Recommended Chinese Restaurant in Yokohama-Chinatown: Chungking Chinese Szechwan Restaurant (w/Photos)
Yokohama Chinatown is the largest Chinatown in Japan, larger than the Kobe Chinatown or Nagasaki Chinatown. Lots of Chinese restaurants are located here and you can find various Chinese cuisine, such as Cantonese food, Sichuan food, Shanghai food, Taiwanese foods, and so on. There are also lots of Chinese shops which sell Chinese household goods and cooking ingredients. Yokohama Chinatown has become a well known sightseeing spot where many tourists from all over Japan and the world come to visit. Yokohama Chinatown also can be easily reached by train in about 40 minutes from Tokyo, so it would be an ideal day trip for your Japan visit. In this article, we would like to introduce Chungking Chinese Szechwan Restaurant, a long established restaurant in Yokohama Chinatown.
If you want to learn more about Yokohama Chinatown other restaurants, check >>Yokohama recommended Chinese restaurant best 10!
Chungking Chinese Szechwan Restaurant
Overview
Source: JUKEI-HANTEN
Chungking Chinese Szechwan Restaurant is a long-established restaurant founded in 1959 which serves Szechwan cuisine in Yokohama Chinatown. Szechwan cuisine is a type of Chinese cuisine made from several spices and seasonings of Chinese cooking. Dishes rich in spices are very popular in Japan. Chungking Chinese Szechwan Restaurant consists of a main restaurant (undergoing renovation until fall of 2018), an annex restaurant, Shinkan (meaning “new building”) restaurant, and a kiosk that sells confections. Chungking Chinese Restaurant is also famous as a restaurant equipped with a wedding ceremony service and banquet halls for the first time in Chinatown as well as a restaurant that was a kiosk to sell Chinese sweets and buns for walk-and-eat customers.
Recommended dish #1: Mabo Tofu
Source: flickr
Mabo Tofu is a typical Szechwan dish which uses a lot of spices, and it is a popular dish at Chungking Chinese Restaurant. The Masamune Mabo Tofu of Chingking Restaurant is well known among people who like spicy foods. Masamune in Chinese means “authentic”; the spice of regular Mabo Tofu is catered to Japanese taste, but the Masamune Mabo Tofu is authentic Chinese mabo. Delicious minced beef is used for the Masamune Mabo Tofu and enhances its rich flavor.
Recommended dish #2: Scezchwan Tantanmen
Source：flickr
Tantanmen is a classic Chinese noodle with a spicy soup containing chili pepper, minced meat and leeks as toppings. The Szechwan tantanmen of Chungking Restaurant has bean sprouts and green onions in a chili pepper based soup with the rich flavor of sesame. In addition to this popular menu item, there is also white Tantanmen which is an off-menu item. This is also a popular dish with steamed chicken and green onions in a soup consisting of chicken stock, white sesame paste, and chili pepper.
Access
Address:
The main restaurant: 164 Yamashita-cho, Naka-ku (Currently closed for renovation until Fall 2018)
The annex restaurant: 142 Yamashita-cho, Naka-ku
There are also the other annex (called Shinkan) and a kiosk in Chinatown.
Business hour of annex restaurant: 11:30am to 3pm, and 5pm to 10pm
Open 7days a week
Transportation
The main restaurant: 3 minute walk from Minato-Mirai line Motomachi-Chukagai station (near Rose Hotel Yokohama).
Annex: 7 minute walk from JR Yokohama line Ishikawa-cho station (near ‘Kantei-byo”, an imperial mausoleum)
Shinkan: 3 minute walk from Minato-Mirai line Motomachi-Chukagai station (inside of Rose Hotel Yokohama).
Yokohama Chinatown
People visit Yokohama Chinatown from all over Japan seeking delicious Chinese cuisine. There are many kinds of Chinese restaurants in Yokohama Chinatown; authentic luxury restaurant style, affordable all-you-can-eat style, and home-made style restaurants. In addition, you can find stores selling Chinese ingredients and herbs that are not usually available in a supermarket in Japan and the others that sell Chinese tea leaves from various region of China. Chinese holidays such as Chinese New Year and the “Kokkeisetsu (National Day)” have grand events that you cannot miss.
Access to Yokohama Chinatown
From JR Tokyo station: take JR Tokaido line and get off at Yokohama station. Transfer to JR Yokohama line to Ishikawacho station, or transfer to Minato-Mirai line to Motomachi-chukagai station. Estimated travel time is 50 minutes.
From Shibuya station: take Tokyu-Toyoko line to Motomachi-Chukagai station (No transferring/ changing train needed from Tokyu-Toyoko line to Minato-Mirai line as it is a direct drive). Estimated travel time is 50 minutes.
From Haneda Airport: take Keihin-Kyuko Honsen line bound for Airport-Shinzushi to Yokohama station. Transfer to JR Yokohama line and get off at Ishikawacho station, or transfer to Minato-Mirai line and get off at Motomachi-Chukagai station. Estimated travel time is 40 minutes.