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Nissyou Restaurant in Chinatown [Closed]

The best noodles around

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The location on this page has been reported permanently closed.

Last updated: Nov 15, 2020

Chinatown can be an intimidating maze of too many restaurants with similar-looking menus. To make the choice easier, try Nissyou, a great little dive with the best noodles in town.

A white tablecloth culinary experience, this is not; Nissyou is the best kind of hole-in-the-wall eatery that will keep you coming back for more. The restaurant is small and cozy with a slightly austere interior that is more authentically Chinese than most of its touristy Chinatown neighbors. There are some outdoor tables for nice days, and numbered menus with large color pictures, making it easy for non-speakers just to point and say “kudasai” (“please”).

The reason to go to Nissyou is their glorious, glorious noodles, which are mostly cooked soft in traditional Taiwanese style. Try the sanratan (menu item #43, ¥780) or the ja ja noodles (menu item #50, ¥780), which will leave you more than satisfied.

The true gem of the menu, however, is their tan tan noodles ("sesame seed soup" - menu item #57, ¥880), a bowl of red broth, long, thick and soft noodles cooked in the finest Taiwanese style, and little chunks of meat and vegetables, all topped off with sesame seeds. The combination of flavors is incredible, and comes with a little kick of spiciness that adds a lot of flavor but shouldn’t scare most people off. Be forewarned, however: eating the tan tan noodles may prevent you from ever trying other choices from the menu--it's that good!

The meat and vegetable dishes can be hit or miss, however. The beef and green peppers dish (menu item #26, ¥1260) can be delicious or far too dry, depending on the day. Their gyoza (menu item #58, ¥500) are pretty good, though, and there is a fair selection of Asian alcohols. Also important to note is that the peppers displayed on the menu indicating hot foods are pretty accurate; this is typically not the case for many Japanese restaurants that warn against "spicy" foods which hardly register on the Western tongue.

While the Chinatown restaurants with billboards boasting chefs wearing competition medals around their necks may get most of the attention in the area, there is a lot to be said for simple, delicious and authentic food that won’t drain your wallet. Nissyou has that in spades.

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