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How are these Chinese restaurants getting away with murder??
High protein, comes with sides… Food is not expensive in Tokyo as everyone knows, and if you go to a place like Yakiniku Like, you can get 400-500g of steak (depending on the cut) for about 3000 yen.
High protein, comes with sides and rice, and is a great value if you're hungry.
While there are a few very good Chinese restaurants, MOST of them are charging 1100-1300 yen for BULLST.
I got take out last night at a chinese place around me, and I ordered 4 dishes plus a large rice which came out to 4800 yen. It was a chicken dish and two beef dishes, and I was planning on eating half for dinner and half for breakfast.
However, what I got was a total of maybe 150 grams of meat, if you combined all three dishes? It's all just super sweet syrup sauce with a couple pieces of veggies, and heavily breaded meat. I ended up wiping off the sauce and excess breading and eating all three dishes for dinner since there was barely any protein.
What gives? How do these business stay open? Do Japanese people not understand that you're basically getting NO meat and paying exorbitant prices for breading and sugar syrup?
you went to the wrong kind of place tbh. those old school chuka shops are a gamble - some are great value, most are exactly what you described. the thing is they survive on their regulars who order the same 700 yen mabodofu set every day and don't care about meat ratios.
if you want actual chinese food with decent protein, look for places that have a separate "chaahan" section on their menu or ones that do xiaolongbao. the ones run by actual chinese families in ikebukuro or okachimachi will give you way more meat for 1100 yen. i go to a spot near sugamo called hong kong kitchen that does a black pepper beef lunch set with actual chunks of meat for 900 yen.
also 4800 yen for takeout from a random corner shop is wild. you could've gotten a full course at a legit chinese place in ueno for that much. next time just walk past the ones with the plastic food displays that look too glossy.
You're picking the wrong Chinese places. The ones you're describing are the old-school Japanese-Chinese shops that cater to salarymen who just want a cheap teishoku with rice and a main dish that's mostly sauce. Those places have been running on razor-thin margins and loyal customer bases for decades, and they're not trying to impress anyone with portion sizes.
If you want actual value in Chinese food in Tokyo, go to a place like Enshu Hanten in Shinjuku or one of the bigger chains like Hidakaya. Those are still cheap but you'll get proper portions of meat. The 1000 yen lunch sets at proper chuka restaurants in Ueno or Okachimachi will give you twice the protein for the same price as those corner shops.
And honestly, 4800 yen for takeout from a random Chinese place is a mistake. You could have hit up a proper yakiniku joint for that much and walked out stuffed.
Yeah a lot of those cheap Chinese places are basically just sauce delivery systems with some protein as an afterthought. You're better off hitting up a proper chuka or even a ramen shop if you want actual meat for your money.
Where can I find crispy, pan-fried bacon similar to a certain international style?
if u have a costco membership the kirkland thick cut is the move, 4 packs of 500g for around 2500 yen and it crisps up proper in a cold pan. for smaller runs, precce in azabudai hills & the basement at isetan shinjuku both carry imported US & danish brands in the chilled case, just read the label for "thick cut" or "smoked" and not "loin". also worth knowing japanese bacon is often wet-cured so pat it dry before frying or it steams instead of crisping
kaldi coffee farm is hit or miss but their smoked bacon from denmark shows up pretty regular, the 200g pack runs about 600 yen. what actually works better for me is asking the butcher counter at peacock or life to slice the block bacon thick, like 5mm, they do it for free and it crisps way better than the pre-packed stuff. also fwiw cheap bacon crisps faster, the fatty supermarket kind at 300 yen a pack works fine if u cook it from cold in a dry pan and pour off the fat as it renders.
tbh the gyomu super store brand bacon is surprisingly decent for crisping up, its not thick cut but if you cook it low and slow it gets pretty crunchy. the key is the dry cure vs wet cure thing, wet cure steams. also check hanamasa if you have one nearby, they sell big packs of american style bacon thats actually smoked and firm.
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