A note on the words: char siu is Chinese roast pork; xiaolongbao are soup dumplings; A-cai and komatsuna are leafy greens; a ekiben is a boxed meal sold at Japanese railway stations, which is where this shop’s braised pork belly also ended up. Prices are as of this writing (August 2026).
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Kanton Hanten on Tabelog (English) — opening hours, payment details and the Japanese address are kept up to date there, not here.
Drinkers, good morning! It is Hangover Meshi time.
Thank you for waiting! Yokohama Chinatown this time! Now — what to eat on a first visit in ages? And what a crowd! At this rate the popular places will be impossible. Thinking exactly that, I asked at Manchinro whether they had space: “We are full until one o’clock!”
“What?! But it is only 11:30!”
And so! I charged into “Cantonese Cuisine Kanton Hanten”, right in front of me — and they could seat us! Hooray! When one god abandons you, another comes to the rescue. Lunch here it is!
Kanton Hanten was founded in 1961 — over sixty years old — and its signature is the “tender braised pork belly”! Beyond that: shark fin, Peking duck, paper-wrapped chicken, coriander dishes, around a hundred menu items, in a seven-storey building. Serious Cantonese! Excellent.
Right — the signature braised pork belly goes in somewhere, and around it we choose what we want!
The menu is outrageous — the sheer number of dishes!
But with this many, everyone in the party will find something they want! I like that in a restaurant!
“Small”! And yet a substantial amount.
Chilled jellyfish really is delicious. That crunch and snap and crackle is irresistible. Dressed with cucumber in a sweet-vinegar sauce, with the fragrance of sesame oil rising slowly, it makes the beer disappear! Not a trace of funk, just that brisk crunch running on and on.
Beside it, the char siu, moist and tender. Is that red colour dye? How on earth do they make it? A classic Chinese-restaurant mystery. As for the taste — the sweetness of the pork spreads slowly with every chew. Delicious! The cold poached chicken has taut, glossy skin over flesh that is above all moist! All three are ideal openers with a drink!
What greens are these? Komatsuna, bok choy, A-cai, tatsoi — something else? So many possibilities that I cannot tell!
Simple stir-fried greens like this are often the most delicious thing on the table! First bite, a crisp snap and a burst of the vegetables’ own moisture. This style of frying is hard to pull off at home. The leaves are soft and faintly sweet. The heat is judged perfectly — nothing raw about it, and nothing collapsed either. The seasoning is garlic, salt and oil (and probably some stock), and that it should be this good is remarkable.
Everyone! Thank you for waiting! This is the signature: “tender braised pork belly”! Apparently it is even sold as a station bento at Tokyo Station!
Kanton Hanten’s signature, and the unmoved number one favourite since the house opened in 1961^^
The moment the plate arrives, the glossy amber sheen of the fat and the fragrance of star anise and Shaoxing wine rising off it are irresistible! Put chopsticks to a piece and they sink through without the slightest resistance. Utterly melting. Superb! This is the finished form of braising! The cut face falls apart in layers: springy skin, melting fat, crumbling lean — three stages of texture arriving in order within a single mouthful.
And what is remarkable is that there is no heaviness of fat at all. The method was printed on the menu — boiled, fried, cut, then steamed — and I suspect all the excess fat leaves along the way. Delicious.
The sweetness of the braising liquid, soaked deep in, seeps out with every chew. In the Cantonese manner the star anise is only faintly present; the lead is the deep body of soy sauce and Shaoxing wine. That it would suit rice is easy to imagine — but it also goes tremendously well with a drink!
Set one gently on the spoon, tear the skin slightly with your chopsticks, and scalding soup comes flooding out. The skin has a chewy thickness — the type meant to be tasted properly along with the meat! The soup, packed with pork savour, is naturally clean and refined and delicious.
And this looks excellent too — fried rice vermicelli! Not something one eats often at home, or anywhere really (or do you?). The person I came with happens to love it, so we ordered it! I have never had the real thing, so this should be interesting!
It arrives with the toasty fragrance of soy sauce rising off it — very promising! The noodles are firm and springy, with an interesting slightly dried quality that is characteristic of good vermicelli. In the Cantonese manner the fillings are kept simple: prawn, char siu, bean sprouts and green pepper tangled through the fine rice noodles. Each strand comes away loose and separate, and the seasoning is a light soy base — restrained in salt but with real body. Yes — rice vermicelli might be rather good after all!
It felt as though we had eaten a great deal — but there are a hundred dishes on the menu! There is still so much I want to try! This is not a place you can conquer in one visit, so I want to come back! To meet a restaurant this good outside the crowded famous names — Chinatown really does deliver! A dependable old house in Yokohama Chinatown. Next time I shall return aiming at the Peking duck.
May you meet something good to eat today too.
Kanton Hanten (Chinese / Nihon-odori Station, Ishikawacho Station, Motomachi-Chukagai Station)
Tabelog lunch rating ★★★☆☆ 3.6
I ate here and paid for it myself. Nothing on this site is a comped meal.
One more for the road?
