It would take a lifetime to exhaust Tokyo—particularly when it comes to restaurants. Ask four Tokyo gourmets for their favorite haunts and you'll get four entirely different lists. The following are my own highly subjective, only occasionally obscure, recommendations for places to stay, dishes to eat, and sights to see.

The country and city code for Tokyo is 81-3. Prices quoted are for September 2007.

Lodging
The comfortable and well-located Hotel Okura has an excellent retro bar and a branch of one of the city's best and most expensive sushi restaurants, Kyubei (3582-0111; okura.com/tokyo; doubles, $274–$490; sushi, $47–$188). The top nine floors of Tokyo Midtown—the city's new eating and shopping complex—belong to the Ritz-Carlton (3423-8000; ritzcarlton.com; doubles, $531–$653). The Grand Hyatt in nearby Roppongi Hills has an equally extensive, if slightly dated, roster of restaurants and shops (4333-1234; tokyo.grand.hyatt.com; doubles, $481–$670).

Dining
The freshest sushi is at the Tsukiji Fish Market, where the tuna auction starts around 4:30 a.m. Arrange a tour through your hotel, and don't wear fancy shoes. Plenty of food stalls line the alleyways around the market, selling à la carte sushi as well as seto, or set menus. Sushi Dai is my choice for the best in the market (5-2-1 Tsukiji, Chuo-ku; 3547-6797; sushi, $17–$30), although many raw-fish fanatics also swear by Daiwa Sushi (5-2-1 Tsukiji, Chuo-ku; 3547-6807; set menu, $26). Tokyo's grandest sushi house is Kyubei, in Ginza (8-7-6 Ginza, Chuo-ku; 3571-6523; sushi, $82–$245). Another favorite is Sushi Kanesaka, run by a young veteran of Kyubei (Misuzu Bldg. B1, 8-10-3 Ginza, Chuo-ku; 5568-4411; sushi, $25–$163).

The most traditional (and pricey) style of dining is kaiseki, the cuisine of the Kyoto emperors. In Tokyo, Tsujitome is the most established and exclusive kaiseki restaurant, serving elaborate, multicourse dinners in private rooms, many decorated according to the tastes of regular customers (1-8-5 Moto-Akasaka, Minato-ku; 3403-3984; prix fixe, $204–$351). You'll need similar wads of cash, and ideally an introduction, to enjoy the Kobe beef, grilled teppanyaki-style, at Steak Shiozawa, in the basement of a building near Ginza Station (Mita Bldg. B2F, 8-3-10 Ginza; 3572-7613; set menu, $300–$500). At Ryugin, chef and sommelier Seiji Yamamoto's Franco-centric wine list is among the city's most original (Side Roppongi Bldg. 1F, 7-17-24 Roppongi, Minato-ku; 3423-8006; entrées, $123–$287).