Kikka Restaurant

Kikka is a thoroughly nondescript Chinese restaurant in a classy neighborhood not far from Shibuya that is surprisingly better than the most famous little Chinese restaurants in Tokyo. The cuisine it serves is more distinctive than the offerings of any restaurant in Yokohama's Chinatown. The only disadvantage is that the only decorations are the out-sized color photographs of the dishes on Kikka's menu. But make sure you are prepared to spend the two there do a Kikka meal justice and understand that Szechuan cooking is powered by plenty of pepper.

Different sets in menu bring you two hors d'oeuvres (sauteed shrimp and spicy fried chicken), gomku okoge (burnt rice), mabodofu (sauced tofu, eaten over rice) tan tan men noodles and a (rather ordinary) dessert of anin dofu. Or if you are in a hurry you could just settle into a bowl of kosho aji no gomoku soup, which is really a meal by itself and enough to set off a Wagnerian chorus of aftertastes.

Because of good balance between high quality food and moderate prices people come to Kikka from all over the city. It seems everyone has been here many times before.