Ginza Mitsukoshi

Coming from New York City, I’ve seen my fair share of department stores. We have anything ranging from the lower scale with Macy’s to the higher scale with Bergdorf Goodman and Barney’s. I actually frequent Lord & Taylor, Bloomingdales, and Saks Fifth on a regular basis. But no department store in Manhattan can ever compare to the department stores in Tokyo — particularly in the Ginza area.
Mitsukoshi is one of the most famous department stores in Tokyo — they even had one in Hong Kong at some point, according to my mother. They have literally everything! Floors and floors of bags, shoes, clothes. Their B1 floor has all the prepared and cooked foods. Their B2 floor has all the raw ingredients — including butchers and fresh fruit and vegetables. They even have cold storage lockers so that you can store your raw steak until you’re done shopping.
During my visit, they had a pop-​up store with Laduree products — scarves, handkerchiefs, makeup bags, etc. As a Laduree fan, you can probably guess that I went a bit crazy.
We ended up buying a bunch of food from the department store basement and eating it back at our apartment. There was just so many options that we just didn’t even know what to buy — so we brought 100g (or around a pound for us in the States) of a few things to try. The food is so good — it’s basically like having a Plaza Food Hall and multiplying by 100.

A huge department store but I was honestly more interested in the food located in the basement. I literally walked around for HOURS marveling at everything around me.
The prices are pretty comparable to America. There are discounts closer to closing time!
I absolutely love watching the Japanese package things. So pretty! No matter how much time there is left until closing, you can expect to watch your food get carefully wrapped. It really is an art. And for practicality, a mini ice pack is added to your bag so that nothing spoils.

Perhaps the pinnacle of the Tokyo department store food court genre this place has it all and its all amazingly delicious. Go here hungry and take out your favorites. You will not be disapointed by anything you order here. Its all great. While you’re at it shop around the store too. Highly recommend.

Imagine Nordstroms on steroids and you’ve got Ginza Mitsukoshi. Everywhere we went, employees greeted and bowed to us. I’ve never been more compelled to buy anything in my life. There’s multiple floors with even a nice terrace on the 9^th floor, but the main ones I cared about were the bottom two. The bottom floor is the grocery store and the second to last sold baked goods, sweets, and prepared foods. It’s almost like a jewelry store… but for food. Cakes and desserts were beautifully showcased in display cases. It’s almost too pretty to eat. Don’t bust out your phone to snapchat though. No pictures or videos can be taken inside.
If you come here to eat, expect to drop some serious cash. I saw things like $ 100 strawberries, $ 50 mochi balls, etc. They will box your goodies up real nice for you though. Because of the prices, I didn’t buy anything, but as a tourist, I definitely recommend coming to check it out once.

Stephen Sondheim once wrote a musical for TV called «Evening Primrose» about a poet who takes refuge from the cold world by living his life in a large department store after closing. I only bring up that piece of trivia because I could see myself as that poet hiding out at Ginza Mitsukoshi. Yep, not Harrod’s, not Bloomingdales’s, not Galeries Lafayette, but here at the biggest department store in the Ginza first built in 1930 but just refurbished six years ago into over 360 acres of floor space (photo:
). My long-​running love affair with Japanese department stores started when my mom took me to Tokyo when I was six. The uniformed staff was so nice and subservient even to a little child.
Flash forward an eon later and I still get treated the same way on every one of the fifteen floors that make up the store. There are restaurants on the top two floors, mostly Japanese but also other culinary choices including a pretty decent burger at Ginza Sun Juicy (photo:
). However, the chief draw for me and most people is the Ginza Food Garden which takes up the expansive basement floor. There are at least seventy purveyors of unique delicacies that would make Dean & Deluca’s respective heads spin including some very expensive fruit selections (photo:
). There are many like-​minded competitors nearby — Matsuya Ginza, Wayo, Takashimaya — but this is the one to discover and explore.

Shopping area for you fancy boys and girls. Personally I’m not a big brand name or expensive shit kinda shopper, but if I were, I would be here all day errday.
BUT I did go down to the food hall where counters upon counters upon counters laid out delicious food products for you to buy. Holy. Effing. HOOOOOLY. Well basically it’s like heaven or I would imagine heaven looks like this.
The food can be a bit pricier than usual, but all of this combined into one place? Crazy. We just picked up some foods and brought them to go, as well as some juicies that were also a bit more expensive than normal lol.
Overall, if you’re in the Ginza area, go here for the food! Or snacks actually lol and have your meal at Ginza Kagari :)

I really liked this department store compared to other places I’ve visited. First, the basement level is filled with so many delicious options. If only I had the money and stomach for it all! Second, there’s a beautiful terrace on the 9^th floor that you can check out. Unlike many other department stores, this place has a rest area to relax and enjoy your food. The 9^th floor is has an indoor and outdoor seating area with a few restaurants and shops. Lastly, there are English, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean speakers, at least in the cosmetics department. Great place to buy your Shiseido goodies for much less than US prices.
~there are outlets to charge your phone
~there’s also a coffee shop if you need a caffeine boost

Great place to buy gifts and get a bite to eat on the 2 underground floors. Huge selection of gifts, and the grilled fish bento box was delicious and not too expensive. Walked here from toronamon hills, about 30min, not too bad.

Step 1 — food hall.
Step 2 — buy EVERYTHING
Step 3 — elevator to floor 9
Step 4 — marvel that the gelato shop has flavors such as «sodium» «peanut milk» and «tomato»
Step 4.5 — settle on the iced coffee. It’s good!
Step 5 — find a seat in the cute outdoor garden and enjoy!
Currently sitting with my Kimuraya pastries and iced coffee resting my feet for the next adventure. A little bit tempted to repeat the above mentioned steps again before I go.

This Mitsukoshi in Ginza seems to be crowded (I mean very crowded) all the time. Perhaps of its prime location in Ginza. Mitsukoshi is a department store that I have a feeling is more upscale than other department stores in Tokyo.
I do not really need anything here but love to visit one of the stores in the food basement B2 that sells 彩果の宝石 (some soft fruit candies). I would buy a few packets whenever I visit Tokyo.
The staffs packed the candies in a bag, put it in a shopping bag and then wrapped up the shopping bag with a plastic cover to protect the content and shopping bag. It was very thoughtful of the staffs, I believe they know it was drizzling outside.
The massive food selection in the food basement is incredible. There were so many sweets and very pretty desserts sold here, I wonder why I hardly see any heavy set Japanese around. Most of them are so slim. Definitely pick up some desserts and candies from here.

My first time at Mitsukoshi department store in Ginza (Tokyo’s version of Beverly Hills) and it makes US department stores and malls look bad. A huge edifice dedicated to fashion and culinary delights. You should note that there is a 8% tax that is included in price. As a foreign tourist, you get this refunded and need to go to the 2^nd level Tax Free Center for the refund. The restaurants are on the top 11^th-​12^th floors and they are great. We’ve been in Tokyo 2.5 days so far and we’ve been here twice. My wife and kid love it here. Shoppers paradise! But hurts my wallet :(

The Shopping Theorem:
Neiman Marcus + Macy’s x Nordstrom = Ginza Mitsukoshi
Before my recent trip to Japan, my friend told me about these mythical gigantic department stores where the basement floors are dedicated solely to food/​food courts. I was happy to witness this for myself on my last day in Tokyo as we spent the morning shopping around Ginza.
On the first floor, there are multiple directories present listing the various departments and eateries and their locations. We decided to check out the men’s department on the upper floors, and I liken this store to Neiman Marcus or Nordstrom in the US as there are many designer brands as well as impeccable customer service. My friend bought a polo in the Ralph Lauren section and the customer service was top-​notch; they were helpful and very patient. We appreciated that the salesman made the time and effort to look for a different size polo in their storeroom.
Our final stop was the basement levels, where the food shops/​kiosks were located. I was utterly amazed by the variety and different types of vendors present. Every type of a bento, fried food, fruit, sweet treats, dessert, bread, meat, wine, sake, etc. imaginable is for sale. We did most of our «browsing» on B2 level as we wanted some type of dessert. In the end we bought melon bread from a French boulangerie as well as some other «special» bread that other customers were lining up for.
NOTE: This store has 10+ floors and at least three basement levels. At one point we decided to take the elevator from the 8^th floor to the basement level 2. This turned out to be a poor decision as the elevators were moving slower than we expected. We decided to forgo the elevator in favor the escalators as it seemed we would never get to the basement levels at the speed the elevator was traveling/​moving.
BOTTOM LINE: A wondrous store that fully caters to their customers in terms of clothing, service, and eateries.

The difference between American department stores and Japanese department stores is that Japanese has a whole basement level dedicated for food vendors, and then another level for restaurants. Yes, you can easily find different culture food all in one level of the department store.

Mitsukoshi is a huge Japanese department store. Levels 11 & 12 are full of restaurants while Level 9 has a café and a roof-​top terrace!
Levels 1 – 8 are mainly clothing and other department store goods.
My favorite is Level B2 which is a Food Garden. There are ~25 different mini «shops» that have a huge variety of Japanese ready-​to-​eat food!
Fried Oysters were ~500 yen for 4. They also sold Gyoza at ~100 yen each. Chicken karaage was sold by weight with ~200 yen for a couple pieces of white meat. Quality and freshness were both excellent!
…it’s definitely a heaven!

Wow, great place with great customer service.
I bought a few different items here and I was treated so well and everything from trying on the product to purchasing it was done in a great way. The selection is very good and you can find almost everything you’re looking for.
Don’t miss the incredible food hall on the basement level… fantastic!

One word: foodgasm.
Foodies, skip the salaryman/​salarywoman attire on the middle floors of this 12-​story behemoth of the department store, and go straight to its basement floors (depachika). These basement floors contain everything a gourmand could ever want: fresh-​out-​of-​the-​fryer tonkatsu, square melons, French pastries, Japanese pastries and mochi of every shape and color. There are also coin lockers for refrigerated products if you plan on spending some time in Ginza and don’t want to lug your newly-​procured tsukemono with you everywhere.
My favorite treat from Ginza Mitsukoshi’s depachika: melon pan (melon bun) from Kimuraya with fresh cantaloupe cream. Just to die for, and I haven’t had this kind of melon pan from anywhere else but in Ginza.

So happy we were on the subway and ended up walking into this amazing plethora of gastronomic wonderland. Do I need to say more? If you have never been here, put it on you must do. And if you have, you need to go again and again. Sensory overload for just one visit.

Wow, the food is unbelievable good. The varieties span from Japanese (of course), Chinese, Korean and Italian. From the shrimp tempura, to Mochi encrusted bean or what ever they can think of is very lite and flavorful. The chocolate almond cookie from Caramel Vitz was super lite and too easy to eat. And the Japanese steak was good, not great but for cold meat it was sure tasty.
All the counter assistants were polite and helpful in picking out items.
Instead of spending $ 10,000 ¥ for an expensive lunch, go here and pick out some sushi, shrimp tempura, or other items and you will be full for under $ 5,000 ¥.
Oh they also have that $ 5.00 (US) apple… Yes bought one and saving for the hotel room :-).
Good experience and fun for foodies to see so much varieties of food in one spot!

We were a family of 17 on our recent vacation, so dinner reservations often had to be booked far in advance to accommodate us. But one evening during our vacation, we decided to split up and see what the restaurants had to offer on the top floors of the Ginza Mitsukoshi shopping center.
My nieces and nephews jumped at the chance to eat Italian, my parents stuck to a tempura place and my husband and I were craving meat. Especially after all the amazing fish we were eating.
So we opted for the wagyu beef teppanyaki restaurant on the 12^th floor.
While it was the most pricey option, the grand total was still lower than what we would pay in NYC for a multi-​course dinner. It was roughly $ 17k yen for two to have the #4 set dinner that included the shrimp, a glass of wine and one beer.
The smashed shrimp head was one of the best things I’ve ever eaten in my whole life. The tofu? Melt-​in-​your-​mouth goodness. The egg tofu bitter melon mix was heaven. The star of the show, the steak with garlic chips? OUT OF THIS WORLD.
This was one of my most favorite meals of our entire trip.