Suginami City, Tokyo, Japan｜鍋家 阿佐ヶ谷店

I visited on a weekday lunchtime with three friends. The time was before 13:00 and I entered the store without having to wait. However, by the time we left, the place was full, so you may need to be careful if you're having a late lunch even on weekdays. At lunchtime, this restaurant offers a set that includes soup, a small side dish, and rice. Interestingly, this rice comes in a bowl, which somehow makes me excited. This time, I ordered shrimp chili and Sichuan mapo tofu as a lunch set, as well as drool chicken, shrimp fried rice, and fried dumplings as individual items. To be honest, the taste of the shrimp chili and mapo tofu in the lunch set was not that impressive. Despite the name Sichuan, the mapo tofu was a bit numb (?), so I added chili oil (?) on the table and ate it. The shrimp chili had the same feeling, and the overall impression was that it was unsatisfactory. In fact, I was surprised at how delicious the small bowl of vermicelli was. On the other hand, the shrimp fried rice, drool chicken, and gyoza that I ordered individually were all delicious and went down smoothly. The texture of the shrimp fried rice is a perfect combination of the texture of the ingredients and the crumbly rice, and it stays delicious in your mouth for a long time. Also, the drooling chicken is exquisite in how well the chicken is seasoned. It's so juicy and moist when it's boiled, and the spicy yet sweet sauce mixes with it to create an exquisite dish. Among them, the one that catches the eye is the fried gyoza. The skin is chewy and resembles grilled xiao long bao. Of course it's delicious when eaten hot, but even when it cools down, the flavor doesn't diminish, which was impressive. Since the lunch set was not very good, I think that the evaluation of the restaurant would be quite different between those who ordered a single item and those who ordered a set.

It's always crowded, but the food comes out quickly and is delicious. The 30th anniversary menu was available until November 22, 2017, and it was extremely delicious. I would like to see it on the regular menu as well. Lunch is extremely reasonable. Open at night until 4am. If you go early in the morning, the arrangement of food on the plate will be more impressive than at dinner time.

Great taste, great customer service, and great atmosphere!