A note on the words: Sichuan cooking is known for pairing chili heat with the tingling numbness of Sichuan pepper, and tantanmen is the Japanese form of dandan noodles, here a sesame soup with seasoned minced meat on top. Mapo tofu is the famous Sichuan dish of tofu in a spicy bean-paste sauce, and mapo eggplant is the same idea built on eggplant. Yuxiang, literally fish fragrance, is a Sichuan seasoning that contains no fish at all; paolajiao, the salted fermented chilies it depends on, is what makes it hard to reproduce at home. Chinjao rosu is the Japanese name for stir-fried shredded meat with green peppers. Akasaka-mitsuke is a business district in central Tokyo. Prices are as of this writing (August 2026).
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Book a table at Shisen Ryori Enou, Akasaka-mitsuke on AutoReserve (English)
Right, this is Hangover Meshi. In front of Akasaka-mitsuke Station, on the site that used to be Akasaka Hanten, a shop called Gabi Shuka had opened — and this time it had turned into Shisen Ryori Enou, Akasaka-mitsuke, so off I went to see! The name is completely different, but apparently it counts as a renewal opening lol It seems the original Gabi Shuka is treated as having been done over!
When it was Gabi Shuka the cooking took the form of Sichuan food in the Beijing manner, but this time it is orthodox Sichuan.
It has come back as hard-line Sichuan food lol
Beef simmered Sichuan-style with chili: 1,500 yen
House-made roast chicken: 1,600 yen
Fish simmered Sichuan-style with pickled greens: 1,500 yen
Jade seafood mapo tofu: 1,500 yen
Chinjao rosu, shredded meat and green peppers: 1,200 yen
Yuxiang eggplant: 1,100 yen
Tantanmen: 1,100 yen
Does the lunch menu change weekly, I wonder. Good, anyway — there are some fairly deep-cut dishes lined up lol
Things simmered with pickled greens, or yuxiang eggplant, you do not often see!
Yuxiang is the business of taking paolajiao — chilies salted and left to ferment — and pairing them with a sourness so that you draw out a fish-like savoriness without using any fish. The trouble is that paolajiao is simply not sold anywhere lol so however much you might want to make it at home, you cannot. Something like the original form of mapo eggplant, perhaps. And having gone on at that length about yuxiang, what I actually wanted was something with soup, so I went for the tantanmen^^
While waiting I was looking through the full evening menu
and it is thoroughly serious! Hard-line Sichuan, this. I have not even eaten yet and already I want to come back at night.
Here and there the English on it falls apart into something you cannot make out, which has the flavor of the real thing and pleases me greatly.
The tantanmen arrives!!
Now that is a good color, and it looks delicious! And this is 1,100 yen. Cheap.
One mouthful and the soup is really good. The heat and the numbing are both firmly there, and along with them the sweetness of a very good meat miso and the scent of the sesame soup — excellent! Goodness, this tantanmen is very good indeed!
The soup really is good. And it has proper heat to it, which makes it better still.
After all that talk about yuxiang, it was chosen for me^^
I was given a mouthful, and this is good too!
The flavor is fairly strong, so I think it assumes rice alongside it; it is very oily, and yet it slips down easily, which is the pleasure of it. Eggplant that has soaked up the oil and gone soft is wonderful. To think I would get to eat yuxiang eggplant lol Glad I came.
Honestly, when it was Gabi Shuka I had come away thinking it had ended up an ordinary cheap Chinese restaurant, but the renewal into hard-line Sichuan has powered it right up. The cooking must have got better, and above all it now has the feel of the real thing, which is very good! Is this not a good renewal? I am glad that so much serious Chinese food has been moving into the Akasaka-mitsuke area lately! Incidentally, at lunchtime they give you an iced coffee on the way out, and it came properly lidded, at the quality of a coffee shop takeout, which earns extra points lol lol lol I am definitely going in the evening.
Shisen Ryori Enou, Akasaka-mitsuke (Chinese / Akasaka-mitsuke Station, Nagatacho Station, Akasaka Station)
Tabelog lunch rating ★★★☆☆ 3.7
I ate here and paid for it myself. Nothing on this site is a comped meal.
One more for the road?
