A note on the words: a wonton is a thin wheat wrapper folded around a little seasoned meat and cooked in soup, and wantan is simply how the same word is said in Japanese. Chintan means a clear broth, drawn slowly so it stays transparent, as against the cloudy kind. Chashu is braised pork, sliced thin. Ajitama is a soft-boiled egg steeped in a soy-based marinade. Tantanmen is noodles in a sesame and chili sauce. Shoyu means soy sauce and shio means salt, and on a ramen menu they name the two ways the same broth can be seasoned. Seabura is pork back fat, added to a bowl in small melting granules. Golden Week is the run of national holidays that falls at the end of April and the start of May, when much of Japan takes time off at once.
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Akasaka Chuka Wantan Tei on Tabelog (English) — opening hours, payment details and the Japanese address are kept up to date there, not here.
* Careful: they are probably not running their usual lunch service at the moment!
Hello, this is Hangover Meshi. Today’s lunch: “Akasaka Chuka Wantan Tei.” This place opens at 17:00 and runs until late into the night. I had it in my sights from before it even opened and was really looking forward to going, but a 17:00 opening is somehow hard to work around, ha. I kept thinking, could they not do lunch — and then word came through on LINE: lunch, for Golden Week only! Figuring that if I did not go now I would not be eating here for a good while, off I went straight away.
Oh! It really is open!
Akasaka Chuka Wantan Tei menu
Noodles
The wonton noodles come in shoyu (soy sauce) or shio (salt). A regular or small portion of noodles costs nothing extra; a large portion is +182 yen. Toppings can be added in fine detail from the QR code at your seat.
Soups and single dishes
* From the menu board at the time of the May 2024 visit. Prices and contents may change. Please check at the shop for the current version.
The basic thing here has to be the wonton noodles. There were plain wonton noodles and chicken chintan wonton noodles, so I decided to try the chicken chintan. Each seemed to come in shoyu or shio, and I chose shoyu. Regular and small portions of noodles were 0 yen, a large portion +182 yen. You can also order toppings in fine detail from the QR code at your seat, so there looks to be plenty here to try — which is interesting.
And so, having ordered, a while of waiting.
Quite a range of condiments. These seem to be for changing up the flavor of the wontons.
The feel of the place is somehow that of a street stall in China, and that is good. Drinking here at night might well be an option.
And here the ramen arrives.
Whoaaaaaa! That looks good
It is buried under wontons to the point where you cannot see the noodles, ha. Ten of them, no less.
Or rather, unless you order the small portion of noodles, is this not quite a lot? That was the volume of it, ha.
First, eating a wonton plain: delicious.
The wrapper is slippery, made to slide down the throat. The filling is meat packed with juice. These go down one after another.
How to put it — the ramen broth is a well-drawn dashi and good in its own right, but paired with the wontons it turns into something else.
The noodles are made on the thin side, but they have a firm, snappy bite.
They are good, and yet the wontons are plainly the lead. This makes me want a version with the noodles left out and double the wontons.
And here are the plain wonton noodles.
I had been wondering what the difference was between the wonton noodles and the chicken chintan wonton noodles, and
it seems the difference is that the wonton noodles have seabura, back fat, in them.
When you want to eat heartily, the back fat may well be the right call.
And, ordered on the side, the house chashu tossed with scallions.
The chashu arrives ice-cold, and the texture is a little dry and firm. The seasoning is not strong at all, so it really does feel made to drink over. If you are picturing the melting kind of chashu this is a bit different, but taken on its own terms it is clean and good. It simply makes you want a beer.
So I finally made it to Wantan Tei, the place I had been longing for, and it turns out to be very much a shop I want to visit at night. I had taken it for an ordinary ramen shop, and going out at night just to eat ramen is a high bar; I eat lightly these days, so going after drinking is awkward too — that was where my head had been. I am glad they ran lunch during Golden Week. The snacks and single dishes were well stocked, so rather than ramen after drinking, going to this place to drink feels about right. Next time I am nearby I will drop in.
Akasaka Chuka Wantan Tei (Chinese / Akasaka Station, Akasaka-mitsuke Station, Tameike-sanno Station)
Tabelog lunch rating ★★★☆☆ 3.5
I ate here and paid for it myself. Nothing on this site is a comped meal.
One more for the road?
