I love this restaurant! It’s very welcoming and as soon as you step inside, you are transported back to Showa era Tokyo. The chahan and gyoza are delicious. Thank you to the master for a wonderful experience every time!

I ordered チャーハン+餃子+bottled beer. The チャーハン was slightly salty and went well with beer, while each 餃子 was fairly large with a substantial, meaty filling and tasted delicious. Perhaps because it was a weekday, the restaurant was quiet too (２ customers were already there), so I enjoyed a delicious lunch at a leisurely, comfortable pace.

Until about 8 years ago, when I was single and living in Asagaya, I went every evening. Perhaps it reflects the personalities of the fatherly owner and his wife, but the interior was clean, with almost none of the grease stains common in old neighborhood Chinese restaurants. Even the table condiments, such as the soy sauce dispensers, were kept clean. It was old but comfortable. As for the flavor, being born in the Heisei era, it was my first taste of lard. At first I thought it tasted unusual. It was not the kind of thing that made me say, "This is incredibly delicious!" Rather, it was a flavor that would suddenly come back to me. Before I knew it, I loved it. I realized that this must be what people mean by comforting Showa-era flavors. After that I also learned the term neighborhood Chinese restaurant, and besides 三番, I frequented places like 朝暘 and 光. It has been 8 years since I left Tokyo, got married, and started raising children, but I still suddenly remember the taste of 三番. It is far away, so I cannot easily visit, but I have always wanted to go back for gyoza and ramen once more before the restaurant closes. It is probably a place with wonderful memories that I will recall until the day I leave this world. With that in mind, I checked Google Maps and saw "Temporarily closed," which made me worry that something might have happened... Anyway, I wrote this review because I wanted to say thank you for keeping such a wonderful restaurant going for so long... Incidentally, I once asked the owner why the restaurant was called "三番." He said that when he opened it, "I loved the baseball player Nagashima, so I named it after his jersey number." Also, the owner’s sibling runs a neighborhood Chinese restaurant around Nakano, and I think its name was "一番," after Sadaharu Oh... Anyway, it seems that naming restaurants "○番" after a favorite baseball player’s jersey number was quite fashionable back then. These disappearing Showa-era flavors and atmospheres... I sincerely wish someone would carry them on...

The exterior is exactly what makes you say, "Yes, this is it!" about a neighborhood Chinese restaurant. I ordered the 550円 ramen. The seasoning did not have that junk-food, bad-for-your-body taste, but the chashu tasted unusual. If you eat it firmly expecting the taste of chashu, it does not deliver the flavor you imagined. The interior is not spacious. It is old but feels clean. Places like this probably do attract many solo customers. In these times, acrylic partitions had also been thoughtfully installed. Thank you for the meal.

+1

A long-established place in an alley a little walk from Asagaya Station. Most customers are regulars dropping in casually. Savoring dishes made by the owner, who moves nimbly without pause. Having beer with stir-fried meat and green peppers and their signature gyoza. Delicious. And the モヤシソバ comes with a thickened sauce. I also finished the wontons swimming in soup with the waft of garlic common around this neighborhood, leaving thoroughly satisfied.

+3