A note on the words: shumai are steamed pork dumplings in a thin wrapper, open at the top, and Kiyoken is the Yokohama maker of them. The shop spells them shiumai in Japanese, an older reading it keeps as a trademark. The shumai bento is the boxed lunch sold on the platforms at Yokohama Station and on the trains, and the simmered bamboo shoots in this article are the side dish that comes in it. Ichiban Shibori is a Kirin beer. Prices are as of this writing (August 2026).
Kiyoken Chukagai Shumai BAR on Tabelog (English) — opening hours, payment details and the Japanese address are kept up to date there, not here.
Drinkers, thank you for waiting. It is Hangover Meshi time.
Say Yokohama and people think of the Kiyoken shumai bento. You do not actually see shumai in Chinese restaurants all that often, so for most people the odds are that the shumai they have eaten came out of that lunchbox. Those very shumai — and there is a shop where you can eat them with a drink in your hand.
The Shumai BAR! I found it while walking through Yokohama Chinatown. I had about thirty minutes before I was due to meet someone, and thought this looked better than a cafe, so in I wandered.
Inside, half of it is a souvenir shop! They sell shumai. And right at the very end of it there is a cooking area and a very small eat-in space lol lol
Well, I only needed to kill thirty minutes, so that was fine.
Now, once you sit down, what is the first thing you want to drink…
Beer! Cold and delicious!
You can just about see it in the picture…
You would order this without a second thought lol The simmered bamboo shoots that come in that lunchbox.
You can eat them on their own as a drinking snack. Could anything be better? Frankly, as a drinking snack they may even beat the shumai. They could call it the Bamboo Shoot BAR and I would not complain lol
Deep with soy color, cubes glossed amber and heaped in a small dish. In the mouth the green scent of bamboo comes first, then the sweet-salty simmering liquid, rich and thick. The sweetness is fairly strong, and ordinarily it would be just right with rice, but here it goes with beer. Fibers that snap back against the teeth, sweet-salty sauce clinging to them, and an ice-cold Ichiban Shibori poured in after… happiness!
Somehow you cannot come here and have no shumai… so I ordered five of them in a bamboo steamer, each a slightly different color and shape.
The assortment of five: the old-fashioned shumai, the special, shrimp, crab and black pork.
The old-fashioned shumai is the smallest, the wrapper plump, and it gives up its juices when you bite. The dried scallop comes through far more clearly than it does in the lunchbox. The special is large and more strongly seasoned, and the black pork is springy and tender. The shrimp asserts itself through its bounce while the crab is quieter in flavor, which gives the row of five a nice rise and fall. Honestly, just looking at them I could not tell which was which lol Only on eating one do you get the “ah, so that was the one” lol
The bamboo shoots were delicious, and the experience of those with a beer is worth it on its own. But for something calling itself a BAR the eat-in space was flimsier than I expected, so it was not quite what I had pictured lol You place your whole order first and then go through to the eat-in space, so it is not the sort of place where you keep adding rounds and settle in. Nip in, have a quick drink, go home — know that before you arrive.
May you meet something good to eat today too.
Kiyoken Chukagai Shumai BAR — the menu
Freshly steamed shumai
Shumai to take home are sold at the retail counter.
The rich flavor born when pork meets dried scallop.
A new shumai, griddled until fragrant. Crisp bamboo shoot for texture.
A larger size using more dried scallop, for a deeper flavor.
The bounce of coarsely cut shrimp is the addictive part.
The generous savor of snow crab, plus the crunch of water chestnut.
Ginger and oyster sauce make this one taste different from the usual shumai.
Four cheeses wrapped in a pork and chicken filling, served piping hot.
One each of special, shrimp and crab.
One each of old-fashioned, special, shrimp, crab and black pork.
Recommended
That familiar side dish from the shumai bento, on its own.
The shaved ice is a summer listing. It does not appear on the official site, so it is presumably swapped out by season.
Drinks
Coca-Cola / ginger ale / Calpis / oolong tea (cold)
Simmered bamboo shoots (340 yen) and a draft beer (580 yen) comes to 920 yen. That is how you play the Shumai BAR.
From the in-store menu at the time of the August 2026 visit. Prices include tax and the listing changes with the season. Check the official site or the shop itself for the current version.
Kiyoken Chukagai Shumai BAR (dim sum and yum cha / Motomachi-Chukagai Station, Nihon-odori Station, Ishikawacho Station)
Tabelog dinner rating ★★☆☆☆ 2.8
I ate here and paid for it myself. Nothing on this site is a comped meal.
One more for the road?
