En Izakaya, Shinjuku

October 2022: Please note En Izakaya has now permanently closed. Please see our Shinjuku page for other dining experiences in the district. See all recommended places to eat in Tokyo where you can mingle with the locals.

Need to impress someone with slightly more upscale surroundings, but also need to keep dinner affordable and delicious? Check out En in Shinjuku, the izakaya that ticks all these boxes and more.

Miso and sake-lees grilled pork. - image © Florentyna Leow

I tend to eat alone, and so I gravitate to izakaya which welcome solo patrons. But sometimes I need to emerge from a more hermit-like existence to eat with other people. Sometimes friends will ask for something a little nicer, a little more chi-chi. Sometimes I might need a date-appropriate restaurant. Or, friends travelling to Tokyo might ask me where in Shinjuku they should eat - a difficult feat since this area isn't exactly my favourite place in town.

Inside En - there's tatami, counter, or table seating. Something for everyone! - image © Florentyna Leow

Luckily, En is the kind of place that ticks all the those boxes. Walk in there and you'll see mostly couples in their early thirties and groups of young professionals, enjoying dinner over cocktails from En's extensive drinks menu. It must be all the down lights and warm wooden paneling; it's just right for a romantic night out. Plus, all the dishes are designed to be shared by several people along with a stream of booze. Perfect for lubricating dinner conversation.

The table section. - image © Florentyna Leow

I don't even drink alcohol, but a taste of my friend's hazelnut sour had me debating internally for 5 minutes on whether to order my own. It is an unusual, beguiling, cold, light concoction that begins innocently enough before the hazelnut kicks in on your palate two seconds after you take a sip. Is it hazelnut liqueur or bourbon? A taste of Frangelico? Whatever it is, it's haunting and nutty and utterly addictive. You will spend the rest of the night wanting a second, third, fourth sour - if you haven't already given in to ordering several more.

Yes, there is an English (and Chinese!) menu, complete with photographs. It absolutely welcomes travellers to town. But that doesn't equal touristy: its location - on the 7th floor of a building behind Tiffany's - ensures that you have to be looking for this place to find it.

En serves all the familiar izakaya staples and then some. Grilled fish, miso cod, rolled Japanese omelette, spinach with sesame dressing, grilled beef steak, broiled stingray fin, soba, udon, a few rice dishes. There's something for everyone. In that regard, nothing on the menu is especially surprising.

Sticky tofu as a starter. The cover charge here is JPY450. - image © Florentyna Leow

I figured I knew what to expect from a place like this: perfectly decent if not innovative cooking in more upscale surroundings. But En still managed to surprise me with just how enjoyable some of the dishes were. The starter alone promised good things to come: mocchiri tofu, an unassuming mound of white tofu in soy sauce and a dab of wasabi. You expect something wobbly and silken, but instead it had an addictive stickiness and resistance to it. Have you ever had sticky tofu like this? You're missing out if you haven't. Small, white, clean, bright - you'd think Edelweiss was about this tofu instead of a flower.

Miso and shrimp namerou. - image © Florentyna Leow

You'll want to start with some nibbles. Otsumami are funky, salty, little dishes you eat to help the alcohol go down. You could try, for instance, the shrimp and miso namerou - sweet chopped pieces of raw prawn stirred together with a chunky sweet-salty barley miso. Alternate small chopstick-sized scoops with draughts of sake or beer. It's a good way to begin the night.

Then there's something like the miso sake lees grilled pork, pictured above. A well-done strip of pork with just the right ratio of lean to fat is one thing. Marinating meat in miso and sake lees - the leftovers of sake-making endeavours - turns it into a veritable umami bomb of a dish. It's the kind of food you wish you could have for a lunch on a huge mound of rice when it's been a particularly bad day at the office, something to lift your spirits when everything seems to have gone wrong.

All the cheese. - image © Florentyna Leow

Deep-fried yuba filled with cheese holds no hidden surprises. It's a straightforward dish everyone but the lactose-intolerant will love, best eaten while the cheese is still hot and molten.

Juicy, smoky aubergine in broth - image © Florentyna Leow

You'll need to balance all this out with something less greasy. To this end, the sakuraebi and aubergine in dashi broth is the perfect counterpoint to all this richness - no less flavourful in its smoky, gingery juiciness, but it will probably help slow down that impending heart attack from all of the booze and meat.

Fried rice. - image © Florentyna Leow

The takana and jako fried rice was a surprising winner here. It doesn't hurt that pickled mustard greens and baby sardines make a fantastic combination. I would come back just for this, and the sake lees pork. I haven't really encountered great fried rice all that often in Japan - many places just don't get the wok hei (breath of the wok) right. They do here.

Tsukune - image © Florentyna Leow

The tsukune (grilled chicken meat patty) is not bad, though it sits in a puddle of too-salty sauce. Also, there are better places to have monkfish liver (ankimo) - it's a little on the fishier side than most.

Salmon and avocado roll - image © Florentyna Leow

The only real dud of the night was the salmon and avocado roll. We ordered it as a lark, curious as to whether a dish so obviously imported from abroad would be any good. Don't bother - the rice is unpleasantly grainy, each piece is sliced too thickly to eat without the whole thing falling apart, and the sweet teriyaki-style sauce on the whole affair screams American-style sushi. You're in Japan; there's better sushi to be had elsewhere.

Next to the elevator. - image © Florentyna Leow

But enough of these culinary descriptions. You should be making a reservation here already - or better yet just dropping by with a friend or two, since it's the kind of restaurant large enough to accommodate most walk-ins. Don't expect a fast dinner here. Dishes do take a little time to emerge from the kitchen, and you'll find yourself eating at a leisurely pace. But that is the whole point here - to eat, drink, and talk with your companions.

This is for nights when you might be wandering around Shinjuku, bewildered by the flashing lights and seemingly endless eating options at hand. Make it easy: come up to En.

The entrance to the Takano 2 Building. - image © Florentyna Leow

Directions: Take Exit A4 at Shinjuku Station from the Marunouchi or Fukutoshin Line. Turn left when you're above ground. You'll see Tiffany's ahead on your left. Turn at the corner. Shortly ahead on your left is the entrance to Takano 2 Building. Take the lift up to the 7th floor. The doors open directly to the restaurant.

Check Hotel Availability

Destination

Check-in date

Fri 20 Sep 2024

Check-out date

Sat 21 Sep 2024

Name:
En

Name in Japanese:
えん 新宿店

English address:
7F Shinjuku Takano 2 Building, 3-30-11 Shinjuku, Tokyo 〒160-0022

Japanese address:
〒160-0022 東京都新宿区3-30-11新宿高野第２ビル

Opening hours:
5:00pm - 11:30pm (Mon-Fri)
4:00pm - 11:30pm (Sat-Sun, Public holidays)
Closed over New Years

Smoking environment:
Segregated smoking section

Nearest station:
Subway: 1-minute walk from Exit A4 of Shinjuku Sanchome Station on the Tokyo Metro Fukutoshin Line or Marunouchi Lines; 5-minute walk from East Exit of JR Shinjuku Station on the Yamanote, Chuo-Sobu, Saikyo, Odakyu, and Keio Lines

Reservations:
Yes

Outdoor seating:
No

Telephone:
+81-50-5868-1416

Website:
Byo.co.jp

Customer Reviews:
:: Read customer reviews of En on TripAdvisor

Eat Like A Local In Tokyo
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Near To Here:
En is located in Tokyo's Shinjuku district. See our complete list of things to do in Tokyo's Shinjuku district, including places to eat, nightlife and places to stay.

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