A note on the words: shakushina is a leafy green grown in Chichibu and pickled by lactic fermentation; here it shows up rolled with cream cheese in fried spring-roll wrappers and stir-fried into fried rice. Aburi miso pork is pork pickled in miso and then seared, a Chichibu specialty ordered here a la carte. Kake udon is thick wheat noodles in a simple hot broth — here a sweetish Kanto-style one with wakame seaweed, green onion and kamaboko fish cake. Horumon means offal, as in the miso ramen skipped here. Waraji katsu is Chichibu’s thin breaded pork cutlet, named after waraji straw sandals and dipped in sweet soy sauce; otsumami waraji is the cutlet alone, as a snack for drinks.
Seibu Chichibu Ekimae Onsen Matsuri no Yu on Tabelog (English) — opening hours, payment details and the Japanese address are kept up to date there, not here.
Hello to all the drinkers out there — thank you for waiting! It is time for Hangover Meshi!
Right in front of Seibu-Chichibu Station sits the hot-spring facility “Seibu Chichibu Ekimae Onsen Matsuri no Yu,” and there is a food court inside it. I had wanted to get lunch in Chichibu, but everywhere was full and I was about to become a “lunch refugee” — here, though, there are plenty of choices and it looks easy to get a meal!
There is just one ticket machine, and it lists the items from all the different counters (though really they are just divided by category — noodles, rice bowls, snacks and drinks, and the like. And Tabelog lists each of those counters as a separate shop — chaos lol), so you just pick whatever you like. Then, when your ticket number shows up on the monitor inside, you go pick up your order at that counter!
Since I had come all this way, I ordered a bunch of Chichibu-ish specialties to share!
First things first, we start right here: “Matsuri Chaya.”
This counter handles snacks and drinks.
Ahhh! The beer is so good!
Not that I actually took a bath, lol
For a snack with drinks, this is the one! It is a dish of Chichibu’s specialty shakushina pickles and cream cheese rolled up in spring-roll wrappers and fried. Right after the wrapper cracks crisp, the lactic-fermented sourness and saltiness stand out, and then the melty, milky sweetness of the cheese joins in — delicious! Even though it is fried, the aftertaste is light, making this an unmistakable beer companion. Apparently this menu item was devised by local high-school students (they’ll grow up to be drinkers lol), and they say it was brought back because it was so popular.
I ended up ordering a highball too — bliss.
This counter serves the Chichibu specialty (right? lol) aburi miso pork.
They have pork rice bowls as well as a la carte dishes, so if you want a rice dish, this might be the place to go. Here I went with the specialty aburi miso pork! Since I wanted to eat other things too, I ordered it a la carte.
This is seriously delicious!
It is Chichibu’s specialty miso-pickled pork seared over the heat: the toasty aroma of burnt miso comes forward first, and as your teeth snap through the meat, saltiness and sweetness burst out from within. The mellow sweetness of the pork fat is so delicious. The sauce is not all that strong, which makes it just right as a snack with beer or a highball.
I am sure this would be great as a rice bowl too.
This counter serves Chichibu soba and Musashino udon.
If you are in the mood for soba or udon, I think this is the counter to order from! Here, after hesitating a little between soba and udon, I went with hot udon!
For a plain kake udon, I was glad to see wakame seaweed, green onion, and even kamaboko fish cake in the bowl!
The broth is on the sweetish side in the Kanto style, with sweetness rising softly from behind the saltiness of the dashi and sinking gently in. The noodles are thick — THE udon — with a reassuring taste. Rather than the type where the wheat aroma runs wild, it is pitched to be easy for everyone to eat, which is actually what makes it good lol.
With so many edgy udon places out there, I felt this kind of simplicity is the most delicious lol.
This counter serves the ramen and fried rice dishes that everyone loves.
I learned this for the first time, but green-onion ramen is famous in Chichibu, isn’t it. Their specialties are the Matsuri green-onion shoyu ramen and the Chichibu horumon miso ramen. The Chichibu horumon looked a little heavy, so I chose this one!
The stars here are the chunky green onions and pork. The toasty aroma of soy sauce comes first, chased by the sweetness of the green onions. The broth, with pork fat melted into it, is not heavy — instead, it makes you want another sip. Yes, it is a gentle broth and very easy to eat. Delicious, isn’t it!
In Chichibu they apparently stir-fry soured shakushina pickles in oil to eat, and that gets applied to fried rice here too! Between the grains of fluffily stir-fried rice come the saltiness and sourness of the pickles, along with the crunchy bite of the stems. It is close to takana or nozawana pickled-greens fried rice too. Of course it is delicious lol.
This counter serves the Chichibu specialty waraji katsu.
They have rice bowls here too, so it seems like a good pick when you want a rice dish.
The miso waraji katsu looked good, but a la carte only came plain. And anyway, if you put miso on it, at that point it is just miso katsu lol — Nagoya is more famous for that.
An unadorned katsu that has simply been dipped through sauce. At first glance it looks as if nothing is on it, but when you bite in, a sweetish soy-based sauce oozes out from the breading. So good! Because the meat is thin, it works great as a drink snack. This is really delicious.
All in all, it turned into a lavish feast where we ate all kinds of things, and I had a great time! Popular shops in Chichibu are often full or have lines even past 14:00. I think it is an easy place to end up a lunch refugee, so just remembering that you can go to Matsuri no Yu right by the station and eat anything at the food court will come in handy.
May you meet something delicious today too!
Nomikuidokoro Matsuri no Utage (Seibu Chichibu Ekimae Onsen Matsuri no Yu) Menu
Waraji katsu don (cutlet rice bowl)
Chichibu Waraji Katsu Tei. Choosing the number of cutlets is how this counter does it.
Small (1 cutlet) 1,040 yen / Large (3 cutlets) 1,450 yen
Small (1 cutlet) 1,140 yen / Large (3 cutlets) 1,550 yen
Large 1,430 yen
Just the cutlet from the rice bowl, served on a plate. No rice, made as a drink snack
“Himebuta” is a Saitama brand pork. According to the ticket machine, its hallmarks are fine-grained meat and light, clean-tasting fat.
Seared rice bowls (Aburi don)
Donya Aburi. A counter that sears Chichibu’s specialty miso-pickled pork and lays it over rice.
Large 1,380 yen
Soba & Udon
Chichibu Soba / Musashino Udon. The udon is the thick, chewy style.
Large 1,390 yen each / Kakiage tempura a la carte 440 yen
Large 1,250 yen
Two dipping sauces: mentsuyu broth and rich walnut sauce. 1.5 servings of noodles
Large 1,100 yen
Large 1,100 yen
Both mori (chilled) and kake (hot broth) are 950 yen for a large serving.
Ramen
Chichibu Matsuri Ramen. Features two signature bowls bearing the Matsuri no Yu name.
Sweet chunky green onions and savory pork in a special soy-sauce broth. Large 1,380 yen
Chichibu’s specialty pork horumon (offal) and rich miso broth. Large 1,380 yen
Half 380 yen
Large 280 yen
Snacks & Sweets
Fluffy potatoes with a sweetish miso sauce
Devised by students at the local Chichibu Agriculture & Technology High School and brought back by popular demand
Drinks
All soft drinks are 200 yen. Besides these three drinks, the “Sakasho Yatai” stall inside the building stocks local Chichibu sake and wine.
*From the ticket machine display at the time of our September 2026 visit. Prices include tax. No cash accepted; cashless payment only. Seasonal menu items rotate. Please check at the venue or on the official website for the latest information.
Seibu Chichibu Ekimae Onsen Matsuri no Yu (Other / Seibu-Chichibu Station, Ohanabatake Station, Chichibu Station)
Tabelog lunch rating ★★★☆☆ 3.2
I ate here and paid for it myself. Nothing on this site is a comped meal.
One more for the road?
