Testing Reviews – Yokohama Chinatown Best vs. Worst restaurant? #chinatown #japantravel #japanlife

Testing Reviews – Yokohama Chinatown Best vs. Worst restaurant? #chinatown #japantravel #japanlife

what is good everyone welcome to the channel my name is Paul I make videos about Japanese Society life and culture from the Viewpoint of a long-term porn resident and today I’m doing something I haven’t done in a while which is actually showcase something in my city Yokohama I’m here in Yokohama Chinatown today and we’re going to be going to two restaurants on this trip one for lunch one for dinner now the first one for lunch is actually the lowest ranked Chinese restaurant in Chinatown it has only 2.4 stars both on Google reviews and Trip Advisor which like that’s almost unheard of in P but then for dinner we’re going to be going to a different restaurant we have reservations at 7:30 for a place that is actually ranked in the top 10 of restaurants in Yokohama not just Chinatown but in all of Yokohama so we’re going to get a taste literally of two different sides of yokohama’s Chinatown today now I say we are going and we have reservations because I’m here with my good friend Don today Don come on into the shop so how’s it going now Dawn you might know from some famous YouTube channels such as well this one he’s been on the channel twice the first time I interviewed him in 2020 on Zoom about the bar restaurant business that he started here in Japan as a foreigner and I actually went to his business where I went through the gauntlet of his 10 spicy chicken wings basically set up like the hot ones famous YouTube channel and Don played the part of Shan Evans the interviewer where as I made my way through progressively spicier and spicier Wings he asked me progressively spicier and spicier questions so don we’re starting off at yokohama’s lowest ranked Chinese restaurant what do you think we’re in for um well because this is a Chinese restaurant with I’m assuming Japanese reviews mhm I assume then that they’re going to complain mostly about rud service and spicy food okay that’s pretty good prediction let’s actually take a look at what some of the reviews say according to John C it’s not worth dining in it was expensive and the service was not good don’t waste your money don’t trust restaurants that have folks trying to invite you in to eat so when we go there today we’re going to see if there’s someone outside who’s trying to beckon Us in Alan G writes good came out lukewarm I assume they mean food came out lukewarm so we told the waitress she took the food away and reproduced the same food which was reheated in a microwave ended up leaving all the food and paying 5,000 yen for the pleasure rude staff avoid at all cost Daniel M says terrible food that came out cold and bad service tasted like the food had been cooked an hour before and left sitting there waiting for someone to order it avoid at all cost sand says even if this is the only place that is empty you can’t go in he goes on to review individual dishes like the guku anaki yakisoba the noodles are also Savory and tasteless I’m not sure how that goes together gaki beef H this one is also tasteless and tasteless double tasteless the hu special green onion soba extraordinary amount of raw garlic slices in there and it’s bad it sucks so don it looks like we might be in for cold food bad service and food that might actually suck are you ready I’m curious definitely curious let’s go just to be clear we are not reviewing the food of these places per se we’re actually testing the reviews this isn’t a food review channel so we’re actually just trying to see how well people have character ize the places that we’re [Music] going all right Don place number one down and I have to say that in my opinion most of the reviews were kind of busted I can kind of see what they’re getting at and I’m assuming then that maybe it was during a busy time and stuff I mean I’ve seen a lot of people do reviews during busy times and which is a you know it’s a legit concern one of the things they said was food came out super slow in the reviews but that meloku we ordered first it came out in like a minute and a half like it just flew out and then the pork belly was maybe a couple minutes later so it was totally fast service the food came out right away they seem to like a lot of of the other restaurants here they seem to specialize in in buffet style stuff or all you can eat I mean not Buffet but all you can eat so I’m assuming that they have a lot of it preet and so well the mobo doood was definitely not cooked to our order it came out way too fast for that they cater to the all you can eat and so I mean we tried to give them the benefit of the doubt and order individual dishes to see how that test would go yeah so we deliberately ordered all a cart the other complaint though was that the food came out cold and that was also not our experience the food came out totally warm not no problem with the temperature in my mind yeah there was no problem with the temperature um how about the flavor what’ you think very very basic there was nothing wrong with it it did not taste bad but it was very very basic it’s something that you can find in most of Japanese Chinese restaurants it tasted like pretty standard Chinese that you would get in most places the Mau was not uh sesan or or shien style as they say in Japan um so it wasn’t that special for corn um but the price was as if it was the more expensive type the pork belly actually the texture of the pork like the actual braze pork was excellent I thought the sauce was just a little bit more bland than I would have liked it needed some more like Star an or like five spice in it to to bring it out just have nice texture yeah the texture was great but just from my experience with the taste it was it was fine what you run into a lot of times in Chinatown is that there’s so many Japanese tourists who prefer a kind of lighter frankly more bland taste so I think a lot of restaurants really tone down the flavor subtle subtle flavor bland is the wrong word you’re right subtle flavor Japanese Cuisine is generally subtle Chinese cuisine not so much so basically at the end of the day I would say that the really poor reviews don’t stand up in my mind there was nothing wrong with the place for myself um if I didn’t know any better then I would give it a poor review but to me I mean that that restaurant was like on the Main Street and so that’s like trying to go to a restaurant right outside of a hotel MH so you’re pretty much asking for that high price in the first place yeah so if this was in a different location and then the prices wouldn’t make sense and I would give it a a low ra like a two star or so that’s a good point it was right on the main drag and so I think if they tried to charge the prices they did on one of the little side Alleyway streets where the smaller restaurants are that would it would have seemed kind of off it was expensive for what you got but not unreasonable for the location um the last review that was brought up was rude service which we totally didn’t get no I even spilled water and and they weren’t pissed at it or nothing like that they didn’t give us any lip or anything now I can’t I can’t take him anywhere you knew what you’re were getting into when you invited me yeah I did I did but yeah so the only instance I that we encountered that I could maybe see as uh seen as Rude by some people was there was one waitress who didn’t really speak Japanese and we didn’t try English with her and so she had to summon over a different weight staff to kind of help us cuz she didn’t understand what I was trying to say and they spoke in Chinese and and got it sorted out but I could see if you a tourist and you don’t speak any Japanese and they’re not speaking Japanese or English like it could have come across as rude but to it was just like a cultural barrier yeah yeah it wasn’t uh it wasn’t rude per se it was if you’re used to uh Japan and Japanese restaurants in general you’re going to be used to that overly friendly type of welcoming staff right mentality so that might be I think that there there’s a biased because you know they’re used to that over here sure but in there you know it’s it’s a typical you know just oh okay that’s what you need okay good we’re done there were several tables around us with Chinese customers and so that tells me that if like actual Chinese people local to this area will eat in that restaurant then it can’t be bad right it was a pretty full place it wasn’t like it wasn’t like packed packed but there were only like maybe a small handful of empty tables and they kept having a lot of people coming in and out so the fact that they’re still in business means that their business model is working for them Y which shows their actual intentions with the whole pricing and everything so all right we will give our final ratings and you’ll see that right now [Music] [Music] hey ready for your YouTube debut no we’re not [Music] [Music] not for dinner along with Don we are introducing one other guest Rio R is a friend of both of ours and actually a former student of mine in the university and she’s joining us for dinner Rio what do you expecting from dinner tonight to eat a lot to eat a lot okay I think we can handle that again we’re not a Food Channel we’re basically testing the reviews of these places so I need to read a few reviews of why this place is so good ohg says best Chinese food I’ve ever had service is topnotch thanks for making our night memorable o tomisa says all dishes are delicious The Taste is consistent no matter when you go recommend it revisit it on April 21st 2018 it was delicious October 25th 2018 all of them are delicious October 31st it’s still delicious dianu aaral says one of of good Chinese restaurants to try out varieties of Chinese food especially the mapu tofu or tantan noodle a good place to visit to enjoy Chinese food in yokahama let’s get going [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] I don’t know about you guys but I am completely stuffed that was quite a bit of food uh how do we feel about it was it good how was your experience let’s start with the the newest guest how how do you feel about uh let’s start with the service um well I don’t know the first place but it was a good place I think it’s like a very standard Japanese type of service they were all nice they professional I think it look good yeah I agree with that um and I would say that I believe they were all Japanese staff as well I we had all Chinese staff at the restaurant for lunch but this time it was e how about you how was the service in your mind it’s fine it’s what you would expect from a place that from a restaurant that’s located inside a somewhat fancy hotel yeah yeah it was very standard Japanese service polite professional yeah I agree how about the speed of the food coming out cuz that was one of the things we assessed during the lunch series how do you feel about that let’s start with you Don it came out at um an adequate time in fact it actually came out not as fast as the other place but came out much faster than I expected cuz one of the dishes we ordered they said it was going to take maybe 20 minutes or so but it was out in half that time easily flavor the most important thing how was the food actually unbiased first unbiased Yeah well yeah so we you have nothing need compare it to so like from your experience eating Chinese food how was it well I don’t have dav’s experience eating Chinese food like a very authentic Chinese food but and I don’t I I don’t really like spicy food in the first place but for the M dofu I think it’s it was like a very traditional flavor it was spicy but it had more like the how do you say like not the spicy as in like pepper but more of like the spices that they use right and but I was able to eat it so that was good and the pork belly it was very soft like the meat was a little bit chewy for me so like when I eat it the fat and like the actual like the red meat part it just kind of like fell apart but it was good and The Dumpling the soup was so good yeah yeah I think actually the dish that I liked best at this place was the one we didn’t have for lunch which was the uh dumplings and the soup was good the dumplings thes were decent um of the two other dishes I prefer the Mao dofu to the beef um the maofu I liked it cuz it was spicier than what we had for lunch however there is better chesan here in Chinatown than than this one to be honest the beef um I liked I’m going to I’m going to go heretic here I actually liked the lunch place better um I thought that for me the sauce that was a little more authentic to my taste um this was a very very rich heavy a little bit oily sauce um and we both said it was kind of like beef stew in and what it reminded us of now Don here disagrees why don’t you give your opinion on the the pork on the pork specifically yeah let’s start with the pork cuz that’s that’s where we had the biggest disagreement over the table well it depends on the cut of meat and stuff that you had in right like or the cut the slices that were available because my first slice is over there at the other spot it had a lot more of the skin so that was actually tougher for me and over here though I had more of I guess the fat andless of the the Meat part so it didn’t feel that tough to me it felt the softer here I felt both places were overrated and overpriced and neither were authentic enough yeah I I think overall that’s what I would go with like for the price you can probably get really good Chinese food for a lot less money um than both the lunch and the dinner place so we’re going to give our final ratings out stars out of five and we’ll put that on the screen [Music] [Applause] [Music] any final words well it was good it was good it was good again thank you so much to the two of you for coming out I hope you enjoyed your time in Chinatown today I hope you got something out of it if you did be sure to hit the like button subscribe if you’ve made it this far in the video and you aren’t subscribed what are you doing and I hope to see you on the next one all right everyone I’m back home and I just wanted to put a few final notes on this video because actually Don had to rush at the end there because he had to catch a train to be able to get home so our final thoughts we kind of got them out there pretty quickly and there were three other things that we agreed upon that should also be mentioned the first is you can go just about anywhere in Chinatown and get really basic good satisfying Chinese cuisine just about any restaurant you can go into pretty much any door that you see and you’ll probably have a decent time so in the end it’s probably about price you’re not going to get much more by paying much more that said the second thing is you might want to Veer from that path if you are looking for a particular dish and there’s a restaurant that does that dish especially well and I’m actually planning on doing a video in the future where I go to my favorite place for mapo tofu which is done actually in really nice chesan style it’s spicy it’s hot um more authentic than most of the places in chinat town in terms of what they’re willing to serve you and one final point that Don especially wanted to push was that the street food can be absolutely excellent if you see a place that has a line it seems very popular like this one I’m showing on the screen right now this is really good it’s worth standing in line for and that could be your best bet for a few interesting and delicious eats in Chinatown if you’re not there for a full meal all right that’s the video thank you so much for watching and I hope to catch you on the next one I will do more videos about my hometown in the future probably as a midweek video going forward thanks for watching this one in particular though and thanks again to my guests Don and Rio for joining me and I’ll catch you on the next one peace [Music]

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