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 US 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 this pin says, no Yappy, no life. Later on, we'll be going more street level, trying more traditional viral things like puffer fish and baby octopus. But we're starting our journey on Takeshita Street in Harajuku. Harajuku is the capital of a kawaii, which means cute, pretty, adorable. The second you walk on the street, I get why. So, 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 is crunchy. So fresh inside. It's really nice. It's refreshing. I'll give it a beat. 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 six 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. So, 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. Asha 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 400g 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 get to 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 take 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 I wouldn't have expected from skirt steak. The honey mustard plus the butter just adds this layer of riches. I'm a fan. I 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 pick and they 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 got to give them a fighting chance here. You can choose three different sizes. long. 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 going to put this in an A tier. I was ready to complain. With that, we wrap up Harajuku and we move on to Uru Harajuku 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 of your friend or your pets and then they're going to 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 going to be any good. That's meringue. That's also mering. Very nice. Yappy is 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 mering. RIP. Give it a little taste. I mean, funny enough, the 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 Btier. I'm enjoying it, and I'm going to 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 Wagu 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 evaporates. I mean, it is so anxious. 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 oak wood. 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. Onto the next. We were walking and we stumbled upon a fresh squeezed orange juice vending machine. The only reason I noticed it was cuz 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 freshlysqueezed 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 I don't know. There are components of this is 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 match in there. It's like borderline bitter. Honestly, I really don't like this one. I'm so sorry. I'm going to give this an F. I'm not going to get 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 We're serious. All right. I'm not going to be over here saying everything's good. So, let's get back on track. Our next spot has two opportunities. Bruleed sweet potatoes in a silky handpressed Okonaman sweet potato ice cream. I got good feelings here. Wow. Wo. 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 benyo 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. Woah. 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 oniri. 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 got to 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 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 nonstressed 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 blasting 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 going to taste and it's the finest you're going to 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 pond. 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 pan, 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 uh shout out to Aigato 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. It'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 Seigato Travel, who'll be helping us find our places for viral Osaken street food. Here's what our tier list is looking like so far. It feels strong, but I have a feeling it's going to get stronger. Let's kick things off at Osaka's most famous and viral street, Doanbi, 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 US sent us lots of flour after World War II as a relief because Japan couldn't grow enough rice and then also needed to come up with unique dishes and then this was definitely one of them. And this place, they put lots of tempora crunch as you can see. And tiny chunk of the octopus is inside because octopus was abandoned in the STO 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 going to build up to the traditional sauce and mayo version. Cheers. Very hot. Oh my god. Okay, I'm okay now. Wo. You guys know I have a salt heavy palette. 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 temporal 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 going to 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 want to not burn my taste buds off. So, we'll move on to the next. Osaka starting out strong negates with a powerful A tier. I'm excited for this next one because I've been making and eating tayaki 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 going to 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 tayyaki 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 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 tayyaki 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 streetside into Kuraman Market, Osaka's most famous street food market. here. There's going to 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 going to have the sashimi version. So, let's try it. I'm going to be honest with you, I'm kind of 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 going to do this is touch chili sauce. You see that on there? And then into the panoo. The best way I can describe it, a lot of 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 awesome if it wasn't. But all things considered, out of all the sushimi, 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 tomago. Normally, I like my octopus grilled, but this being cooked down, letting all that sweet soy glaze get absorbed into the little suction cups and 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, like 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 top are these sweet potato chips. Say 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 like 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 another level to it being good. And I think because they're so substantial, one chip is like three, four, five 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 got to 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 oversweeten 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. They hype it up. Oh, it's the greatest thing I've ever had. Out of here. There's not much going on. Honestly, I'm going to 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 going to be flat out with you guys. And we only have four more items remaining before I choose my favorite S tier. Will any of these four 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 is. I mean, it's crazy. This is so phenomenal. I'm actually a big fan of it. I'm going to 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 as 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 building is also very delicate as well. It's bouncy. It's got good chew, but not only is it like the fatty traditional meat that 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 whole sauteed onion. Out of all the bow I've had, I really like this. Out of the things that 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 beehind on that one. Casey is 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 cuz 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, uh, this is some bull 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 I 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 moji. This is mine. No, this is mine. You can't have this. Yes. Bow. Bow. You can't eat this. I can't I can't give it to you. Okay. All right. He gave out. We're going to try it. Here we go. 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 like truly fresh mochi. They're used to like almost like a very hard waxy mochi. This on the other hand is like a pillow. You like bite into it and it's so soft. It's almost like you're laying into like one of those like 5 million count thread Egyptian pillows but in your mouth. The mochi being pounded at the shop. It's not really a 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 going to 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 going to 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 you. Bye.