Address - Tokyo-to, Suginami-ku, Kamiogi 1-6-11 Opening hours - Every day from 11:00 AM to 1:00 AM Map - Yes Telephone - 3393-7991 Menu - In Japanese CC - No

As with Mexican food, there are really two kinds of Chinese restaurants: the real thing and fakes. Hutong 101 definitely belongs to the first kind, from the food down to small details like its pervasive dinginess and the cooks' hair, which has that cut-with-a-lawn-mower kind of look so prevalent in China's countryside. Waitresses, to the contrary, in spite of being also Chinese, look like just about any fashion-conscious Japanese girl.
The menu, as customary in this kind of place, is long and almost illegible if you read Japanese Toyo Kanji, and just like Chinese if you don't, but do not despair, for it deserves some effort. Hutong 101 (incidentally, the name means "Hamlet 101") isn't Chez Maxim's, but it isn't a Gyudonya either.
Great attention deserve the Gyoza, for Hutong 101's menu has a whole page of them, all very tasty. But what I really like best is the assorted appetizers, surprisingly refreshing, tasty and healthy: you can get a dish with five kinds for 1400 yen, and that alone constitutes a good meal. If you have some appetite left, you could try their fried silkworms. If you do, let me know how they are: I won't eat stuff with more than four legs and less than two.

October 2004