にゃんちゃん♡0215
Recently, I have been seeing this gyoza restaurant quite often. The name of the store is "Shibuya Gyoza Shinjuku Nishiguchi Store", and upon researching, I found out that there are only about 4 stores in Tokyo, and I have only seen it in Shibuya and Shinjuku, but I mistakenly thought it was common. It's interesting how the mind works. The area around the west exit of Shinjuku is bustling with izakayas and chain restaurants. This Shibuya Gyoza is said to be affiliated with Gyu-Kaku. Gyu-Kaku is also located in the same building. Despite the seemingly no-reservation atmosphere, reservations are actually possible. You can even make a reservation through Tabelog. The customers are varied, including salarymen, girls' night out groups, and solo male diners. We sat at a table for two and ordered the classic pan-fried gyoza, the timely BP gyoza (Black Pepper), salted kombu cabbage, potato salad, and mapo tofu. By the way, I wonder when they came up with BP gyoza. Recently? The classic gyoza is priced at 280 yen, while the BP gyoza is 450 yen. But with Japan being so lively, I silently fell for it. The salted kombu cabbage tastes like salted kombu cabbage, with the quality of the cabbage being average to slightly below average. It's spring, so spring cabbage is sweet and in season, which is why it's cheap, and I feel like saying that out loud. The potato salad tastes like an original potato salad. I've never bought one from Origin though. The Black Pepper is sprinkled on as a playful touch, but I think it would taste better if they were more generous with it. It's a bit bland, so I added more pepper, and it tasted a bit better. The pan-fried gyoza - I recently pan-fried frozen gyoza from Karan in Utsunomiya at home and was impressed by how amazing frozen gyoza can be. So, the conclusion is that it's below frozen gyoza. It might taste better if they pan-fried the skin until it's crispy, to get rid of the limp texture. I named it the Pepper Mill Gyoza. BP. The pan-frying is mediocre, but the scent of BP surprisingly becomes addictive, and it seems that it's recommended to drizzle or dip it in lemon juice before eating, which surprisingly goes well. It's just delicious. Thanks to this, I now have an excuse to bring a pepper mill along and do it with my companion. I did it 2-3 times. Mapo tofu - There was a sign saying that even Chinese people are surprised by it, so I decided to order it. It was delicious and surprising. It has the numbing sensation of Sichuan peppercorns, chunks of minced meat, and a strong aroma of doubanjiang. The minced meat is cooked thoroughly on high heat, so there's no unpleasant smell, and the umami flavor is well extracted. I would like to eat this with rice. In total, it was around 3,500 yen for two people. If it's gyoza, I recommend ordering the Pepper Mill and then going for the mapo tofu set meal. Thank you for the meal.