Kameido Gyoza Honten — Restaurant in Tokyo

I had to come and try by myself this very famous gyoza joint to see what’s all the fuss about. I ended up with mixed feelings, as the overall experience was very interesting, but the core of it, the gyozas, were not that great – or at least to the point I was expecting. It is located only 5 minutes away from Kameido station, and you can find it easily as there is always people lining up outside. I knew that from the beginning, but fortunately I had read some reviews that the customer turnover was quite fast, so I queued without issue. As expected, in less than 10 minutes I was already inside and that’s were the experience started. There’s only one item in the menu, gyozas, and all they’ll ask you is for a drink. Be careful because I went into an unnecessary struggle while ordering and the woman, insisting for my answer, understood big beer instead of small beer. Suddenly an enormous bottle of beer came to me with my plate of gyozas. Similar to a Brazilian rodizio, all they will ask you is if you want more gyozas, and they’ll bring you a plate of 5 everytime you ask for more. If you think so, it is not expensive, as 15 gyozas turn out to be 900 yen, plus the drink. Also, if you don’t feel like drinking anything, just say you want water and you won’t be obliged to order...

Ordered gyoza to go and they were good, but I don't know... Not to go out of your way and get them, I've had many better ones. They give you mustard and a mini bottle of spicy sauce (but there was no soy sauce or vinegar, which I'm most used to for dumplings).

The first time we passed by we had already eaten dinner and just wanted to try 5 (the minimum order) but the lady at the front told us minimum 15 (3 orders).... I felt she was a bit rude in her way of speaking... The next time we actually ordered, we weren't told that.

Keep in mind if you take out cooked vs frozen, there's a small charge.

Take out is pretty fast, although when we arrive we waited in line after people waiting for a table so we wasted over 5 minutes until someone local came asking for take out (mochikaeiri or something like that), that we realized we didn't need to wait.

I had tried mentioning I wanted take out but they probably didn't hear me... I think one solution would be to have signs on both sides of the door, one side for eat in and one side...

When a restaurant serves one item for food, you know it has to be good.

Sitting down at Kameron Gyoza, you get a small plate of cooked bean sprouts, and a plate of 5 gyoza almost immediately. You are required to eat 2 plates of gyoza as a minimum seat charge is ¥600, and each successive plate of gyoza is ¥300.

You can make a small dish to dip your gyoza out of the chili, soy, vinegar, and karashi that is in front of you.

These are the best gyoza I have ever eaten, silky on the bottom, nice crispy tops that give a great outside texture wrap to the delicious filling inside. You will find yourself eating plate after plate without thinking about it because they are...