【Visit on May 24, 2021】It is recommended to visit for lunch during less crowded hours! The "new coronavirus infection prevention measures" are fully implemented, and the manners of the customers, mainly students, are good. It is a conscientious restaurant where you can satisfy your hunger at a reasonable price. - Ramen: 300 yen - Yakimeshi (fried rice): 360 yen - Chuka-don (Chinese bowl): 400 yen Chuka Ryori Sagara (Ramen, Yakimeshi) 8-1 Yoshida Ushinomiya-cho, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto City, Kyoto Prefecture https://tabelog.com/kyoto/A2601/A260302/26025271/

There are a lot of orders, but the portions are huge, the prices are cheap, and the taste is good, so I visited out of curiosity. The opening time is 11:45 and the last order is at 13:00, a very tight lunch time. I arrived at 11:45 and there were already two groups of customers eating. It seems like they were open a little earlier? There are only table seats available. Before I could sit at a corner table, the owner(?) came with the order sheet and was waiting in front of the kitchen like "Hurry up and order!" (laughs) I had a rough idea of what I wanted, but looking at the menu on the wall, I ordered the fried rice and fried chicken set in regular size. Yes, photography inside the restaurant is prohibited. There are various rules written on the wall like "No photography of the food," "No saving seats," "When there are two people, sit side by side," "When it's crowded, eat quickly and give up your seat," "Reading books leisurely while eating is prohibited," "After finishing your meal, reading books leisurely is prohibited," "When it's crowded, it takes time to make the food, so if you're in a hurry, go somewhere else," etc... Well, when you think about it, these are all common sense things (*^-^*) While I was thinking about this, my order was served. The fried rice is huge! Probably equivalent to about 1.8 normal servings for one person? The fried chicken is chicken wings. There are 5-6 wings, cabbage, and macaroni salad (2 pieces of macaroni). In terms of taste, both dishes are satisfactory to me. Much better than the mediocre fried rice at other Chinese restaurants. The fried chicken is crispy on the outside and well-seasoned. But it's definitely a popular place. After 12 o'clock, more and more people started coming in. Since photography is prohibited, I decided not to take any pictures sneakily. It's a good place in my opinion, but if you find it troublesome to follow the various rules, you might want to consider going somewhere else.

My rating is 3.5 [Food & Taste 3.4 | Service - | Atmosphere 3.5 | Value for Money 3.7 | Alcohol & Drinks -]. It's been about 26 years since my last visit. Misunderstandings from my student days (especially among male students), part 1: The stronger the alcohol, the more impressive. When I first started drinking alcohol after entering school, getting drunk or passing out was considered uncool. Now that I'm older, I focus on how to get drunk cheaply. In reality, it's better to be the one who doesn't get drunk while splitting the bill than the one who does. Part 2: The more you eat, the more impressive. Back then, there were no TV shows about competitive eating or speed eating like Prince Kobayashi, Giant Shirata, or Gal Sone, but I had a feeling that eating a lot was impressive. So, I even tried the "Guts Ramen Challenge" at this restaurant, which caters to such misunderstandings among students. They are known for not serving large portions to first-time customers or women. The taste is decent, but the portions are huge. And this kind of thing actually makes it into the news. It's quite remarkable, so please read with caution. "Owner of 'Bekko' fractures right arm from fatigue while cooking large bowl in wok - pushing himself too hard." The owner of the Chinese restaurant "Bekko" in Sakyo-ku, Kyoto City, was found to have fractured his right arm from fatigue on the 22nd. According to the Kyoto Prefectural Police Kamogawa Station, the owner realized his bone was broken after cooking a large bowl in a wok. [Excerpt] Since the accident, the restaurant has been urging customers to refrain from ordering large portions. Bekko is located near Kyoto University and is a popular spot among students for its cheap and filling meals. The large bowl is a nickname for the large serving of Chinese rice bowl, and according to students who visited the restaurant, finishing the "Chuudon Dai" is a status symbol for Kyoto University students. (Kyoto Shimbun, July 22, 2005) You can learn a lot of things from this. Well, you can see how peaceful the city of Kyoto is (different from what TV dramas portray). You can see how local the Kyoto Shimbun (which I also subscribe to) is. You can see how large the portions are at this place by how the owner fractured his arm in a wok. You can see how free the Kyoto Prefectural Police Kamogawa Station is, conducting an investigation on a Chinese restaurant owner's fatigue fracture. And you can see how much this "Bekko" is cherished by the people in the neighborhood. Mr. Takagi, the owner, is a bit old-fashioned and whimsical (the shop closes if he's in a bad mood), but his generous portions for students have gained a lot of support. Graduates often revisit the place out of nostalgia. Now, of course, the staff probably doesn't remember me at all, so I won't order the large portion I used to have (which I should have as a regular customer). I'll go with the nostalgic taste of yakimeshi. I'll have the regular size, please. It's 360 yen. Oh, by the way, there's a rumor going around about no photography allowed, but it's slightly inaccurate. It seems like only the evening session is restricted (reason unknown). Of course, back in the day, taking pictures of food before eating was unthinkable, so there were no such rules. Well, even the regular size here feels like a large portion. The taste is still the same old "good-bad" feeling. Taking a bite transports me back 30 years, a bit exaggerated. I used to finish this in one go, but this time, I struggled to finish it. But it suited the purpose of this series. Thank you for the meal. Satisfaction level 3.5, Nostalgia level 3, Willingness to revisit 3.

There is a recommended restaurant called "Ban" in Kyoto, where someone who spent their student days in Kyoto suggested. The appeal of this place is said to be its cheap prices and large portions. I was intrigued by this recommendation and decided to check it out. The menu displayed outside the restaurant showed surprisingly low prices, such as fried rice for 350 yen and ramen for 300 yen. I thought it might just be old-fashioned, but when I entered the restaurant, I was surprised to see many students dining there. Despite the crowded atmosphere, the staff welcomed me to sit down and wait for my order. There was a sign on the wall that said "No photography of the food allowed," so unfortunately, I couldn't take any pictures of the dishes. I ordered the fried rice, which came in a surprisingly large portion and tasted decent, not bad at all. It reminded me of a similar restaurant near Nagoya University called "Mountain," known for its huge portions. It's no wonder that in a student area like this, there are restaurants cheaper than school cafeterias.

When going on a business trip to Kyoto University, my companion suggested, "Let's go to a unique place for lunch, where the service is bad but the cost performance is high, like a favorite spot for Kyoto University students." We ended up at a very narrow entrance with a curtain. As we walked through a narrow alley, we arrived at a messy-looking shop. There was a sign at the entrance saying, "If you want to eat quickly, go to another shop." Despite thinking it was quite a strange place, we entered the shop, which had a student-friendly atmosphere with a large collection of manga books for students to read. While contemplating what to order, I looked around the shop and noticed several rules posted: "If there are two people at a four-person table, sit side by side," "Don't loiter while reading books," "Don't linger after eating," "Return the dishes to the counter after eating, and be careful not to break them," "No photography allowed inside the shop," and "No seat reservation." These rules were quite strict, but understandable for maintaining order in a student-oriented establishment. When I looked at the menu, I was surprised once again by the incredibly low prices. I ordered a ramen and fried rice set for only 600 yen. The portions were generous, and despite struggling to finish everything, the food was well-prepared and delicious. After carefully returning the dishes to the counter and paying the bill, I left the shop thinking, "This place is amazing." Perhaps I should visit again when I'm nearby. The cost performance is definitely top-notch.