5 Foreign-Female Owned Eateries Around Tokyo

Support With Your Fork!

By Sydney Seekford |
June 23, 2025 |
Careers, Lifestyle, Food

Discover restaurants, bakeries and bars run by foreign women making an impact in and around Tokyo.

Anthony Bourdain often waxed lyrical about his time in Tokyo. He went so far as to point out that it would be impossible to eat at every one of the city’s tens of thousands of restaurants. While that remains true, only a small fraction are run by foreigners, and even fewer are led by women. Discover five of those rare foreign-female owned eateries in Tokyo. These women are not only cooking but making their mark on Japan’s renowned foodie scene.

1. Katy Cole (U.S.): Locale

Locale has been described as “your best friend’s counter”, a “home away from home” and more—all glowing words that reflect the essence of this heartwarming Meguro bistro. Strangers dining at Locale for the first time quickly warm up over glasses of wine, which Chef Cole herself is no prude about sipping as she cooks. The menu is authentic farm-to-table food with weekend brunch and Katy’s version of a tasting menu, all packed with traceable ingredients. She describes the restaurant as a nightly dinner party. The intimacy and honesty that comes in each box of hand-tended produce is maintained in Katy’s cooking.

Chef Cole studied at Le Cordon Bleu and worked in San Francisco before moving to Japan. She was inspired after a brief trip to return for half a year, working on popups and forging bonds with farms and fellow restaurateurs. The story behind Locale’s ultimate success is mostly serendipitous—a spate of good luck and connections leading to what would become a family of regulars around a cozy kitchen counter. When one of Katy’s regular haunts closed, she took up the space to found Locale. Now, Locale also has some younger siblings in Wine Bar Juni and Kyoto’s Kosa.

Address: 1-17-22 Meguro, Meguro ward, Tokyo
Hours: Wed-Sat: 6 p.m.-10 p.m., Brunch: Sat and Sun: 9:30 a.m.-2 p.m.
What to order: A little of everything (tasting menu)

2. Stacey Ward (U.K.): Mornington Crescent Bakery

Savvy Tokyo actually interviewed Stacey Ward in 2016, when Mornington Crescent had been in business for just three years. At that time, the thoughts of the changes coming to Azabu and Covid-19 were still a long way off. Stacey first came to Tokyo with the JET program and worked in marketing before being inspired to open her own bakery. Today, Mornington Crescent continues in much the same shape as it did nearly a decade ago. Stacey still splits her time between offering her home-baked goods a couple of Saturdays a month and introducing the people of Tokyo to British delights with her cooking class. She has also published a book and started selling through her online storefront.

This spring, Mornington Crescent is pumping out hot cross buns just in time for Easter. Classic British pastries like these keep homesick Brits lining up on open bakery days and curious locals booking up classes faster than they can say “Mornington Crescent”. Seasonal selections are always in high demand, from mince pies to simnel cake, but classic comfort foods are available year-round. Battenberg, scones and towering Victoria sponge with smears of jam are hard for any gluten fan to resist.

Address: Casa do Namiki 101, 2-14-3 Higashi Azabu, Minato ward, Tokyo
Hours: Open bakery days: roughly twice a month. (Check website for details.)
What to order: Battenberg cake, Victoria sponge, scones

3. Burcu Alkurt-Firat (Netherlands): Pide Kamakura

Pide (PEA-day) in Kamakura has exploded on social media in a few short weeks. The tiny shop was opened in early 2025 by Burcu Alkurt-Firat and her husband. Pide is the name of a favorite bread from Burcu’s father’s bakery. Their dream is for Pide to become a community center of sorts, where shared happiness and culture bloom through yeasty sourdough loaves and hand-whipped butter. From noon to gone on weekends, the cubby-sized bakery is wrapped in customers of all ages and ethnicities.

Burcu’s parents were Turkish immigrants who operated a bakery in Amsterdam. At 25, she moved to Norway, where she became enamored with sourdough bread. After coming to Japan, it took some time for Burcu to acclimate herself to a new country—different palates and ingredients were a hurdle at first. However, Pide is now quickly becoming the type of relationship-centric space its owners dreamed of creating. Despite only operating for a few months at the time of publishing, it’s clear the bakery has already become a special weekend pilgrimage spot.

Address: 4-1-1 Omachi, Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture
Hours: Sat and Sun 12 p.m. to sold out
What to order: BMO (bread, butter and cheese), cardamom buns

4. Lauren Rose Kocher (U.S.): Buy Me Stand

Buy Me Stand, a beloved grilled-cheese shop in Shibuya, has been slinging sandwiches for over a decade. At the new location, diners can enjoy the same classics in speedy fashion with the permanent food-truck trailer. Of course, there’s the eponymous “Buy Me” sandwich, but also interesting creations like cinnamon toast with a side of milk for dipping and the “Son of the Cheese,” a four-cheese blend that is also the name of the founder’s fashion brand.

The Sendagaya opening marked a bittersweet milestone. The shop was never meant to be Lauren Rose Kocher’s business, and until the untimely death of her husband, Kaito, it wasn’t. A successful founder herself and a skilled professional, Kocher took up the reins to keep her husband’s business—and legacy—thriving. Her own venture, Vegas PR, is in the entertainment business, working on PR and marketing for anime, musicians, and other creative media with a need for English communications.

Address: Tokyo Apartment Namiki Bridge 202, 1-31-19 Higashi, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo
Hours: 8 a.m.-5 p.m.; Breakfast: 8 a.m.-11 a.m.; Lunch: 8 a.m.-3 p.m.
What to order: Son of the Cheese, Hella Green

5. Holly Graham (U.K.): Tokyo Confidential Bar

Holly Graham hails from the UK, but her career is rooted in Asia. From a brief stint as an English teacher in Thailand and Korea, to a decade living in Hong Kong, where she was the Food and Drink Editor of Time Out, before bartending at The Old Man and returning to writing as the Managing Editor of DRiNK Magazine and author of Cocktails of Asia. In late 2023, she moved to Tokyo, and the explosive opening of her first bar, Tokyo Confidential, made Holly an important figure in Asia’s food and dining scene. Her creative cocktails and boundless energy find an easy home in Tokyo, especially when paired with the bar’s infamous hot dogs and globally-inspired drinks that utilise local ingredients at Tokyo Confidential.

The bar distills Holly’s passions for communication and imbibement into one raucous, nightly party. The salvaged tori gate wooden reverse horseshoe bar makes the space feel both open and intimate, a fitting scene for Tokyo Confidential’s motto of Pull Up, Fess Up. Holly can be seen behind the counter as often as jumping on top of it, hamming up her huge personality for the crowd. The friendly vibes at Tokyo Confidential are inviting, but the cocktails themselves are works of art only a seasoned professional could pour.

Address: The V-City Azabujuban Place 9F, 1-6-1 Azabujuban, Minato-ku, Tokyo
Hours: 6 p.m.-late. Until midnight on Sundays.
What to order: Cheung Fun Old Fashioned, Mugi Boogie, hot dogs

We Want To Keep Growing This List!

Tokyo’s female-led eateries and watering holes feature the distinct character and history of their owners. For a taste of home—yours or theirs—make a visit to one of the locations listed above.

If you know of any other foreign-female owned eateries in Tokyo, let us know! Contact us or comment down below!