Tokyo’s Set Lunch Is About Ten Dollars

The lunch to sit down for is a cutlet, a bowl of rice, and miso soup.

In September, Japan’s Statistics Bureau, which tracks the price of ordinary meals, put that set at 1,516 yen across Tokyo’s 23 wards. The meal in the survey is a regular loin cutlet, eaten in the shop. On October 14 the Bank of Japan’s dollar rate in Tokyo was about 158 yen. Call it $9.60.

A regular beef bowl, including the self-service counters, was 491 yen. Soy-sauce ramen was 620. Either one will carry you to the next train. Sit down when you want the cutlet.

Last year Japan was talking about the price of rice. Jiji Press, writing up Tokyo’s September price index on October 2, said rice was down 19.8 percent from the year before. Food other than the fresh items that swing from month to month was still up 3.6 percent. Restaurant meals, bento, and drinks were still going up.

The shop is paying less for the rice in the bowl than it did a year ago. The set on the menu stayed 1,516 yen. Keep the 491 yen beef bowl for the gap between trains. When you have time to sit, order the cutlet.

Eat the set at the restaurant by the station. Noon on a weekday belongs to people who have an hour. A little earlier, or sometime after one, there is a seat.

The cutlet in the photograph is Tonkatsu Narikura, on November 1, 2024, with cabbage and mustard. What that shop charges is on its own menu. The $9.60 is the average of ordinary sets, rice and soup included. Order that kind of set when you are hungry and already nearby.

Fish without a booking is a conveyor-belt counter. The plate in the price survey is two pieces of lean tuna, at 241 yen. A lunch is a short run of plates, and you can see the bill add up as you go.

If a chef’s counter is the dinner you want, reserve it before you leave home. One night of that is enough. The other meals are a short walk from where the train stopped.