A note on the words: dim sum refers to Cantonese bite-sized dishes, often eaten as yum cha with tea or drinks. Shumai are steamed open-topped dumplings, and chouto, written with the characters for top and soup, is the name of the broth the shop’s signature shumai are said to enclose. Daikon mochi is pan-fried savory turnip cake made from shredded radish and rice flour, and roumen are Chinese tossed noodles served here with charred scallions.
Chenputon Yum cha Club Ebisu 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. Dinner tonight was here. Hearing that Chenputon, a Chinese restaurant in Nishi-Azabu, had a sister restaurant in Ebisu, I booked a table and went over. Among Chinese cuisine, it seems dim sum is the main focus here. It opens at 5:30 pm, and I had a reservation right for 5:30 pm! I decided to dive right in from opening time.
Value dim sum course, 2 hours, 9 dishes with all-you-can-drink — 6,500 yen
THE Yum cha Club course, a leisurely 3 hours, 12 dishes with all-you-can-drink — 7,700 yen
Between the 9 dishes with all-you-can-drink and the 12 dishes with all-you-can-drink, I figured I would start with the 9-dish course and just order extra if it was not enough. But there did not appear to be an a la carte menu, so anyone who wants to eat a lot might be better off going with the 12 dishes right from the start?
Char siu, zhacai (pickled mustard stem), and steamed chicken! The kind of bites you have with your first drink. Yes, delicious.
Plump shrimp wrapped in chewy, springy skins — delicious.
Chewy garlic-chive dumplings! These are smooth steamed dumplings too, but with a slightly different texture, and delicious.
This is apparently the house specialty: the signature chouto shumai. They say it encloses “chouto” — an exquisite broth simmered from high-end Jinhua ham — alongside plenty of shrimp, pork and other ingredients characteristic of Cantonese shumai, and “chouto” apparently means “top-tier soup.” Sure enough, savory broth gushes into your mouth with juicy richness, and it is delicious!
Because they are cut in half, they avoid the typical spring-roll hazard of being scalding hot inside, making them easy to eat. The crisp skin on the outside is delicious.
These are a bit different from what you would call typical Japanese pan-fried dumplings. The skin as a whole is chewy and soft.
Yes, stir-fried nice and crisp, and very tasty.
Charred scallion tossed noodles! The scallions are quite tough, but they are aromatic and might be rather tasty.
And with that, all nine dishes were done. I wondered if it would be enough food, but since each dim sum piece is not especially large, I could probably have eaten a bit more. I found myself thinking that maybe going with the 12 dishes would have been the better move? Still, every single dish was delicious, so I was quite satisfied!
Chenputon Yum cha Club Ebisu ten (Chinese / Ebisu Station, Daikanyama Station, Naka-Meguro Station)
Tabelog dinner rating ★★★☆☆ 3.5
I ate here and paid for it myself. Nothing on this site is a comped meal.
One more for the road?
