Kailaku — Restaurant in Tokyo

Jumbo Gyoza. Comes at set of 3 for ¥540 (additional ¥180ea for add-on). Taste is pretty good but recommend to order their set meals where side dishes & soup can help raise the level of satisfaction. Otherwise, just Gyoza alone, taste can be pretty flat after having 3 or 4. If you are a Chili person, then the Chili will be nowhere near to satisfy your crave because it is not spicy & and a little salty. Try it with yellow mustard & it tastes surprisingly good. A boost will be the white vinegar, which I thought made a perfect match. Service wise, it is pretty hard to get the attention of the waiters due to the many blind corners, so if you need something, he quicker to look for them instead. There's always a queue, but the waiting time is fast because once seated & order is placed, your food will be served almost instantly, so don't worry if you see a long queue. Just join in 😊 It does have a takeaway menu serving 5pcs cooked at ¥980 &...

Gyoza specialised restaurant near the Ikebukuro Station.

Very fast service and seating. Has an english menu on request and offers variety of shukudo(set meals) with gyoza and very very reasonable prices. Gyoza is just gyoza, sure.. but its the quality and content put into it with the complimentary meals to go with it is just worth it.

Two floors of counters and room, if you're lucky and going in a group you should have a spot upstairs if not its just breaking up the number.

My only gripe was, that one of the staff got offended or something because i mispronounced something in japanese (asking for an english menu) and she thought I'm from China or something an expect to ask a Chinese menu or read Kanji.. Come on mate, Aussies are mix colours too. Little racial reaction there. Probably just a bad day for her. The other staff were so much more friendlier.

Other than that,...

A pretty small store in a corner of an inconspicuous alley at the right hand side of the station. I was intrigued by the sheer size of their gyoza so I tried it along with their mapo tofu set. The gyoza is too big so it must be lacking in some areas, i thought. And I was correct; the gyoza lacked the crunchiness, the bread used was too thick and it was really a chore to eat once it lost its warmth. I was ready to give it 3 stars but the mapo tofu I ordered was too good and overflowing with spices, probably the best I had in Tokyo!

Overall I recommend what I did too, order the gyoza just to tick the box and instead focus on their set meals which were...