状元楼 jo-gen-rou

状元楼　Jo-gen-rou
 〒152-0035 東京都目黒区自由が丘1-29-17　持田ﾋﾞﾙ１F
                   Mochida-Building 1F 1-29-17 Jiyugaoka, Meguro-ku, Tokyo

tel: 03-3718-8833

lunch: 11:00-15:30
dinner: 17:00-22:30

price: lunch 1000-2000yen

website: http://www.jogen.co.jp/jiyuugaoka/index.html

terrace backyard

a nice terrace backyard with shao hsing wine pots

Needless to say its popularity amongst Chinese Restaurants in Tokyo. The restaurant has been broadcast in myriads of TV shows in which people frequently watch. The major ones are the "VVV6 東京Ｖシュラン", "はなまるマーケット." I found it quite disappointing after its service, cost and the performance of the food.

beautiful light

 The interior of the restaurant was quite nice, nostalgic. The painting on the walls, the design, and even the lights were sophisticated in a way. Rooms were in partitions, which seemed nice at first; but realized that it makes it hard for costumers to order. As waiters eagerly passes by each rooms, they take orders from customers, but once waiters leave the room; it was difficult to call the waiters.

Lunch time menus came with the dishes below with a bowl of noodles. The Chaomai, Daikon Radish pickles, and desert. We had ordered several dishes separately.

Daikon Radish Cake

Spring Roll

mixed vegetables and seafood Noodle

Shark fin & Crab Noodle

Sesame Hot Noodle

Hot and Sour soup Noodle

  Overall, it was satisfactory, not impressive.
  I have had better performances with lower prices at Shinra, which I have introduced earlier in this blog. Shinra may be an exception as its service is superb and the quality of the food is outstanding. Needless to say, the living cost is higher in the middle of Tokyo rather than in the suburb of Kanagawa Prefecture. I say the waiter should pay more attention to its service. The waiter were all polite and well educated, but not well organized. We were a group of four and sharing our noodles, but the waiter would not bring us a small bowl to share. In fact, they realize the last minute when we are nearly done sharing our noodles by rotating around our big noodle bowls......argghhh....useless. ok.ay. getting to harsh here.

  I want to be as specific as I could with the critiques of the food. The noodles were okay, except for the Hot and Sour soup Noodles and the Sesame hot Noodle. The Hot and sour soup lack its spiciness and its sourness. I guess this could be covered by putting vinegar on our own. The Sesame hot Noodle was not the kind of dish I have expected. Somehow, I thought of soup being more thick, hot and spicy, and pleasant scent of Sesame. Then I realized in the end that I had a different kind of Chinese food. As I was used to Szechuan cuisine, I took the Hong-Kong style Sesame Hot Noodle as a whole new different dish. Considering that it was a different dish, it is not bad after all, but the noodle seemed a bit unique with sprouts, Chinese leek, and grind peanuts? the noodle was not spicy at all and the tedious scent of the peanuts? and the sesame made you sick of the taste in the end. I guess I will stick with the Szechuan Sesame Hot Noodle from now on. The daikon radish rice out of question...was very oily and somewhat like a regular fried mochi (rice cake) with small portion of grated radish. I would of left a bit of texture into the radish....enough said.

We have paid approximately 9000yen for a group of four. I guess 2250yen/person is considerable with the amount of food we have had, it's tolerable. Having said this, maybe I'm just strict because I have had almost the perfect Chinese food at first to compare with? Will have to journey out to see more Chinese food out there.