch set finished with a soft-boiled tempura egg over rice, plus matcha ice cream

At lunch, each tempura piece was fried fresh and served straight to our plate, with English instructions so nothing got lost in translation. They finished with a soft-boiled tempura egg meant to be eaten over rice with soy sauce, plus matcha ice cream.

Kaisen don

Get: A seafood rice bowl finished with hot dashi broth poured tableside

The kaisen don here was one of our favorite meals of the whole trip. We left a little rice and fish at the end so they could pour hot dashi broth right into the bowl for one last course.

Specialty coffee

Get: A milk brew (cold brew, brewed in milk instead of water), a bacon potato pie, and a shrimp filet

The milk brew was the coffee where Lisa described the flavor as bright and dark, or bold, at the same time. That unusual balance made it one of the most memorable drinks of the trip. The bacon potato pie was a first too, fried, tasting almost like french fries with a hint of bacon (we gave it a 6 out of 10 and would've added hot sauce). The shrimp filet redeemed the visit though: soft shrimp, crispy outside, the kind of thing we wished we could get back home.

Ramen

Get: The signature ramen with chashu

We stop looking for new ramen spots in Tokyo because we like this one too much. The broth is rich, the noodles perfectly cooked every time, and the service stays fast even when it's packed. The chashu is so tender and flavorful that Lisa always ends up giving hers to Peter. You can even pick up a souvenir version to go. Simply put, our favorite ramen experience, we don't feel the need to try anywhere else.

Historic coffee shop, since 1948

Get: A muscat-flavored coffee and a milky, unsweetened cream drink

Recommended to us by our friend Victor, this place is a genuine step back in time: opened in 1948, with vintage vibes and every cup still carefully crafted the way it was over 70 years ago. The original owner reportedly lived past 100, leaving behind a one-of-a-kind legacy. The muscat-flavored coffee tasted exactly like the grape, and a separate milky, unsweetened drink with milk cubes was rich enough that there was, in Lisa's words, nothing to cut through it.

Japanese Neapolitan pizza

Get: A salami pizza, a Diavola, and a white pizza with avocado

On past trips, Seirinkan and Savoy were the Tokyo pizza spots that blew our minds, so we came to PST with our two favorite locals to see how it compared. It won. The salami pizza was smoky and rich enough to earn an 11 out of 10 from Lisa, the crust soft and airy with real char, and we ended up ordering a second slice. The Diavola landed a 9, and the white pizza with avocado, capers, and tomatoes was good, if a little less memorable, around a 6 or 7.

Kakigori (Japanese shaved ice)

Get: A chocolate mint kakigori with Oreo

A solid 8 out of 10, though we joked we picked the wrong flavor after seeing what else was on the menu. Worth a return visit to try something else next time.

Dessert cafe

Get: Dessert after exploring Tokyo

We stopped at Harbs Tokyo Midtown for dessert, a sweet finish to a very food-heavy Tokyo day.

Doughnuts

Get: Ask what's fresh that day

Another stop on this trip worth a mention if you're doing a Tokyo dessert crawl.