This post is also available in: 日本語 (Japanese)
When my mom was visiting she woke up on a Monday and said let’s go to Chinatown! She mentioned the night before it’s a bit of a hike over so she doesn’t want to go. Not sure what happened in her sleep. Anyway, we got ready and decided to take the 2 hours train ride for some good food in Chinatown, Yokohama.
Deciding where to eat
Before mom visited, I sent her a list of 8 restaurants for her to look over to see what she wants. So I was expecting this to be a smooth ride, but nope. She took 2 months to not look at a single link. Does your mom do this too? I wonder if snail mailing the info would have been better. I have the places I’m interested in saved, so when I’m nearby I can easily find them.
The Famous Entrance
There are a few ways to get into Chinatown. The simplest is probably getting off at the Chinatown station on the Minato Mirai line. From there you’ll reach this entrance. Don’t worry, I walked to the middle of the crosswalk when the light was green so I won’t be in the way.
We started by walking around the main street. This is where you can grab pork buns on the go and check out the all you can eat buffets restaurants. For lunch, we decided to go down the list of places I have saved. I checked Tabelog for the highest rating of my saved locations, and we walked over.
Our lunch place: Santon
Once we got to the place, the menu had a lunch special and nothing else. Mom was skeptical. She said she doesn’t want to eat here and started walking elsewhere. Then we saw a group of Buddhist monks go into the facility. NOW she’s interested. Okay, fine. Ignore my research and follow the monks. How can I even be mad?
Oh, how could I forget to take a picture at the entrance! And yes, and the main dish right after it came. But here it is. Sui-gyoza. Or boiled dumplings. These things were super yum. It’s even on the Michelin’s Bib Gourmand. They had a special sauce for the dumplings. It was addictingly delicious with loads of garlic. I was smelling sexy allll dayyyy loooong.
You can check out their website here.
Next Stop: Goku Teahouse
After our filling delicious meal, I needed some tea to wash down the oil. So we walked over to a tea house, and oh my this tea house was lovely. They even have lunch and snack menus. Next time I’m def coming here first!
I got the 10 year Peur tea while my mom got a Jasmine tea. I personally prefer peurs and black tea after a large meal so this was right up my ally. The tea kettle on the table was cute too. Because there’s no electric at the table we sat at, it was an alcohol lamp.
The shop downstairs has lots of teas and gadgets. It seems a lot of the teas they sell are imported by the store & are sold under its own branding. Pricing seemed very competitive to some other teas I’ve purchased in the past. They also sell online. Go here to check them out.
If dumplings and tea is your thing, I totally recommend this mini-tour. We ended up staying at the tea place for about 2 hours, then walked around a bit before heading back home.
Have you been to Chinatown in Yokohama? What’s your fav place to go to? Let me know in the comments!
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