A note on the words: gachi-chuka is the Japanese slang for Chinese restaurants that cook for Chinese customers rather than adapting to Japanese tastes; yang tang is the lamb-bone soup this shop is named for. Seolleongtang is the Korean milky ox-bone soup, used here as a comparison. Tonkotsu is the white broth simmered from pork bones. Prices are as of this writing (August 2026).
Table of Contents hide
Yokihi Yantan Kan Okachimachi on AutoReserve (English) — opening hours, payment details and the Japanese address are kept up to date there, not here.
I want to eat something good today too. This is Hangover Meshi. This time, gachi-chuka in Okachimachi. To Yokihi Yantan Kan, a place known for its lamb dishes. The Ueno-Okachimachi area turns suddenly deep once you go a little way in, which is wonderful. A jumbled, strange space where you cannot quite tell whether you are in Japan or Southeast Asia. This zone, lined with menus from the home country full of foreign feeling. It has enormous appeal. You could easily find yourself pulled in. This time I decided to go to a place known for a soup dish called yang tang, lamb soup.
A good sort of jumble ^^ Looking forward to it.
You order by reading a QR code and going to the site. Self-ordering is easy and I like it. Poking around, there were a lot of dishes that looked good, so let us pick out what we want to eat.
The first thing I ordered was the lamb skewers you see all over the Ueno area.
They have a good coating of spice on them and are properly seasoned. Rather than being dusted with chili they feel as though they have been steeped thoroughly in spice. Which is better is a matter of taste, I suppose, but I may prefer these. They taste like the real thing. The meat is a little soft as well and very easy to eat. My expectations are rising.
Let us have something simple too, so I ordered the snack where you dip cucumber, scallion and green pepper into a strong, spiced meat miso. Whether what follows was a mistake, or simply how it is meant to be, I could not say.
Everyone, have a very good look at the green pepper section.
Right on top there is a little green chili sitting there.
I fell straight into this one. I ate the green chili thinking it was green pepper, and it was hot. I am reasonably good with heat so I survived, but anyone who is not would be knocked flat in one go. Cruel. Be careful.
The lamb soup. The house specialty.
Great chunks of lamb inside, simmered until they fall apart. The meat is good, but it is this broth that matters.
The moment you take a sip you are surprised by how gentle and refined the whole thing is. It looks like a cloudy white broth and I had imagined something as heavy as tonkotsu, but in fact it is far more delicate. If anything it may be closer to seolleongtang ^^
The essence of lamb bone and meat, simmered for a long time, has dissolved into a milky white, round and creamy, and yet the finish is clean.
The salt is kept restrained and the flavor of the ingredients themselves stays alive, which is another thing that feels like seolleongtang. The fragrant lamb fat carries a faint wildness while having nothing unpleasant about it — there is even a purity to it. The savor is layered, and it is interesting how the outline of the flavor shifts a little with every sip. Add pepper, vinegar or chili oil from the table partway through and the impression changes completely. Yes, very good.
Bone-in meat. And the garlic soy dipping sauce that comes with it is good as well.
Boiled dumplings with lamb inside. A great deal of lamb, whichever way you look at it.
Limited in number, so I ordered in a hurry: a whole leg, boldly roasted.
Grilled until fragrant, with the meat falling apart. This is lamb as it should be. You cannot easily eat a dish like this elsewhere, so it belongs to a place like this. Extremely good. If it is available, this is a must-order.
So, lamb dishes, and they were excellent. Gachi-chuka in Ueno is a fine thing. There must be a great many more of these places I do not know about yet. This one focuses on lamb in particular, which makes it easy to choose from. The atmosphere feels like the real thing, and I believe the staff are from China as well, so if you want a small taste of traveling in China without leaving Ueno, Yokihi Yantan Kan is recommended.
Yokihi Yantan Kan (Chinese / Ueno-Okachimachi Station, Okachimachi Station, Ueno-Hirokoji Station)
Tabelog dinner rating ★★★☆☆ 3.5
I ate here and paid for it myself. Nothing on this site is a comped meal.
One more for the road?
