San Francisco Peaks, Harajuku

I love small, independent, backstreet joints, so I was happy to stumble upon this one right in Harajuku. One of the really special talents in the food world is to be able to take a simple comfort food item and make it extra fantastic. The folks at San Francisco Peaks have just done that.

The restaurant calls itself a hot dog place, but it really is so much more than that. One thing I love about it is that it serves an awesome American style breakfast menu all day long, including waffles, fresh fruit and more.

And the dogs? They are really more like homemade sausages on a delicious bun. All sorts of flavors are available. They create these tasty hot dogs in more than ten styles with base ingredients of pork, beef, chicken or lamb. I tried the apple and cinnamon pork sausage and it was sublime. There are amazing add-ons like fried and raw onions, sauerkraut and gourmet mustard. And you can wash it all down with a beer from a broad selection, including great bottle beers and more than twelve brews on tap. There are additional outside seats upstairs and down, and this spot sports a truly funky décor, including a large communal table on the second floor.

In addition to the shabby-chic café space, there is a small secondhand boutique with a sort of 70s-80s wood cabin décor feeling. The store has some truly unique offerings and makes for a fun browse after your meal.

The Deets:

Address: 3-28-7 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo

Tel: 03-5775-5707

Open: Daily, 11:30 a.m.-11 p.m.