Shoryubo, Ikebukuro: Not Especially Good, but I Keep Going

A note on the words: yodare-dori, “drool chicken,” is poached chicken under a Sichuan chili-oil sauce; menma is fermented bamboo shoot, zha cai a pickled mustard stem, and char siu the Cantonese roast pork. Tanmen is a salt-broth noodle soup piled with stir-fried vegetables, and gan guo is the Sichuan dry-pot style, cooked with very little liquid. Machi-chuka means the everyday neighborhood Chinese restaurant, a fixture of Tokyo drinking. Prices are as of this writing (August 2026).

Chinese restaurant Shoryubo, Ikebukuro

Chinese Shoryu Bo Ikebukuro 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.

Ikebukuro. It is fairly late and few places are open. I do not especially want to eat, so a big meal is out. And I do not want to be packed into a cramped room either. I want to walk in easily and drink a great deal.

Good news for anyone in that position. How about this place ^^

A neighborhood Chinese place, or perhaps a Chinese izakaya, right outside the west exit of Ikebukuro: Shoryubo.

It is a thoroughly jumbled Chinese-style izakaya, but it is quite large. Large, with big tables and room between one table and the next. Being able to sit at your ease and talk is what marks it out. (In fact I have used it here and there as a third or fourth stop of the evening.)

Apparently they are open until nearly the last train

So, once seated, beer first.

(I forgot the photograph.)

Then, ordering a few snacks here and there — but the drink is the star throughout.

Stir-fried pea shoots (1,070 yen)

Pea shoots are fairly expensive wherever you order them. But the combination of that oil and garlic fragrance with the crunch of the shoots is good, and it is a plate I end up ordering every time.

French fries (418 yen)

French fries, ordered on the principle that if you leave them there somebody will eat them.

Yodare-dori (638 yen)

A remarkably simple yodare-dori. Steamed chicken laid on salad with a chili-oil-based yodare-dori sauce poured lightly over it. Still, as something to drink with it is good, so that is fine.

Stir-fried liver and garlic chives (968 yen)

Stir-fried liver and garlic chives. This too is seasoned in the most ordinary way. It is fairly oily and junky, which suits a drink very well. From about here the highballs start going down fast.

Thank you for the meal!

So, an introduction to a reasonably large and easy-to-use Chinese restaurant. It is not that the food is especially good — it is thoroughly ordinary cooking. The sour drinks are not very good either. But beer and highballs are fine. Cheap, spacious, and quiet. An extremely comfortable everyday Chinese restaurant. Remember it and it may rescue you one day.

May you meet something good to eat today as well.

Menu and price list

Chinese Shoryu Bo Ikebukuro (Chinese / Ikebukuro Station, Higashi-Ikebukuro Station, Kanamecho 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?

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