Wan Wan - Taiwanese ****
Kichi Joji

Address - Musashino-shi, Kichi Joji Minamicho 2-1-3, Lon Lon Young-Kan 1 FL Opening hours - 5 pm to 11 pm Map - See directions Telephone - 0422 (20) 9903 Menu - English and Japanese with pictures CC - No

Wan Wan is a Taiwanese restaurant near Kichi Joji station I visit from time to time, usually when all other possibilities have been examined and for a reason or another discarded. This is not to say it's bad: it just faces stiff competition from very near, superior restaurants and it therefore has a chance only when I am fed up with Thai, Nepali or Turkish food.
Although not particularly fond of Chinese cooking (too many gyoza in my past, perhaps), I am nuts for Taiwanese food, which I find much more colorful and interesting than the stuff from the continent. Differences are subtle, but their overall effect overwhelming. Over the years, I have eaten plenty of the stuff, and none has ever approached in flavor those cute little things you get at Tainantamii, which remains the King of its kind, but I am always on alert so I can promptly detect an eventual peer.
Wan Wan isn't it, but it isn't bad either, and offers a welcome chance to enjoy Taiwanese delicacies without going all the way to Shinjuku.
Slightly drab in a typical South-East Asian way, it's cheap, noisy, and the ideal place for a hasty but tasty bite.The Chinese girls that prepare and serve the food are not particularly formal, but I like that: it goes well with the food, which is itself not particularly elegant. The menu is less rich and interesting that Tainantamii, but satisfying. Do not forget to order those tiny white fish fried with peanuts and chili.