A note on the words: tantanmen is the Japanese reading of dandan noodles, here a rich sesame broth under niku-miso (minced pork cooked sweet and salty); yodare-dori is Sichuan “mouth-watering chicken”; mimiga is Okinawan crunchy pig’s ear; namero is fish chopped fine with miso and aromatics; myoga is a fragrant Japanese ginger bud. Prices are as of this writing (August 2026).
okudo Tokyo 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.
Shinjuku-gyoenmae! A neighbourhood thick with good restaurants, and among them this time: “okudo Tokyo”, an Asian kitchen carrying the lineage of the tantanmen specialist Tongking!
Inside there are three tables and a counter. A compact space, but a comfortable one.
The famous tantanmen is obviously unmissable at the end — but look at the blackboard and the list of tempting dishes runs long! Let us browse and order whatever appeals!
Now — it always begins with a draught beer!
Today’s fish was horse mackerel, served as namero! Fresh aji chopped fine and worked with miso, shiso, ginger and spring onion — long known as the drinker’s ultimate snack!
Pig’s ear boiled to a crunch and dressed in a spicy sauce. Unusually, they slice it thin, which makes it easy to pick up, and the spring onion is piled on stylishly — a nice touch! Addictive in the beer-vanishes-in-seconds way!
Everything here is plated so charmingly.
Moist-cooked chicken breast under a generous mound of cucumber and coriander. The house Sichuan-style sauce builds a sweet-sour base of soy, black vinegar and sugar, then layers on the numbing tingle of sichuan pepper, chilli heat, the fragrance of sesame oil and the freshness of chopped spring onion — a sauce with real depth.
One bite and the gentle savour of the chicken arrives, then the tingle and heat, not too fierce, following on a beat later!
Fat-rich mackerel grilled until fragrant, made into a salad with crisp myoga ginger. The greens and clean dressing neutralise the mackerel’s heavy fat, making it remarkably easy to eat.
Crisp and toasty on the base, chewy on top. After the texture of the skin, the juices burst from the black-pork filling.
Fresh squid flashed over a fierce flame with crunchy celery, Thai style. The savour of fish sauce, the acidity of lime, chilli heat and the flourish of aromatics harmonise perfectly with the mild sweetness of the squid. The squid is good, but the cool crispness of the celery is just as much the point.
The dressed topping sitting on top of this is outrageously good.
Gently spicy, with coriander and spring onion working beautifully. Eaten with the tofu it balances perfectly — but the ethnic sauce alone would score full marks as a drinking snack!
This is the outrageously delicious one — the dish you absolutely must order here!
The pure liver stir-fry is a heritage dish carried over from the shop’s previous incarnation as Tongking. Only the freshest pork liver, flashed sweet-savoury over a fierce flame in the wok. The fragrant steam rising off it, the distinctive scent of pork liver opening up, the gloss of the sweet-savoury sauce built on tianmianjiang and soy… every sign of something excellent!
Eating it, the first surprise is the springy bounce of the liver. The cooking is judged exactly right: fragrant outside, moist within, without a trace of the usual liver funk — only dense savour welling out. Carefully enough made that even liver-avoiders could eat it, yet pitched so that liver lovers are delighted! A very high-quality liver stir-fry indeed. Magnificent!
It comes with baguette to spread it on! The surface is toasted, so it is fragrant and lovely.
Offal tempura (shimacho, perhaps?), served with a slightly spicy sauce. Rather a bold idea. Neither Chinese nor conventionally ethnic — okudo’s own brand of Asian cooking.
The crisp of the batter first, then the juicy savour of the offal fat surging out. Frying it as tempura removes the fat’s funk, so even people who dislike offal can eat it — deftly done. Good with salt, good with the spicy house sauce, and either way the drinks disappear fast.
And shellfish, my great weakness, had to be ordered too! “Whelk and garlic-shoot stir-fry”. Snapping-firm whelk with garlic shoots, coated in a fragrant oyster-sauce glaze — spot on!
For the finishing noodles there were two: a kokeimen heaped with coriander, and okudo’s famous tantanmen — so we ordered both and shared them round!
The kokeimen is built on a clear salt broth with moist steamed chicken, fragrant spring-onion oil, shredded white spring onion and a great pile of coriander. Its name is written with the character for “fragrance”, and true to that, it is a gentle bowl driven by aroma.
One mouthful and the toastiness of the spring-onion oil rises through the nose, followed by the clear savour of the salt broth, the delicate sweetness of the steamed chicken and the freshness of the coriander, each arriving a beat apart. The polar opposite of the tantanmen’s punch: gentle, but deep.
And the famous tantanmen! This looks superb too!
What sets it apart is the chewy thick noodle. Unlike the thin-to-medium noodles of a standard tantanmen, these have real thickness, and they haul up that deep, distinctive broth with every lift. The noodle itself has leading-role presence.
The broth is the rich sesame kind, and a punchy niku-miso is piled on top. It looks like a bruiser, but the heat and the numbing are surprisingly restrained, making it easy for anyone to eat — the mark of an experienced house. “A flavour you get hooked on”, without question!
In the mouth, first the sesame richness and the density of the broth, then the chew of the thick noodles and the punch of the niku-miso, each a beat behind the last. Depth and savour standing firm inside a gentle heat — there is something addictive here that makes you want to drain the bowl^^
Together with the pure liver stir-fry, these are okudo’s twin signatures. You cannot go home without eating them!!!
So — much ordered, much drunk, and deep satisfaction. Every dish delicious, of course, but what struck me most was the plating: the beauty of the presentation matches the flavour exactly. The very best are the pure liver stir-fry and the tantanmen. If you come to okudo, do not leave without eating those two! I imagine you can get them at lunch as well, but there are so many good drinking snacks here that I would urge you to come in the evening. Recommended!
May you meet something good to eat today too.
okudo Tokyo (Asian & ethnic / Shinjuku-gyoenmae Station, Shinjuku-sanchome Station, Yotsuya-sanchome Station)
Tabelog dinner rating ★★★☆☆ 3.7
I ate here and paid for it myself. Nothing on this site is a comped meal.
One more for the road?
