Forget izakaya, soba restaurants and divey Chinese eateries — if you really want to see salarymen in mass munching mode, catch them in their natural habitat at the office shokudō (cafeteria), where colleagues rub shoulders daily over a tray of freshly made rations. Besides delivering sustenance to the world's busiest worker bees, the spots featured here all offer a little something extra. (The 
icon indicates venues open to the public.)
Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building
Many visitors to Tokyo make a point of stopping by the observation deck at City Hall in Nishi-Shinjuku. Very few of them stay for lunch. That's a shame, because the corporate cafeteria on the 32nd floor of the TMG's No. 1 Building is open to the public, and it offers much the same view. Bonus: Each Wednesday, a chef from the Hotel New Otani stops by to prepare a classic beef curry dish. www.metro.tokyo.jp/ENGLISH/TMG/outline.htm.
The shokudō at the Kyoto HQ of this leading cab company serves a ¥500 all-you-can-eat lunch buffet, with soba, curry, tempura, kara-age (deep-fried chicken) and lots more. But what earns it a spot on our list is the free-flowing draft beer at ¥400 a pop. We can only hope that the booze is for cabbies coming off a night shift — and that they have a designated driver to ferry them home. kamigamo.mkciel.net/viking.html.
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