“Are you making a profit?” This price is great in Marunouchi! The stir-fried meat and vegetables with too much meat from “The Town Chinese Restaurant” that has been loved for over 50 years is a hit!
This series explores the good old Showa retro spots in the Marunouchi area and delves into their charms. For the 17th installment, we visited Chinese restaurant Santomi, located right next to Tokyo Station!
The restaurant is located under the elevated tracks at the south exit of Tokyo Station. The brick arches create a very retro atmosphere. There were many yellow Hato Bus buses lined up, and I thought to myself, “So that’s where the bus stop is,” when I discovered the restaurant right in front of them!
The small, cozy exterior has the feel of a typical local Chinese restaurant. It’s rare to find a privately owned Chinese restaurant in Marunouchi. The kitchen door is left open and beer bottles are left at the entrance, probably because it gets hot during cooking, but the unadorned atmosphere is irresistibly appealing.
I sat at the counter and immediately looked at the menu. It was after 4:30 p.m., so it was the evening menu, but there were over 60 types of noodles, rice dishes, a la carte dishes, and cold dishes, so it was difficult to decide what to order… What’s more, I was surprised at how reasonably priced everything was. Located in the heart of Marunouchi, ramen is 750 yen and stir-fried liver and chives is 800 yen, which makes me worry, “Are they really making a profit?”
I was surprised by the number of dishes on the menu and the prices, so I had a hard time deciding what to order, so I asked the owner, Koichi Hirata, for a recommendation. The most popular dish is the “Stir-fried meat and vegetables,” and he said that for an additional 200 yen, you can make any dish into a set meal. Sounds great! And speaking of local Chinese food, you can’t go wrong with gyoza, right? I ordered that as well.
Even though it’s only 5pm, customers keep coming in while we’re waiting for our food. They’re probably regulars, and they order quickly with a sense of familiarity and grab a drink for the evening. I’d heard that there’s a line of people working nearby at lunchtime because they have a range of reasonably priced menu items, but in the evening, it seems like most people come here to enjoy their drink.
As I was watching the chef stir the pot from the counter, the “Stir-fried meat and vegetables” was brought to me. It was full of vegetables and meat, and looked shiny and delicious.
The vegetables are cabbage, komatsuna, bean sprouts, carrots… so far it’s a standard stir-fried vegetable dish, but what sets it apart from other restaurants is the thickened pork sauce on top. The sauce mixes well with the crunchy vegetables, and it’s slightly sweet and spicy and thick, so it’s great served over white rice! It’s a dish you’ve never seen before. Making it a set meal was a great choice♪ “It’s thick like a thick sauce, so it doesn’t get cold easily, and it goes well with alcohol,” says Hirata. This is a dish that I would definitely recommend to those who want to eat a lot, and those who want to drink. In fact, it was even featured on a certain popular TV program’s “Stir-fried Vegetable Special”!
The “gyoza” that came with the meal were six large pieces. The dumplings, which were specially made to order, were chewy and filled with minced meat, cabbage, and Chinese chives. Yes, this was definitely delicious! They also went perfectly with beer.
This restaurant also has a wide selection of noodles. There are over 20 different types! The selection differs slightly between lunch and dinner, but the menu items are the same for both days and night and are the same price. I ended up ordering an additional bowl of “Tanmen,” which is said to be one of the most recommended noodles among the many available.
The salty soup is topped with plenty of bean sprouts, cabbage, carrots, komatsuna, wood ear mushrooms, and minced pork. The soup is poured over lightly fried vegetables, quickly simmered, and then combined with the noodles, so the flavor of the vegetables is infused into the soup. It has a refreshing and gentle taste, and after one sip I couldn’t help but murmur, “It’s so tasty!” I’m happy to be able to eat lots of vegetables!
According to Hirata, Chuka Santomi opened in 1971. The restaurant was started by his uncle, and Hirata, who had worked there for about 40 years, took over about 10 years ago as the second generation owner. The menu lineup has remained almost the same since the restaurant first opened, and the veteran chefs who have been working here for 20 or 30 years have continued the recipes of their predecessors, so the taste has remained almost the same.
“When the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building was in Marunouchi, we were very busy delivering to the building and the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly. Many retired customers come back to the restaurant after a long time and are happy with the unchanged taste,” says Hirata. “80 to 90 percent of our customers are regulars who have been coming for a long time, so even if we wanted to raise prices, it’s difficult,” he says with a laugh.
You can enjoy hearty, carefully-crafted dishes at an affordable price, making it perfect for a hearty meal on your own or for drinking with a group. You can just pop in and leave with a full stomach and a satisfied heart at Chuka Santomi. It’s no wonder it has been loved for over 50 years. If you’re in Marunouchi and want to eat Chinese food, this is the place to go!
So that’s the end of the 17th report on “Chuka Santomi”! I wonder what kind of “Showa Retro” I should encounter next.
Chinese Mitomi
- Address: 1-10-10 Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo
- Business hours: 11:00-15:00 (LO 14:40), 16:30-22:00 (LO 21:40), Saturday 11:00-15:00 (LO 14:40)
- Closed on Sundays and public holidays
- Phone: 03-3214-3595
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