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We eat a luxurious Japanese-style buffet breakfast in a restaurant full of wood-carved bears

Dale Roll Dec 24, 2022
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If you’re looking for breakfast in Tokyo, look no further than this place!

“Breakfast is the most important meal of the day!” This is a philosophy our Japanese-language reporter Mr. Sato lives by. He’ll never miss breakfast, no matter how busy he is! And when he recently discovered a fancy restaurant that offers a delightful Japanese breakfast buffet in Tokyo, he just had to share it.

Hokkaido Restaurant Kibori, is a brand new restaurant that opened up next to Komeda Coffee in the Kabukicho neighborhood of Shinjuku on November 18. It’s owned by the same company that runs Kita no Kazoku, one of our favorite izakaya pubs that also offers all-you-can-eat plans. Kibori isn’t just a delicious restaurant; it also boasts a collection of 1,000 wood carvings of bears of all sizes collected from all over Japan (the restaurant’s name comes from the Japanese word for “wood carving”).

▼ Wood carvings of a bear with a salmon in its mouth are popular souvenirs with travelers in Hokkaido.

While Kibori’s main focus is on its dinner menu, they also offer a buffet for breakfast (from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m.) and lunch (from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.). Customers are limited to 60 minutes per visit at each buffet, which costs 1,200 yen (US$9.07) and 1,500 yen, respectively.

The restaurant takes up the sixth and seventh floors of the Celesa Youei Shinjuku Building. The breakfast and lunch buffet is on the sixth floor, so be careful not to go to the wrong floor by mistake.

▼ The floors are labeled in the elevator for your convenience.
ディナー入口: dinner entrance
モーニング＆ランチ入口: Breakfast and lunch entrance

Since it’s buffet style, you pay your bill before sitting down, and in Kibori’s case, payment is done at a machine. In the center of the restaurant space is an open kitchen surrounded by a counter, where all the food awaits.

Bear statues decorated nearly every surface of the restaurant. It was really impressive. Mr. Sato also learned more than 100 of the wood-carved bears decorating the shelves were sent in from the general population, now given a second life as restaurant decor.

The buffet is actually newer than the restaurant itself, having only been initiated on December 1. Perhaps since word hasn’t spread much about it, it was pretty empty when Mr. Sato went. The amount of food put out seemed geared towards the number of customers, so there weren’t as many plates out of individual items.

But even so, there was plenty of food. There were tons of raw eggs, natto, and Yumepirika rice from Hokkaido, plus miso soup with fish in it, and small plates with sashimi and curry. Drinks, like coffee and orange juice, were included in the buffet, and there was even soft-serve ice cream!

You could also have zangi, Hokkaido-style ginger-soy marinated fried chicken, as well as fish prepared the same way. There was also yakitori (grilled chicken), salt-broth ramen, and grilled fish to be cooked fresh for you, which is, of course, all included in the buffet price.

Mr. Sato’s breakfast ended up as a veritable cornucopia of delicious Japanese foods. He had rice, miso soup, cod roe, salmon roe, grilled salmon belly, sashimi, and tamagoyaki (rolled omelet), all accompanied by a cup of coffee.

For his sashimi, Mr. Sato chose lean tuna, salt-pickled tuna, and three kinds of salmon.

Since the restaurant specializes in Hokkaido food, the fish was exceptionally delicious. The salmon belly was especially fatty and flavorful. This alone would have satisfied Mr. Sato, and the fact that it was grilled fresh for him was the icing on the cake!

In true Japanese style, Mr. Sato poured his salmon roe over his rice.

This is how much fit in one of their little bowls. Mr. Sato could easily eat two or three of these. Delicious!

There’s one last secret to this restaurant. For an extra fee (500 yen), you can also order fresh, raw oysters!

Eating oysters first thing in the morning is the height of luxury! This is like what you would find at breakfast in a fancy Japanese inn.

Kibori is still new, but with a breakfast buffet this good, it’s bound to get popular in no time, so now is the time to try it if you want to avoid crowds. Mr. Sato could easily come here once a week, but if you’re just visiting and staying in Tokyo, try skipping your hotel breakfast one morning and coming here. It’s totally worth it.

And if you’re looking for a hotel in the Tokyo area, we recommend the Shinjuku Kuyakusho-mae Capsule Hotel, where you get a capsule stay, a fancy bath, and a sauna for just 3,000 yen per night. Couple that with breakfast at Kibori, and you’ll be gifting yourself a true Japanese experience!

Restaurant Information
Kibori / キボリ
Address: Tokyo-to Shinjuku-ku Kabukicho 1-16-3 Celesa Youei Shinjuku Building 6-7F
東京都新宿区歌舞伎町1-16-3 セレサ陽栄新宿ビル6・7階
Hours: Breakfast 8 a.m. to 11 a.m., Lunch 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., Dinner 5 p.m. to 11 p.m.

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