亜喜丸
One day, as usual, I was checking out new restaurants on Tabelog and came across a Sichuan cuisine place. Oh, it's a sibling store of "that" Ron Arl! It must be delicious! I have to go there now! So, I visited the restaurant on the same day. I arrived at the restaurant just before 12 pm on a holiday. The entrance was a bit cluttered and hard to find, but I managed to locate it. The restaurant is located underground. I sat down and noticed that the place used to be a Japanese-style private room izakaya, which now serves Chinese cuisine. I was surprised by how popular the place was! After I entered, more and more customers kept coming in - groups of three, pairs, individuals, all looking like they were from China. Maybe there's a Japanese language school nearby? It felt like they all came in for lunch break at the same time due to the rush. The staff seemed a bit flustered due to the crowd. I placed my order for the "soupless mapo noodles" in "extra spicy" and was pleasantly surprised to find out that for lunch, you get all-you-can-eat water dumplings, Chinese soup, and rice because it's a Ron Arl affiliated store! Amazing! Just with these, you get rice, soup, and side dishes all covered. This kind of service is really something! However, there is no information about the spiciness levels or the all-you-can-eat offer from the staff, so you have to be proactive and ask for it. The water dumplings were delicious with a chewy skin, generous filling of chives, and a hint of garlic. I had them with black vinegar this time, and they were refreshing and tasty. The Chinese soup was a standard egg drop soup, nothing extraordinary. The appetizer was a cold dish of bean sprouts with a light tangy flavor, perfect for nibbling between bites of noodles. The main dish, the soupless mapo noodles, had soft noodles that were a bit mushy but tasty. The complex flavors of the spices, the aroma, and the umami of the bean paste combined well with the mapo tofu, which was delicious. However, the soft noodles didn't mix well with the mapo tofu; I should have gone for the soup version next time. The dessert had a smooth and silky texture, and the taste was hard to discern at first due to the spiciness, but it gradually revealed a light sweetness that was quite enjoyable. Overall, the meal was satisfying, with the main mapo dish being delicious, and the bonus of all-you-can-eat water dumplings, rice, soup, appetizer, and dessert made it a great value for 800 yen. Students get a limited menu option for 500 yen, which is also a great deal.