Isetan Shinjuku Depachika

The experience

The basement food floors of Isetan's Shinjuku store, generally treated as the best depachika in Japan — roughly 150 vendors across two levels. It splits into prepared food (bento, sushi, tempura, grilled fish, sozai side dishes), sweets covering both wagashi and Western patisserie including a Jean-Paul Hévin counter, and a premium groceries section of cheese, sake, oils and gift fruit. Almost every counter offers samples.

A hundred-plus of Japan's best specialist food makers under one basement ceiling, with free tasting at most of them.

What a membership adds.

Everything above is free: the name, the photo, the rating, the exact spot. What members get is the part you can't Google: the sourced insider tip for this place (what to order, when to go, what to skip), every day of your trips unlocked in full with the insider tip on every researched stop, and the concierge at full strength, answering with your own insider tips, no daily meter.