TOKYO - For more than six decades, Sanyuken Fukasawa Branch in Tokyo's Setagaya Ward has served generations of customers with familiar Chinese dishes, as its 72-year-old second-generation owner and his wife continue to run the 14-seat neighborhood restaurant largely by themselves.
The restaurant, near the Komazawa-Fukasawa Fudo intersection, was founded by the owner's parents in 1961 and has remained known for dishes including ramen, fried rice, gyoza, vegetable tanmen and a wide range of stir-fried set meals. Over the years, it has appeared in magazines and on television and has also attracted celebrity customers.
Preparations begin well before the doors open at 11 a.m. The couple cut char siu and vegetables, prepare fried rice ingredients, make soup and side dishes, clean the tables and windows, and organize the compact dining room before customers begin arriving.
Each table now has a QR code allowing customers to view the menu on their phones, a system introduced partly to make it easier for people with poor eyesight and overseas visitors to read. The owner recalled seeing a student from Taiwan use the system to translate the menu into the student's own language.
The menu remains centered on traditional, filling dishes at relatively modest prices. Vegetable tanmen costs 800 yen, fried rice 800 yen, a half-portion ramen set 950 yen, a meat-and-vegetable stir-fry set 850 yen and five gyoza 450 yen.
Once lunchtime begins, the kitchen quickly becomes busy. Orders range from ramen and liver with garlic chives to pork and egg stir-fry, fried rice, bean sprout noodles, twice-cooked pork, oyakodon and grilled kalbi. The owner works continuously at the wok while his wife helps prepare ingredients, serve customers, clear dishes and keep the restaurant moving.
Fried rice is one of the restaurant's signature dishes. Egg is cooked in the wok before pork, garlic, rice and other ingredients are added and seasoned, with the finished dish served alongside Chinese soup. The rice is prepared to retain moisture while developing the toasted aroma produced by high-heat wok cooking.
Another popular choice is the meat-and-vegetable stir-fry set, made with pork, garlic, carrots, onions and cabbage and served with rice. Bean sprout soba is prepared by stir-frying vegetables, adding Chinese soup and thickening the broth before pouring it over freshly boiled noodles.
The restaurant has long attracted students as well as neighborhood regulars. Three students who visited during the day ordered dishes including oyakodon, gyoza and bean sprout soba, while a Komazawa University student said he had returned after enjoying the food on an earlier visit. The generous servings of noodles and rice dishes have made the restaurant particularly suited to customers with large appetites.
The flow of customers continues through the day, sometimes leaving the couple handling several ramen and set-meal orders at once. One first-time customer said he had simply been passing by when he decided to enter, while others praised dishes including liver with garlic chives.
Vegetable tanmen remains one of the restaurant's longstanding staples. Priced at 800 yen, it combines thin noodles with plenty of vegetables in a mild chicken-based soup enriched by the flavor of the vegetables, reflecting the simple style that has helped define the restaurant for more than six decades.
For the couple behind Sanyuken Fukasawa Branch, maintaining that familiar taste means repeating the same demanding routine day after day: preparing ingredients, lifting heavy woks, cooking each order individually and cleaning whenever there is a spare moment. More than 60 years after the restaurant first opened, the steady stream of regulars and newcomers continues to keep the woks moving.
Source: Japanese Noodles Udon Soba Tokyo
