Utsunomiya: gyoza town

Back in May I won a free night’s stay in a hotel so we chose Utsunomiya, 80km north of Tokyo, for its proximity to Nikko – it’s just a 45 minute train journey from the shriney wonderfulness. Apart from that I knew absolutely nothing about the place. I mentioned this to a Japanese friend one day and was answered by her gleeful cry of “Gyoza! That’s all you need to know!” So I did some online research and found out that, according to many people from all corners of the earth, Utsunomiya is indeed gyoza capital of Japan. Needless to say, this made me very happy indeed.

 Having spent a fantastic day walking in the sunshine in Nikko, Simon and I were pretty hungry by the time we got to Utsunomiya around 6pm. We checked into our hotel and went out foraging for an early evening snack. My research had suggested that, out of the huge number of outlets that exist in the town, Min Min, right by the station, is the ichi-ban place to go for your pork-filled dumpling delights.

Min Min is indeed right by the station. In fact, it’s in the station carpark. There are several other gyoza restaurants nearby, all offering various deals on twelve-filling selection plates (honestly, I had no idea you could put so many things in a gyoza!). But Min Min was supposed to be the best so that’s where we went. It was the only restaurant in the vicinity with a queue; in fact it was the only restaurant with anyone in it at all. We figured we’d made the right choice.

The selection of gyoza restaurants. A little empty...

Min Min. The best.

 The menu at Min Min is simple: pan-fried gyoza; deep-fried gyoza; water-boiled gyoza; rice; beer; juice. What more could you need? As this was just our pre-dinner amuse bouche we decided that two out of the three varieties would suffice. Being the health-conscious Brits that we are, we naturally went for the two fried options. And a beer of course, to make it a well-balanced snack.

Literally six things on the menu, three of which are gyoza

Oh so happy with the snack

 I expect that a restaurant that offers only three dishes plus rice knows what it’s doing with those three dishes. And Min Min does. The deep-fried gyoza were small, rich but not oily, golden parcels, while the pan-fried gyoza were plump and juicy, with a delicate crispy bottom. Delicious. And at 240 yen for six, excellent value too.

A closeup - they were that good

 When we left Min Min around 6.30pm, the queue had quadrupled in size as people presumably came between finishing work and catching the train home. The restaurant shuts at 8pm, so caters perfectly for the evening rush hour. We considered some takeaway gyoza to keep us going until dinner, or perhaps some omiyage (souvenir) gyoza boxes, but eventually managed to tear ourselves away and head back to the hotel for a disco nap.

In the gloaming the queue kept forming...

Later that evening we headed out again, this time to a restaurant just round the corner from the hotel. Its speciality was…gyoza! Having walked around town for a bit, it had become clear that the gyoza restaurants really were the best bet – nothing else looked half as tasty. So this time round we ordered some honourable meat dumplings and some garlic dumplings. But to make it clear that it was dinner and not a snack we also had some rice and a small salad.

Dumplings, rice, salad and beer. Delicious

Very full of dumplings, we waddled back to the hotel where we finished off the evening’s feast with a small bottle of whisky and some pocky chocolate while watching a programme about the building of the Sky Tree. It was an unusual evening, but a good one, and I’m glad that we got the chance to check out the gyoza capital of Japan!

A well-balanced dessert after all those gyoza!

またね!