On my first trip to Japan I was genuinely scared of running out of money on food. I’d read the Tokyo restaurant blogs — ¥30,000 omakase, ¥4,500 wagyu lunches, ¥1,800 tempura sets — and budgeted at €70 a day for meals. Then I walked into a Matsuya near my hotel on the second morning, saw the ticket machine, panicked, picked the top-left button by accident, and was handed a tray with grilled salmon, miso soup, raw egg, rice, pickles, and seaweed for ¥400. Less than a coffee at Schiphol. I ate Matsuya breakfast almost every morning for the rest of that trip and never got tired of it.
Japan’s chain restaurants are the budget traveller’s actual answer. They are cheap (¥300–¥500 a meal), good (better than what you pay triple for in tourist areas around Senso-ji or Dotonbori), and everywhere (multiple branches in every neighbourhood, open early, open late, often 24 hours). The food is not a compromise — it’s real Japanese cooking standardised for ¥10 efficiency. Below: the five chains I’d send a budget traveller to, in order of how much money they’ll save you, plus the ticket-machine survival guide and the rules nobody tells you on day one.
Reckon ¥1,200–¥1,800 (€8–€12) total per day on food if you eat all three meals at these. That’s less than a single tourist-area lunch at Asakusa. You won’t feel poor; you’ll feel resourceful.
1. Matsuya (松屋) — the breakfast that saved my budget
★ Author's PickMatsuya (松屋)
Over 1,000 branches across Japan. Ticket machine at the entrance (English buttons available). Free miso soup with most rice bowls. Open 24 hours at most central branches. Solo-counter seating, no reservations, cards accepted at newer branches.
Nationwide — multiple branches in every Tokyo / Osaka / Kyoto neighbourhoodView on Google Maps →Matsuya is the chain I send everyone to. The signature is gyudon — thinly sliced simmered beef over rice with soy-mirin sauce, ¥400 for a regular bowl, ¥500 for a large. But the move is the breakfast set, served until 11:00: grilled salmon or grilled mackerel, miso soup, raw egg (drop it on the rice and stir), nori, pickled vegetables, rice. Four hundred yen. Just over two euros. It includes everything you’d pay €18 for at a hotel breakfast buffet.
The ticket machine is at the entrance. Insert your money, press the photo of what you want (English labels on most machines, photos on all of them), take the printed ticket, sit at the counter, hand the ticket to staff. Two minutes later your tray arrives. Free water, free miso soup with rice bowls, free unlimited green tea at the dispensers. Cash and IC cards. Open 24 hours at most central branches — the Shibuya, Shinjuku and Akihabara locations are good first-timer picks because they’re sign-posted and English-friendly.
2. Yoshinoya (吉野家) — the gyudon original since 1899
Yoshinoya (吉野家)
Founded 1899 at Tokyo’s Nihonbashi fish market — the chain that invented modern gyudon. Over 1,200 branches in Japan. Counter seating, paper menu (no ticket machine at most branches — order at the counter). Cash + IC + cards.
Nationwide. Original branch still operates in Tsukiji area; Shinjuku Kabukicho branch is open 24 hours.View on Google Maps →Yoshinoya invented gyudon as a working-class dish at the Nihonbashi fish market in 1899 and has been refining the same bowl for 126 years. Beef sliced thin, simmered in soy sauce, mirin and dashi until it’s sweet-savoury, served over rice. Add a half-marinated egg (onsen tamago) for ¥80 and a side of pickled ginger (free, on the table) for the acid. It costs ¥468 for the regular bowl. Less than a Big Mac meal in Amsterdam.
The key difference from Matsuya: Yoshinoya doesn’t use ticket machines at most branches. You sit at the counter, the staff brings a menu (English available at central branches), you order verbally or by pointing, you pay at the end. That makes it the chain to default to if ticket machines are still intimidating. Order: “gyudon, nami” (regular size). Or just point at the top photo. The Shinjuku Kabukicho branch is open 24 hours and is one minute from the east exit; the Akihabara branch is a 30-second walk from the station.
3. Marugame Seimen (丸亀製麺) — udon at canteen speed
Marugame Seimen (丸亀製麺)
Cafeteria-style: pick up a tray, watch the cooks roll and cut udon by hand, point at the size you want, add tempura sides from the counter, pay at the cashier. ¥600–¥800 per person fully loaded. Over 800 branches in Japan.
Nationwide. Shinjuku Lumine, Shibuya Mark City, and most major train stations have a branch.View on Google Maps →Marugame Seimen is the closest thing Japan has to a glass-fronted Subway, except instead of sandwiches they’re hand-rolling udon noodles. You pick up a tray at the entrance. You walk past the open kitchen where you can watch the cooks roll, cut and boil noodles to order. You point at the bowl size and noodle style you want (hot kake from ¥340; cold zaru for summer; thick curry udon ¥590). Then you walk past the tempura counter and add what you want from the trays — ebi tempura ¥160, kakiage ¥150, chikuwa ¥120 — before paying at the cashier and finding a seat.
It’s the best lunch on this list for sticker-shock value: ¥600–¥800 (€4–€5) loaded with two tempura. There’s a Marugame in essentially every major Tokyo train station — Shinjuku Lumine basement, Shibuya Mark City, Tokyo Station First Avenue. Self-serve grated ginger, scallions, tempura crumbs (tenkasu) and shichimi at the table; pile it on without shame. Bring cash — some smaller branches still cards-decline.
4. Kura Sushi (くら寿司) — ¥120 conveyor sushi
Kura Sushi (くら寿司)
Conveyor sushi with touchscreen ordering at each table (English mode available). Plates rotate past on the conveyor belt; bonus: a gachapon-style toy machine triggers every five plates. Family-friendly. Cash + cards. Branches in every major city.
Nationwide. Shinjuku, Shibuya Center-gai, Asakusa, Akihabara, Dotonbori — multiple branches in tourist areas.View on Google Maps →Kura Sushi is what most travellers expect Japanese sushi to be — ¥120 a plate (¥132 with tax), two pieces per plate, conveyor belt, touchscreen ordering at each table. The catch is that it’s actually good. Not Sukiyabashi Jiro good. But ¥120-a-plate for genuinely fresh tuna, salmon, ebi, anago, hotate — better than ninety percent of conveyor sushi outside Japan.
The system: sit down, look at the touchscreen (English mode in the top corner), tap what you want, slot drawer slides over with your plate within 90 seconds. Or grab whatever passes by on the belt. Every five empty plates triggers a small gachapon-style toy dispenser overhead, which is mostly for kids but also why this is the chain to bring families and indecisive friends. Reckon ¥1,500 (€10) per person for a full dinner; ¥1,000 for a fast lunch. Cards + cash. Don’t take a sushi purist — take the kids. Or take yourself when you’ve already had two ¥30,000 omakase that week and want to remember what fun sushi feels like.
5. Saizeriya (サイゼリヤ) — Italian for ¥300
Saizeriya (サイゼリヤ)
Japanese-Italian chain (founded 1973). Over 1,000 branches. Table service, paper-pencil order pad (you write numbers next to dishes), pay at the cashier when leaving. Family restaurant atmosphere, branches stay open until 23:00–midnight.
Nationwide. Most Tokyo wards have at least one branch; basement of train stations is common.View on Google Maps →Saizeriya is the wild card. It’s a Japanese chain of Italian restaurants — not pretending to be Italian, just running Italian food through a Japanese efficiency lens. Spaghetti meat sauce ¥300. Margherita pizza ¥400. A decanter of house wine ¥400 (yes, four hundred yen, that’s €2.60 for what is essentially half a bottle of drinkable red). Caesar salad ¥350. Tiramisu ¥300.
You won’t believe it the first time. I didn’t. The order system is paper: a printed pad at the table where you write the quantity next to numbered dishes, hand it to staff, pay at the cashier when leaving. English menus available at central branches. Use Saizeriya when you’ve had three days of ramen and your body needs a salad and a glass of red. Use it as a lifesaver lunch for picky eaters in the family. Use it at midnight when nothing else is open. ¥1,000 (€6.50) gets you pasta plus wine plus dessert. It’s the chain that converts “Japan is expensive” tourists into “wait, Japan is cheaper than home” tourists, in one sitting.
How to use a Japanese ticket machine (食券機)
The food-ticket machine (shokken-ki) at the entrance is the part most travellers panic about and the part that should not panic anyone. The flow is identical at every chain that uses one:
- Insert money first. Bills go in the long slot, coins in the round one. The machine wakes up.
- Press the button you want. Most modern machines have an English button in the top-right corner that switches all labels. The top-left button is almost always the standard / signature / cheapest entry. The most expensive button is usually the special (more toppings, larger portion).
- The machine prints a paper ticket. Take it. Take your change. Sit at any open counter seat.
- Hand the ticket to the master / staff. They’ll nod, start cooking, slide your bowl over within 2–5 minutes.
- Eat. Don’t tip. Walk out. No bill, no signature, no waiting for change. You already paid.
If you press the wrong button: it’s fine. Hand the ticket to staff with a small “sumimasen” (excuse me) and point at what you actually wanted. They’ll swap it (you may pay or receive change). Nobody is judging.
Things that catch travellers off guard
- Lunch peak is brutal. 12:00–13:00 at business-district branches (Shinjuku, Shimbashi, Marunouchi) means 10-minute counter queues. Go at 11:30 or after 13:30. Even five minutes earlier or later changes everything.
- Tipping is not a thing. Not just “not required” — genuinely confusing for staff. Leaving extra coins on the counter triggers a chase out the door. Don’t do it; you’re not being generous, you’re being weird.
- Free water, free tea, free miso. Help yourself. Water pitchers on the counter, green-tea dispensers near the entrance, free miso soup with most gyudon orders. The staff is not coming to refill your glass — it’s self-serve.
- Seasonal limited items rotate monthly. Yuzu-jako pasta at Saizeriya in winter. Cold tantan udon at Marugame in summer. Curry-cheese gyudon at Sukiya in autumn. Hand-painted posters above the ticket machine show what’s in season — they’re almost always excellent.
- IC cards everywhere. Suica or Pasmo work as payment at all of these chains. Don’t bother breaking ¥10,000 notes for ¥400 meals — just tap.
- Solo dining is the norm. Almost all of these chains are counter-first. Showing up alone is exactly what they’re designed for — no one will look at you twice. Save the family-table places (Saizeriya, Kura) for when you’re with people.
- Sukiya is the alternative to Matsuya/Yoshinoya. Same gyudon category, similar prices, more branches. Worth knowing about as the third option when both of the others have a queue; we picked Matsuya and Yoshinoya for the breakfast set and the history respectively.
Related reading
- Where to Eat in Tokyo — the full Tokyo food guide across 8 cuisines.
- Best Ramen in Tokyo — the six-bowl ramen overview for when the chains aren’t enough.
- Best Sushi in Tokyo — when you want to step up from Kura Sushi.
- Japanese Food — interest hub with all our food articles.