I Tried Every Viral Street Food in Japan

I've been obsessed with Japanese food since I was a little kid. I loved it so much that I worked at one of the best Japanese restaurants in the U.S. for almost three years. But here's the crazy part. I've never been to Japan. So today that changes. I'm finally here to eat every single possible legendary Japanese street food that I can find. From the stuff that we already know, to maybe some hidden gems that only the locals know about. And everything will be getting placed on an S-tier list, and at the end of the video, we will give you our very best item. And we're starting at Harajuku, Tokyo. And I'm joined by local expert, Yappy, from Arigato Travel, one of Japan's best food tour companies. As his pin says, no Yappy, no life. Later on, we'll be going more street level, trying more traditional viral things like pufferfish and baby octopus. But we're starting our journey on Takeshita Street in Harajuku. Harajuku is the capital of kawaii, which means cute, pretty, adorable. The second you walk on the street, I get why. You've got pink, the smell of sugar, artificial flavors. Kawaii, like you. Our first stop is the Tanghulu Skewer. Strawberry and grape, very kawaii, but how does it taste? A lot of tanghulu, when it's not made properly, it doesn't have the right crunch. But this one, the actual coating is perfectly crisp, like glass. It doesn't stick, it's not chewy, and the strawberries are great too. Outside it's crunchy, so fresh inside. It's really nice, it's refreshing, so I'll give it a B. I don't think it's quite A-worthy, I think you should try it, but don't go out of your way. Our first score on the board, and now we are headed upstairs to grab an insane rainbow 6-layer cotton candy. Each layer is supposedly a different flavor, stacked on top of each other, until it gets actually this big. Which was concerning for my stomach. Texturally, it's very nice. Flavor-wise, I'm not, like, picking up a ton of flavor out of it. It's like, I just feel like I taste sugar, but it still tastes great. All in all, I think it's another B-tier. It's nice, it's just a fun treat. It's not mind-blowing, it's just nice, tasty, fun, and we move on. No. Something I learned very quickly in Japan is that there's zero trash cans outside, and we only tore off a couple pieces of this giant thing, so we offered it to this group of kids. Safe to say, they were pretty pumped. Hopefully they enjoyed it. What is a micro pig cafe? Oh my god, there's pigs! Yes! What? Look, they're having so much fun. This is better than Disneyland. And then this is not the only one. A Shiba Cafe? And Capybara Cafe? I love Japan. Next up are these massive sandwiches, where we'll be getting both an egg and meat one, containing 400 grams of meat. Nearly a full pound, supposedly. Both sandwiches will be tiered, and whichever scores the highest will be entered in the competition. But before we could eat, something unexpected happened. They actually let me work in their kitchen and make one. I don't know what any of this says. Now, they ended up cooking the meat for me, because they didn't trust me with it, which I thought was funny, but they did let me add a little bit of their seasoning to it. We took out some toasted buns, added some butter, and a good helping of honey mustard. Once they finished cooking the meat, they handed me the pan, and I had to carefully layer it on top. I thought even coverage was the goal, but it turns out they just wanted me to make this pyramid-shaped thing, which I guess made it look more substantial? Then they wrap it up a couple times in plastic wrap, slice, add some garnish, and I personally thought it was overcooked. Maybe they should have let me cook the meat, but, you know, whatever. Smells beefy, smells good. Cheers. It's slightly overcooked just a little, but it's not dry at all. The meat is surprisingly tender, which I wouldn't have expected from skirt steak. The honey mustard plus the butter just adds this layer of richness. I'm a fan. I'll put this in an A tier. Now for the egg sandwich. Wow. Literally overflowing. The bread can barely contain it. Phenomenal. Immediately better than 80% of breakfast sandwiches in the US. This is like a bodega sandwich on crack. The texture of the egg is just so nice. The salty ham, and you still taste the cheddar cheese in it, too. It's cheesy, it's rich, it's creamy. I'm putting this in S. It doesn't need to get better. I'm happy with this. S tier. Moving on. On our way out, a audience member stopped by to take a pic, and he decided to join us in rating the steak as well. For the best I've had, I would say I would put it at, like, an A, probably. Still really good. I like this kid. So we have a rating double confirmed. Moving on to our last spot in Harajuku. I'm sure you've seen these twisted potatoes. Somewhere. They put them on a skewer, they fry them for a couple minutes, and then they coat them in a salt and butter seasoning. I've always thought they were a little gimmicky. But, you know, maybe they're good. We gotta give them a fighting chance here. You can choose three different sizes. Long, longer, longest. This is the longest. I'm enjoying this. Multiple layers of texture. It's not quite evenly cut. So instead of it being super, super, super crunchy throughout the whole thing, you get some bites that are crunchy, and you get some bites that have, like, a little bit of that fresh potato chew. Almost like a roasted potato in a way. I don't know who that was. I don't know what's going on right now. This is great. I think I'm gonna put this in an A tier. I was ready to complain. With that, we wrap up Harajuku, and we move on to Uruharajuku for a coffee pit stop at Latte Pocket. He's telling me that they have a three-dimensional latte. I have no idea what that means. So you can bring your picture, or your friends, or your pets, and then they're gonna draw over the foam. What? I'll be honest. This was cool to see happen, but it did make me question whether or not the coffee was gonna be any good. That's meringue. That's also meringue. Very nice. Yappy's going into another store, so we have me. Hello. Here's Nami. Uncanny. I feel like all cats kind of look the same unless they're ugly, and my cat is not ugly. Don't you dare. Don't you dare say anything. I'll find you. Straight through meringue. Rip. Give it a little taste. I mean, funny enough, the foam has like no flavor whatsoever, but it's fun. The coffee itself isn't half bad. For the novelty and the fun of it, you know what? I'll give it a solid B tier. I'm enjoying it, and I'm gonna drink it, and this is just a happy, fun time, and I love Japan. Thank you so much. Moving on. I could not believe my eyes at the next spot. We came all the way from Texas to try some Japanese street food, and surprisingly, there was Texas barbecue. How could we not try that? But I really want to know, how does it compare to good old Texas? A slice of Texas in the middle of Tokyo. I wouldn't have guessed it. I thought I was getting away from it, and yet here we are. Let's taste. The owner set us up with some ribs, which looks fantastic, but what I'm really here for is the brisket. We have the A5 Wagyu brisket and burnt ends. A5 has a unique capability of making the lean equally as good as the fatty because of the intramuscular fat that's in A5. This one's very tender. I can barely even pierce it with the spork. It literally hits your tongue and f***ing evaporates. I mean, it is so unctuous. The fat is just rendered enough that it's not too much. It's meat butter, and the smoke is very, very frontal. You can taste the oakwood. It's seasoned really nice with salt. The salt levels are, I mean, I would argue, perfect. We got a slice of Texas right here. I'm feeling very represented. My mom would be really proud. Moving on. Overall, comparing this to the greatest Texas barbecue I've had, honestly, I'd give it just barely over the B tier into a solid A tier. I think it's good effort. If you're in Tokyo, I would definitely recommend stopping by. On to the next. We were walking, and we stumbled upon a fresh-squeezed orange juice vending machine. The only reason I noticed it was because I was walking, and I could smell fresh oranges wafting through the air, which, if you look around here, there's nowhere that should be happening. I turn, and I see this beautiful orange box. So, let's try it. It's ice cold. It's so refreshing. The way it's squeezing it, it's getting that essential oil from the peel, so it has that, like, fresh, rich orange flavor. Where else are you going to just randomly stumble upon freshly-squeezed juice vending machine? It's an A tier. It's good. I could drink 100 of these. Moving on. Next item was a matcha crepe. They layered many things in this toasted bread, and some of them I couldn't identify. That is a potato? I'm worried about this one. Is it really possible for every element to be great on their own, as well as combined? I mean, I don't know. There are components of this that's good. The macaron is nice. It's got a good chew to it. The toast on the bread is actually immaculate. I think it's fried. I'm really not a fan of the whipped cream in there. There's no seasoning on it at all. There's no, like, sugar or anything. It's completely unsweetened whipped cream, and there's way too much matcha in there. It's, like, borderline bitter. Honestly, I really don't like this one. I'm so sorry. I'm gonna give this an F. I'm not gonna give this again. I feel like there's so many great foods in Japan, and this is crazy overhyped. And I mean that with love. I'm loving my time here. I'm coming back. Just not to this place. You know, it can't all be bangers. We have to be honest here. That's the whole point of this video. We're serious, alright? I'm not gonna be over here saying everything's good. So let's get back on track. Our next spot has two opportunities. Bruleed sweet potatoes and a silky, hand-pressed Okinawan sweet potato ice cream. I got good feelings here. Wow. Whoa. Okay, let's go for it. That's phenomenal. So they have this very fragrant vanilla custard, and you mix that, and you scrape that beautifully silky, smooth, sweet potato, and then the little bites of crunch from the caramelized sugar on top. This is a perfect food. And you know what? It's not too sweet. Very balanced. So this is a paste of potato. This one's made from beniimo, which literally means red potato, but it's actually purple coming from the down south tropical area. And there's ice cream in the bottom. Let's go for it. Whoa. Totally different than I would have expected. The texture is like unlike anything I've ever had. The texture of this paste is really airy. As you're biting through it, it's so soft like a pillow, and then it comes together as this dense, just sweet, almost earthy sweet potato flavor combined with this sort of light vanilla ice cream. Amazing texture. Amazing flavor. I would put it as an S. It's just unique. It's its own thing. There's nothing else really like this. And it is kind of perfect. If you can find it, go and get it. Moving on. Of course, we can't go to Japan and not get onigiri. This one is a pork and egg version. Let's see where it stands. Oh, you went for the whole thing. Sometimes when it falls apart, you just gotta put the whole thing in your mouth. Pause. The rice is nice. It's seasoned nicely. It's balanced well. There's a little bit of sweetness, a little bit of acidity. I'm grabbing this on the go. If I want a little bite, but I'm not starving, snack on one of these, split one of them, keep moving. This is very much the nature of street food. And I would give it a B tier. It's satisfying, but more of like a I need to stop real quick and get a snack kind of bite. Next up, Hokkaido Milk Soft Serve. I have been dreaming about this since I've seen it across the internet. And finally, I get to try it. Now, while we are in Tokyo, this milk is sourced specifically from Hokkaido cows. And apparently these cows are raised in a perfectly non-stressed, beautiful environment full of green, which supposedly makes the milk taste substantially better. So let's see where it stands. Wow, it is very good. It's not super sweet. The traditional soft serve that you expect out of a machine in like the US, it's milk plus like a powdered base and then they soft serve it. This actually tastes like rich, fresh, creamy milk. Out of all the things we've had so far, so much of it has been kind of like just a blast in your taste buds with sugar. And I love that this is balanced. And they're actually focusing on the flavor and the quality of the milk. They're basically saying our milk is the greatest milk on earth. That's what you're gonna taste. And it's the finest you're gonna get. S tier. Easy. I wish more soft serve was like this. Moving on. Before we head to Osaka, our final Tokyo bite is the curry pon. It's like a deep-fried, curry-filled hot pocket. But this one has a few surprises. But does it really have the ability to top our tier list? Usually, it's only curry inside a curry pon. But this time, they have special topping like a savory pancake from where I'm from, Osaka. Let's try it. That's insane. Oh, there's cheese. Oh! There's so many textures. The entire outside is like studded with this crunchy texture. But the bread itself is actually so nice. It's so moist. It's not dry at all. It's super fluffy. Super light. And then on the inside, you have this sort of like very savory Japanese curry with mozzarella or some sort of stretchy cheese in there. And then, of course, the smokiness of the bonito flake, the okonomiyaki sauce, the creaminess of the mayo. This is a perfect bite. I love this. This is immediate S tier. It requires zero thought whatsoever. I would seek this out every single time I come to Japan. I love this. It's with a heavy heart we have to say goodbye to Yappy. I'm so sad to see you leave. Thank you. And shout-out to Arigato Travel. Be sure to check them out. They're phenomenal. Wouldn't have been able to do it without you. Thank you. I love you. That's okay. You don't have to say it back. Moving on to Osaka. The next morning, we took a bullet train to Osaka and we actually managed to catch Mount Fuji's very first snow. Insane luck. Let's hope that continues in finding more incredible items. Here, we'll occasionally be joined by Sei from Arigato Travel who'll be helping us find our places for viral Osaka street food. Here's what our tier list is looking like so far. It feels strong, but I have a feeling it's gonna get stronger. Let's kick things off at Osaka's most famous and viral street, Dotonbori, which is home to one of the world's most famous Japanese dishes, takoyaki. Excited is too small of a word for how I feel. Tell us a little bit about this one. The U.S. sent us lots of flour after World War II as a relief because Japan couldn't grow enough rice and then Osaka people needed to come up with unique dishes and then this was definitely one of them. And this place, they put lots of tempura crunch as you can see and tiny chunk of octopus is inside because octopus was abundant in the Seto Inland Sea, which is right next to Osaka. So this is a really popular local dish that it's a must try when you're here. So we have the salt version here and then we're gonna build up to the traditional sauce and mayo version. Very hot. Oh my god. Okay, I'm okay now. Whoa. You guys know I have a salt-heavy palate. You know I like things seasoned properly and I'll tell you right now, the bang of salt when you take that first bite is so incredible. It's so seasoned, so salty. You taste that seaweed, the nori, it's oceanic. The tempura crunch adds incredible texture and the nice chew from the octopus. Custardy inside, really nice. Now the question is, which is better? The salt or the mayonnaise sauce? I'm scared to take another bite, it's so hot. I'm gonna go for it. So hot. I'm fighting for my life. I just love that like smoky sauce, the creamy mayonnaise and then of course the bonito flakes add that additional umami and also like that nice roasted fish flavor. A strong A tier. It's a really nice street snack. I would eat all these but I also wanna not burn my taste buds off so we'll move on to the next. Osaka starting out strong in the gates with a powerful A tier. I'm excited for this next one because I've been making and eating taiyaki for what feels like my whole life and I always thought it was pretty good but I've never had one in Japan in a fresh one off the street. Let's see how it is. This is a classic Osaka dish. It literally comes from Osaka. If there's gonna be a place to try it this would be the place to try it. Looks incredible, it feels crisp, it's hot and fresh. This is the red bean flavor. It's the classic choice. Cheers. Oh yeah. Very, very, very, very good. It's cooked perfectly. I love that the actual taiyaki shell is so thin and crisp. It's not thick and cakey. I've had a lot of different ones that are almost like a soft waffle. That's some bullshit. This is the right one. You still have that nice chew as well and the sweetness of the red bean. I actually think this is really phenomenal. This is one of the best taiyaki I've ever had. Yeah, it's an S. I don't think it gets better than this. Moving on. Osaka on the board with an S tier. Arguably one of the most viral traditional items on our list and it actually delivered. The competition is ramping up. Now we really head street side into Kuromon Market, Osaka's most famous street food market. Here there's gonna be a massive variety of street foods to try but our next two items are the real standouts. Behind me is arguably the most famous poisonous fish on planet earth that is eaten. They don't do this as much in Japan but in America if you order this and a menu happens to serve it which very few do, they have an ambulance sitting outside and it is fugu also known as puffer fish. We're gonna have the sashimi version so let's try it. I'm gonna be honest with you, I'm kinda nervous guys. I've never had this in my life. It looks like a sort of like a tender white fish so the way I'm gonna do this is touch chili sauce you see that on there and then into the ponzu. The best way I can describe it a lot of the fish that you have usually like if you look at like a kami and tuna right, it's like literally falls apart in your mouth there's no intramuscular tendon in it whatsoever. This on the other hand has a lot of density it's very chewy but in a nice way. It's got a nice bounciness to it flavor wise it's pretty mellow actually not fishy there's like a coldness to it there's some sort of an aftertaste and I'm hoping that's not poison. That would be f***ing awesome if it wasn't. But all things considered out of all this sashimi I honestly wouldn't I wouldn't seek this out. There's so many other pieces of fish I would eat before this I would probably put this at a solid B. It's a nice fish but it's certainly not my first pick. Moving on, keeping up with the seafood we continue down to the market for a quail egg stuffed baby octopus or taco tamago. Normally I like my octopus grilled but this being cooked down letting all that sweet soy glaze get absorbed into the little suction cups in the body of the actual squid is really nice. I don't think the quail egg adds that much I could honestly do without it it's fun but not really a necessity but the octopus itself is surprisingly tender not chewy it's got a great texture but out of all the things that we've had today I would put it at a solid B tier. Out of all the octopus dishes I've had though it's not in the top top top but it is good I'm a fan. Moving on. Next up are these sweet potato chips. They told me that they're gaining in popularity so I figured I'd give them a taste. They look incredible I love how thin they are but ultimately it's just a sweet potato chip I see people walking around eating these I'm like how good could it really be? I will say they're seasoned nicely. Cheers. I see why people like them so much. I think people are not used to getting things that are seasoned properly so the fact that this is seasoned properly is adding a whole other level to it being good and I think because they're so substantial one chip is like 3, 4, 5 bites it's like a whole meal in a cup. I like it. I'm into it. This is honestly worthy of an A tier. There aren't many chips that I think are worthy of an A tier but this one definitely is. Moving on. Time for a heavy hitter. For years we've seen this item jiggling about on Instagram it is the jiggly Japanese cheesecake. I have always wanted to try this I'm incredibly excited and I gotta be honest it looks just as perfect as I thought it would but how does it taste? It's light there's a creaminess to it it's very lightly sweetened one of the things I like about Japan is that they don't over sweeten their desserts their desserts are actually very mellow on sugar levels they focus a lot on the flavor but texture wise it's kind of like almost eggy and it just feels like baked meringue with very very little flavor this is more novelty than it is like a mind-boggling experience if I'm being honest with you I feel like a lot of people come and eat this and they hype it up they hype it up oh it's the greatest thing I've ever had f*** outta here there's not much going on honestly I'm gonna put this at a D I'm sorry I just I don't think it's that great if I waited in line for this and I ate this I would be pissed this is a country full of some of the greatest food in the world don't waste your time with this go somewhere and find something maybe a little bit more local wow honestly this might have been one of the most disappointing bites in the last 5 years of my life I'm just gonna be flat out with you guys and we only have 4 more items remaining before I choose my favorite S tier will any of these 4 dethrone the current S tiers onto one of our most viral items here in Japan you can't walk down the street without seeing this everywhere the 10 yen coin it's essentially kind of like a grilled cheese it's got a lot of buzz it's got a lot of popularity but so far they're not doing so good with overhyped food so how does it stand honestly this is one that's actually worth the hype you've got sort of like this very soft crisp on the outside super soft and fluffy on the inside pancake and then the cheese adds like a really nice creamy light cheesy flavor this is fun I like this one I like cheese like look how cheesy this s*** is I mean it's crazy this is so phenomenal I'm actually a big fan of it I'm gonna put it in an A tier I don't think it's S tier worthy I would definitely spend some time going and getting it moving on another viral item surprisingly meets the hype now moving on to try these Chinese pork buns I know this is a bit of an unusual one right because this is a Chinese dish we're in Japan this is Japanese street food but let me tell you something we're doing things that are viral in many parts of the global hemispheres that exist think about it this way what you know is viral what the American people know is viral is one thing but what the Japanese people know is viral would be this if you are Japanese and you live in Japan you likely know and love 551 they really keep the name simple here I can respect that mustard you'll never really find a Chinese person doing this but the Japanese suggest it cheers that's a banger oh my god I will say the mustard opens up your sinuses dude I smell smells I didn't even smell before but now I smell them the dough is so soft it's so light it's so delicate it's so fluffy great chew the filling is also very delicate as well it's bouncy it's got good chew but not only is it like the fatty traditional meat you would expect inside of something like this but I like how tender it is it like melts in your mouth it's seasoned perfectly it's got like onion in it you can see a whole sautéed onion out of all the Bao I've had I really like this out of the things we've had thus far this is a banging S tier it's so funny to have a Chinese dish in a Japanese street food video as an S tier but it's an S tier it's really good but will it beat our other items we'll decide in a bit but now we are on to two of the most viral items I've seen on all of the internet I'm sure you've seen this guy before but if you haven't he literally torches bluefin tuna with his bare hands he dunks his hands in ice water in order to increase the endurance he has against the heat it's a pretty incredible show unfortunately we got cut off right before we got to taste it and thankfully we had an audience member that was already in line that was kind enough to let us have a bite of his dish big shout out to you you saved our behind on that one Casey was kind enough to let us have a bite so we don't miss the bite so thank you Casey we appreciate you I'm going to pick a small piece because I don't want to steal too much from you guys wow okay it's way better than I thought it was going to be I'm thinking like oh this is some blah blah blah no it's actually very good it's got like a smoky barbecue richness it almost has a beefy quality to it it transforms it from fish almost to like meat wow incredible moving on all in all this joins the ranks as an A tier and we have one more spot to go I think this has to be the item that's blown up the most if you've ever been on the internet looking for food you've probably seen this mochi I've been enamored by its process for years I've never had fresh mochi before and I get to actually witness it and taste it in person that happened way faster than I thought it would to be honest with you you can have street food in Japan anywhere we're in a deer park we have deer I have mochi this is mine no this is mine you can't have this yes bow bow you can't eat this I can't give it to you okay alright he gave up we're going to try it here we go mmm right? oh I'm scared now you're really close you're very calm for being scared I would have ran really phenomenal first of all perfect chew so smooth and also soft a lot of people in America have never had truly fresh mochi they're used to almost like a very hard waxy mochi this on the other hand is like a pillow you bite into it and it's so soft it's almost like you're laying into one of those 5 million count thread Egyptian pillows but in your mouth the mochi being pounded at the shop it's not really the show for people to watch they do it while the mochi is still steaming hot because they want to achieve this really soft beautiful texture and then you have that beautiful sweet bean paste in the center the toasty roasty soybean flour on the outside this is a phenomenal bite we're peeing over here fresh mochi? immediate S this one is truly worth the hype fresh mochi is incomparable to anything else you'll ever try it's a textural wonderland you truly cannot replicate without that craftsmanship that it takes to pound that mochi over and over and over every single day that's gonna create something that is truly unique and delicious I wish I had it near me but wait we didn't finish here what was the best S tier item? we got this list here's all the S tiers looks great but for me the best one I had and the one I think I'm gonna seek out the next time I come to Japan is the Okonomiyaki Curry Pond that one was crazy I've always wondered why everyone including myself is so obsessed with Japanese food and it's because this country perfects everything it's a true commitment to making food delicious and only a place with people with big hearts and attention to detail can do that and it's earned them a place in the food hall of fame subscribe love ya bye