DaikanyamaNotes

A place that the staff all recommend. The 1st floor has a café and a shop, and the 2nd floor is a gallery. The spacious tables and chairs arranged throughout the area are Danish vintage furniture from the 1930s to 1940s, with PH lamps from the 1920s overhead. It is rare to find a place where you can actually sit down with this kind of furniture and relax while enjoying a coffee.

The exhibited art can be purchased, and there are also items you can take home easily—such as T-shirts printed with the works and art books. During the pop-up period, it overlaps with the first half (BLUE) of the group exhibition “WAVE 2026,” so be sure to check that as well. The first half runs until October 12, and the final day the gallery closes at 5:00 p.m.

Hillside Terrace—the place where Daikanyama was first developed. This is an imported grocery store located in the basement of its Building G. A bakery, prepared dishes, and a café counter are all housed under one roof, so you can eat what you purchased right on the spot inside the store.

The shelves are stocked with imported ingredients, mainly from Europe. Even just browsing the shelves is fun, and the additive-free, naturally fermented yeast croissants that have been offered since the store opened in 1993 are a must when you come here.

A French frozen food specialty store. In Japan, it is not easy to find the kinds of dishes you see lined up in the frozen display cases, but even just looking around is enjoyable. The Daikanyama branch also offers eat-in service, so you can have what you choose warmed and eaten right there. There are also coffee and bread available.

Located on the second floor of Daikanyama Address in front of the station. The eat-in area is often less crowded, making it a good hidden spot when you want to take a short break.

A representative café of Daikanyama, standing on the former Yamanote-dori since 1997. Under a keyaki (zelkova) tree with a 300-year history, the full-glass, open atmosphere and terrace will make you feel as if you are in a European street corner.

Because it is a popular shop, you will often have to wait on a quiet afternoon. If you want to avoid the crowds, I recommend going either early right after opening or in the evening, when it is still relatively easy to get in. If you find yourself in line, it is also a good idea to head to the café introduced above instead, without forcing it.

The name hacienda refers to a residence on a large estate in Mexico. Designed like a colonial-style mansion, with a very high ceiling so that the heat rises and escapes—its ceiling height is an impressive 8 meters. It is not a height you often encounter in the middle of town. Hanging from above is a chandelier shaped like Quetzalcoatl, the feathered serpent from Mayan mythology. The moment you open the door, you feel as though you have been taken to another country.

Every dish is delicious, but guacamole is a must. There is also a terrace seating area where you can look out over Tokyo. There is a table charge, but since they are open continuously, you can also use it like a café.

There is a table charge, but since they are open continuously, you can also use it like a café.

Even though it has a calm, Daikanyama-style ambiance, you can enjoy your meal without being too stiff—this is a highly convenient restaurant for fish dishes. It is the second location of “Kappore,” which is beloved in the residential area of Shibuya.

Once, when I ordered a five-item sashimi assortment, nine items came out, and I was genuinely delighted. I don’t know if it always works out that way, but it’s a restaurant with pleasant surprises like that. They also have an excellent selection of nature wines.

One of the staff who loves yakiniku says it may be their favorite yakiniku restaurant of all. It has the quiet, understated presence you expect in Daikanyama, yet the quality of the meat and the dishes is solid and unpretentious. It’s a restaurant that goes straight for the heart with the deliciousness of its meat.

The owner trained for eight years at the renowned yakiniku restaurant “Yakiniku Kunimoto” in Hamamatsuchō. The sauce carries on that lineage. The fact that the meat menu is essentially limited to assorted platter-style courses is also part of the restaurant’s signature approach.

This is the sister store of the long-established French restaurant “Passion” at Hillside Terrace, but here you can drop in more casually—a bistro with easy charm. Chef’s hometown, local cuisine from Occitanie in the South of France, and wine poured by yourself from a cask. Inside the restaurant, the air of the South of France lingers.

I once visited during a midday break. Deep in the shop, I saw someone who seemed to be Owner Chef André Passion pouring a glass of wine from a cask, enjoying it together with the house meal. I heard that in the old days in the South of France, it was common to have a glass of wine at lunchtime. It was a scene that felt like everyday life in the “good old” France—unchanged—and I have never forgotten it.