The place is not so crowded, but there are not too many options for food, and it might be hard to order food if you do not know Japanese. There is almost no internet down there also.

These prices in this day and age—impressive! A student cafeteria indeed. A medium curry and miso soup cost less than a single coin. Amazing~ Medium curry 415 yen Miso soup 44 yen It's underground on the left when facing the University of Tokyo's Yasuda Auditorium. You enter through a place that makes you wonder, “Are outsiders really allowed here?” (see photo). Payment accepts cash, credit cards, transit cards—pretty much anything. There are two options: staffed and automatic. It's open to the public too, so walk right in with confidence~ lol

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The relatively quiet Metro Cafeteria. It's a small student cafeteria underground. The photo shows oyakodon at 427 yen, miso soup at 36 yen, and kinpira gobo at 73 yen, totaling 536 yen. The taste is decent for a student cafeteria, but its biggest advantage is that it's not crowded. There's a good selection of fried foods. People from outside the university can use it too, so come experience being a student.

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Cheap, cheap, cheap. A friendly feel, and everyone working there is kind. The food isn't amazingly delicious or anything. Just ordinary. A student cafeteria separate from the “Central Cafeteria” beneath Yasuda Auditorium on the University of Tokyo's Hongo Campus. An old-fashioned space with a long tradition. The route to the cafeteria entrance feels like entering a monastery basement. It advertises “light meals and kissa (a Showa-era-style tea shop for drinking tea and smoking),” but in practice it isn't very different from an ordinary student cafeteria. Unusually, some seats are in an area where you take off your shoes, step up, and eat sitting cross-legged. If you want to feel the old atmosphere of the University of Tokyo, it's worth a visit. (A guide for Korean visitors) 1) Enter, look at the menu list and food models, and roughly decide what to eat. 2) Tell the ordering counter inside which dish you want. (If the cashier asks a question, it's probably whether you're a co-op member, so just wave your hand no without saying anything.) 3) After receiving your meal ticket, take a tray and head to the numbered serving counter. (The cashier will roughly tell you which number to go to.) 4) Line up to collect your food, placing the ticket with the dish name where the cook can see it. 5) Once you have your food, get a spoon and chopsticks, fill a water cup, take enough napkins, squeeze or pour the sauces you need onto your plate, then find an empty seat and eat. 6) Carry your tray and dishes to the return counter, discard leftovers, put the empty dishes into the Pong Pong soapy water (be careful not to put the tray in too), then place the tray on the color-sorted tray return rack and leave. Your one-day University of Tokyo student experience is complete.

Ever since becoming a spicy-food fan, I'd hoped to try Akamon ramen someday… But campus access was restricted because of coronavirus… At last, I got to enjoy it, and it was delicious! Apparently it's normally exclusive to the Central Cafeteria, but since that's currently being renovated, I had it here at Ginkgo Metro Cafeteria. Rare, in a sense… perhaps??