So so,

珉珉 (Minmin) is a different chain from Utsunomiya gyoza's Minmin, but from the moment you walk in, the “this is a true machi-chuka (neighborhood Chinese diner)” vibe is strong. It's not going for flashiness or Instagram appeal; it felt like a reassuring shop that's been in the neighborhood forever. This time I ordered the ramen set. The ramen and fried rice weren't so much “amazingly special!” as the classic flavors that make you think “this is exactly what I want.” These days there are lots of places with strong personalities, but plain tasty Chinese food like this might actually be rare. A machi-chuka you can casually drop into and leave fully satisfied.

Both the fried rice and gyoza come with a “half” option. I thought for a bit about which to get as a half, but figured from the shop's name the gyoza would be a safe bet, so I first ordered pan-fried gyoza for 500 yen and a bottled beer for 650 yen. The gyoza was crispy-fried and that texture was great. Worlds apart from Bamiyan's soggy ones. The wrapper wasn't bad either, the filling seemed vegetable-heavy, the garlic really came through, and the umami was strong. As expected, the gyoza was delicious. Added a half fried rice for 500 yen. It was stir-fried quite moist. People who think fried rice should be light and fluffy! would definitely slam it if they ate it, but I don't mind it like this. That said, unlike the gyoza, the umami was weak and the saltiness was pretty mild, so it didn't leave much of an impression. Still better than being too heavily seasoned. Getting the gyoza full-size and the fried rice as a half may have been the right call after all.

It had that machi-chuka feel, so I went in. Vaguely thinking “Minmin” means gyoza, I ordered gyoza, shiso gyoza, and the ramen, gyoza, and half fried rice set. The gyoza is delicious. Meat-heavy gyoza ends up tasting more like shumai, so I like a balance with plenty of vegetables where you can still taste the meat juices, and the gyoza here has exactly that balance, so I got carried away and ordered shiso gyoza too. The shiso gyoza's shiso flavor is subtle and it's not that different from the regular gyoza, so it's just as delicious. The ramen has straight noodles, a standard chuka soba, and I thought it was good. The fried rice was salted just right, with fluffy separate grains, and was really delicious. This time it was a half fried rice in the set, but next time I want a regular single serving of fried rice. I looked into whether “眠眠 Yotsuya branch” and “Utsunomiya Minmin” are related, but they don't seem to be. I can't exactly keep going to Utsunomiya for gyoza, so I want to come back to eat the gyoza here. No smoking from 12 to 1 pm. If you hate smoke, there aren't many customers at night, so I think you can go in without any problem. Payment is cash and PayPay only.

I'd known about it for a long time, and since it's been in the same spot for so long, I figured it had to be good, so I finally worked up the nerve to go. The gyoza was probably frozen, and the stir-fries tasted like home cooking. There seems to be zero basic intention of making customers happy; they just mechanically keep cooking every day, thinking of nothing but cutting ingredient costs to the bone to secure a profit. I was shocked that the quality was below Hidakaya. If you're coming here, there's a Hidakaya nearby, and you're far better off going there. I can't find any reason to eat here. I don't even go to Hidakaya because it's not good, so being below Hidakaya is seriously bad.