----------------------------------- shikalover Mon Jul 09, 2007 12:57 am Re: Jiyugaoka - Asian Food ----------------------------------- Taikourou (泰興楼) - Chinese Adress - 東京都世田谷区奥沢6-31-17Tokyo-to Setagaya-ku Okusawa 6 chome 6-31-17 Open Hours - 11:30~15:00, 17:00~23:00 (L.O.22:00); Closed on Wednesday. Telephone - 03-5706-1014 Credit card - VISA, MASTER, UC, DC, UFJ, NICOS, AmericanExpress, JCB, Life Hello, Let me talk about a Chinese restaurant I went last week. You have Chinese dishes you can find in any Chinese restaurant but the specialty here is Hand made gyoza (Chinese dumpling). Trust me, the taikourou gyoza must be one of the most delicious in Tokyo. At first there are hand made, they are really huge and really really tasty! The meat is really soft and juicy, it just melts in your mouth. The taste is different from all the gyoza I tried in restaurants here in Tokyo. Furthermore, there are different kind of Gyoza. The steamed, boiled or fried Meat type gyoza everybody knows but also special boiled leek gyoza (negi) and, the best of all, steamed shrimp gyoza. Those ones are my favorite and a must-try! About the other dishes, there is a large selection of meat, appetizers, eggs, noodles, rice, porridge and soup. But it is so huge it becomes difficult to make a choice. It is also possible to eat shark's fin. Now let s talk about the restaurant itself. There are 2 floors with a total of 70 seats and it is pretty wide and clean. The walls are covered with fake-old-sculpted-rock (sorry I don t know how to say it), so the atmosphere is really pleasant! But I noticed some negative points... The restaurant is owned by a Chinese family and all the waiters are also Chinese. Being Chinese is not the problem of course, but the "service" is really "Chinese". In Japan, waiters used to bring you to your seat, are very polite and for example, give your o-hashi in hand. But here, the waiter tells to go upstair and to sit at the first table on your right, they are not very welcoming and when the waiter gave me the oshibori, I felt like he threw it on the table as if I was a dog! :shock: The food was very tasty, so I did not really take care about that but I think it is important to say it because that is pretty surprising, and even more in Japan. Also, it is a bit expensive but I think it is a nice restaurant to try! A real Chinese restaurant! Internet - www.taikourou.com/jiyuu