pjacqueimo

I was deciding between Shanghai and Tokyo and decided to do Japan since China has the visa process. Besides, I have already been to Hong Kong and wanted to see how Japan is. I really love Chinese food though and I am not a fan of Sushi. With that said, any Chinese food joints/restaurants you recommended in Tokyo?

Denis Carlin

Japanese food is incredibly varied and much, much more than just sushi.
IMO it's miles better than Chinese food but from Tokyo you can visit Yokohama China Town pretty easily.
My recommendation is to be adventurous and try as much Japanese food as you can, the quality is incredible.

LapLap

Hello pjacqueimo,

Is this a real question based on an actual intention of visiting Tokyo?

Your posting history is full of random but very specific questions for a wide range of destinations and you don't revisit or follow up on any of them.

Just in case you are serious here is a recent thread to give you a handle on what's available
Japanese-Chinese cuisine

beep88

Chinese food in Japan is not Chinese food. Expensive and crappy. But you are based in HK so you already know that.

abmj-jr

I have been to Japan dozens of times and very rarely ever ordered sushi, which I can take or leave. On the other hand, I love Japanese food in general. Chinese food in Japan will not kill you but is often rather meh.

abmj-jr

I received a PM from this thread asking specific questions. Since I do not respond to travel advice requests in private, I'll make a few comments here. Private responses are only of value to one person whereas public responses may help others with similar questions.

1. How many days to visit Tokyo. I am not a huge Tokyo fan - or perhaps I have just seen everything I found interesting. I get bored after a week or so. Tokyo is not a single city but rather a larger conglomeration of many towns and neighborhoods. The only way to prepare for a first visit is to invest in a good guide book or online guide to narrow down the options to a manageable amount. I like the older, more scenic areas like YaNeSen, Asakusa, Ueno, the Imperial Palace area or Ryoguku but others like the modern or high-tech areas such as Ginza, Roppongi, Akihabara or Shinjuku. I like to spend a day immersed in an area or two and move on to another. After a week I am burnt out and want out of the mega-city so I move on. YMMV.

2. Is there too much cold or snow in early December? No. There will probably not be any snow in and around Tokyo and weather is usually brisk but fine then. Snow will be heavy in the mountain areas or further north. Hokkaido and the northern part of Tohoku are snow country, as are the ski areas near Nagano. Tokyo and Kyoto/Osaka will be fine for a visit.

3. Places to see cherry blossoms in Tokyo. If you are referring to early December, forget cherry blossoms. They are only out in late-March / early April. During those times, the good places are too numerous to mention. We all have our favorites. There are many threads in this group listing viewing locations. Search the forum.

4. Japanese food other than sushi. The link in a post just up-thread is a good place to start. Again, we all have our favorites. Try a Google search for Japanese dishes and see what looks good. I like a variety of noodle dishes like soba and ramen as well as pedestrian dishes like curry, rice omelet, tonkatsu and various rice bowls like katsudon and oyakudon. All of those are working class food and can be found in the thousands of little cafes in most of the back streets and alleys in Tokyo. I don't even know the names of most of the restaurants I have visited over the years. I just go out looking and always find something good. For more traditional restaurant recommendations, I'm sure others will jump in.

nishimark

Since the topic is Chinese food in Japan, maybe it's good note that Yokohama, next door to Tokyo, has the largest "Chinatown" in Japan.
https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3201.html

evergrn

I love Chinese food in Jpn.

Pickles

I'm with the meh party, to each their own, I guess.

mjm

Very meh.

lobsterdog

Has anyone ever found a good Chinese restaurant in Yokohama Chinatown? Apparently not, because no one ever recommends one - they just wave their hands and say "go to Yokohama Chinatown" as if wandering around there randomly is going to help you find anything other than a tourist trap with mediocre food.

Back to Chinese restaurants in Tokyo - I always enjoy the "contemporary Cantonese" fare at Sense in the Mandarin Oriental Hotel. Chinese Cafe Eight (Ebisu, Shinjuku, elsewhere) is great for very budget-friendly Peking Duck and side dishes. Le Parc (Ebisu) has great dim sum on weekends, and Paradise Dynasty (Ginza) has xiao long bao in fun flavors like foie gras, truffle, and cheese. There are hundreds of other good places if you search around a bit, and quite a few mediocre ones as well.

evergrn

When I eat at Chinatown, ~half the time I go to Bairan which is a chain place. Rest of the time I go to one of the places profiled on Rurubu/Mapple guide. I can't remember those places by name. Nothing in Yokohama Chinatown is mind-blowing, but I can usually count on a decent, tasty meal. It's true you don't have to go to Yokohama Chinatown to have a decent Chinese meal, because the general quality there is no better/worse than a Tokyo department store Chinese restaurant. But it's still a great place to go because of the vibrance and the smell that permeates the streets.

When you have Chinese food in Jpn, you have to have proper objective and expectations. If you try to seek out bbq pork or dim sum or authentic Chinese dishes in Tokyo and then compare it to HKG, you're probably not going to be happy. But as someone who grew up on quitessentially Japanese Chinese lunch sets and Japanese-Chinese mainstays like ankake fried rice, ebi chili, shumai, spring rolls and mabo tofu, there is that comfort zone and enjoyment with Chinese food in Jpn that I can't find in HKG.

I go to HKG every year, and so that is where I go for dim sum and authentic Cantonese/Shanghai dining. Sense has great authentic/contemporary food indeed, but I only go there for the ambiance and the view... I can find similar-quality restaurants with better menu variety and lower prices in HKG. I went to Le Parc a long time ago... I remember it as being more of an authentic Cantonese / dim sum place rather than Japanese-Chinese type place. Nothing against having dim sum in Tokyo, though... Japanese actually do hargow and xlb quite well. Paradise Dynasty... that must be the Singapore-based chain with multi-colored xlb.

Pickles

Except, of course, the now a goner but long-lamented Chef Chen Kenichi's 六本木四川飯店.

ksandness

Occasionally one lucks out and finds a Chinese restaurant run by real Chinese people. I was fortunate enough to do so last summer while staying in Ikebukuro. It was just a little hole-in-the-wall place, and I went in expecting a typical Chuuka Ryouri menu, but lo and behold, the staff were speaking Chinese to one another, so I was able to have a meal similar to what I had enjoyed in China. In that same neighborhood, I also found an Indian restaurant run by Indians and packed with South Asian customers.

No, I don't remember what either place was called or exactly where they were, but in general, your chances of finding genuine non-Japanese cuisine in Japan are infinitely higher now than they were when I first went forty years ago. However, like almost all my culinary experiences in Japan, these were simply the result of wandering around the neighborhood and finding something that looked appealing.

AlwaysAisle

There used to be Szechuan restaurant called Hyakusai-Hyakumi (百菜百味, website in Japanese only) at Nishi-Azabu which was frequented by people from Chinese Embassy at Tokyo. The restaurant at Nishi-Azabu has closed but Hyakusai-Hyakumi has another restaurant at Ginza which is still open. As it was frequented by people from Chinese Embassy this is fancier restaurant.

Tokyo does not have official China town but immediate northwest area of Ikebukuro station is known to have Chinese restaurants which are frequented by Chinese expatriates living in Tokyo. The map of Ikebukuro Chinatown (PDF format, in Japanese) shows locations of Chinese restaurants frequented by Chinese living in Tokyo. If you want more authentic Chinese, not Japanese-Chinese, then restaurants in Ikebukuro may satisfy your palate.