A note on the words: cha chaan teng is a Hong Kong-style all-day diner known for comfort dishes, tea, and quick bites; xiaolongbao are steamed dumplings filled with pork and savory hot broth, and char siu is sweet-savory Cantonese roasted pork. In this article, the house-special Chanki fried rice comes with egg, scallion, char siu and carrot, ordered alongside a steamer of xiaolongbao.
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Hong Kong Chanki Chachan Ten Akasaka ten on Tabelog (English) — opening hours, payment details and the Japanese address are kept up to date there, not here.
Hello, this is Hangover Meshi. On a back street just off Akasaka Station, a place that opened without me noticing… or whether it had been there all along and I just hadn’t realized, I honestly can’t say, ha. I dropped into “Hong Kong Chanki Chachan Ten Akasaka ten,” a cha chaan teng (a Hong Kong-style all-day diner). Somehow I felt like it had been around forever, but looking it up, it opened in December 2021. So not exactly recent either, ha! Outside the entrance, a dazzling array of thoroughly authentic-looking menu posters was displayed, raising high hopes!
Stepping inside, the interior has an overwhelming sense of being right on location, ha.
Chanki fried rice — 1,250 yen
Braised beef brisket and daikon over rice — 1,300 yen
Beef and egg stir-fry over rice — 1,250 yen
Seafood fried rice with XO sauce — 1,280 yen
Xiaolongbao — 700 yen
The menu gives off a real sense of authenticity too. Just reading the written characters, you can hardly imagine what kind of food it is, ha.
Tucked in among the dry noodles and noodles in soup is fried instant noodles. Hmm, so does that mean the noodles in the dry noodles and noodle soups are instant noodles too, I wonder? After debating all sorts of thoughts, I went with fried rice! Chanki fried rice. Bearing the restaurant’s own name, it seemed safe to assume it would be reliable. And as an addition, an order of xiaolongbao.
Well, having somehow managed to order, a short wait followed.
Looking around the shop again, the impression that it feels remarkably foreign really stands out. A great place to change up your mood.
Ta-da! The fried rice arrives.
The ingredients are egg, scallion, char siu, and carrot. Orthodox ingredients.
Taking a bite: beautifully separate grains! As for flavor, it leans toward the lighter side, I’d say. Clean and very easy to eat.
The portion is quite generous, so while thinking it would surely be better for two people to share one, I still managed to polish it off cleanly.
Many people around me were ordering noodles and fried rice and sharing between two.
Coming alone is so inconvenient at times like this!!
Three xiaolongbao. With no soy sauce or black vinegar laid out, are you supposed to eat them as-is, I wonder?
Eating one as-is: yep, xiaolongbao. I thought a bit of black vinegar or something might have been nice, but with only two left, I figured why bother and finished them off as-is.
Being an authentic spot and quite crowded, it might be a famous place.
Rather than lunch, it feels more like a place centered on yum cha, tea-drinking, and desserts with tea. Everyone around me seemed to be doing that. As for the noodles, I’d like to look up somewhere whether they really are all instant noodles and come back again.
Hong Kong Chanki Chachan Ten Akasaka ten (Chinese / Akasaka-mitsuke Station, Nagatacho Station, Akasaka Station)
Tabelog lunch rating ★★★☆☆ 3.3
I ate here and paid for it myself. Nothing on this site is a comped meal.
