Chikei - Hong Kong Men (Chinese) **
Shibuya

Address - Tokyo-to, Shibuya-ku, Shibuya PARCO PART1 7, 8F Opening hours - Every day from 11:00am to Midnight Map - No Telephone - 6415-7510 Menu In Japanese, with pictures CC OK

An old friend of mine works for a ramen shop which has been recently turned by its Chinese owner into a Hong Kong Men restaurant because profits were in his view insufficient.
Something as tasty as Hong Kong Men, a kind of thin ramen Hong Kongers are known to love, will surely prove irresistible, he thought, but sales have since plummeted even further, leaving him puzzled and in the middle of a vast pool of red ink: how come, he wonders, his clever plan has so miserably failed?

The question assailing my friend is instead: "How on earth does he expect this kind of crap to sell? Is what we make real Hong Kong Men? Surely something this bad cannot be the real thing.

His impression was supported by the fact that Mainland Chinese didn't seem to find it all that hot either. Yet customers from Honk Kong loved the stuff.

Resolved to get to the bottom of the story, he found another Hong Kong Men joint, called Chikei, in Shibuya (at the seventh or eight floor of Shibuya's Parco, Pt. 1), and invited me along. Since I am always curious to try new stuff, I went.

I must say that I believe that, as a rule, no self-respecting restaurant wants to be in a department store or, worse, of a supermarket like Seiyu, but since there are numerous exceptions to the rule, I suspended my judgement.
He soon commented "Uchi to onaji mazusa." or, in plain English, "As bad as ours."
It seems to him therefore likely that, to enjoy it, you must be born in Hong Kong.
I fear I must concur, even though, more than bad, it's just very bland stuff, simply thin noodles in some sort of thin soup not worth even the 580 yen Chikei wants for it. Edible, but not more.There's more to the menu than noodles, and decent stuff by any standard, but not enough in quantity (portions are minuscule) and variety to merit a visit and save Chikei, or Hong Kong Men, from the ax of this critic. If you want to eat Chinese, go somewhere else.