Chinrai 珍来 Ramen, Urayasu

Well, it's been a long hiatus since my last post.  To be honest, I just got caught up with work.  I have a bit of free time now, so let the reviews and good times roll!

Last night I had to stop at Seiyu to do some Easter Bunny shopping and was just looking for a quick bite to eat.  Japan is a great place in that regard since so many salarymen want to eat quickly and head home or back to the office.  I decided to go to 珍来, a place I had seen for years but never tried.  For your information, the  珍来 is easy to find as it's right across from the Urayasu Starbucks.  Here's what it looks like at night:

This 珍来 shop is themed like a 昭和 (Showa) era ramen shop, which would be the 50's and 60's in Japan.  For those who don't know, Japan has two calendars, one based on the western calendar that we are all familiar with and one based on the reign of a given emperor.  Once the particular emperor's reign is over, the year starts again at 0, but with the new name of the emperor's reign in front.  For example 昭和 Showa 54 would be the 54th year of the 昭和 emperor (this would be 1979 on the western calendar).

Since this 珍来 is 昭和 themed, various 50's and 60's posters are on the wall.  Like these:

 Some Sinatra-looking Japanese dude.

Sure this dude is happy.  All he has to do is look down for a great view of some impressive perky curves.

What impressed me about the artwork was it was actually painted on the wall.  Really looked like actual posters to me.  I guess painting them made maintenance much easier.  Now on to the review...

I didn't get the ramen because I had ramen for lunch on the day I went to 珍来． Being Chinese, I decided to go for the fried rice and my favorite of favorites, gyoza.  Here is what the fried rice looked like:

The fried rice was pretty average.  600 yen and fast.  I got soup with it too.  I really like the heavier, darker American Cantonese style fried rice that I had grown up on better than what they have here in Japan, a lighter more Mandarin version of fried rice.  I think my grandfather put a little peanut butter and molasses in the fried rice at our restaurant in the Chicago area.  The gyoza were good:

 
They were larger than the average gyoza and their shells were soft and a bit crunchy.  The garlic and pork came together nicely.  300 yen will get you 5 of them.

All in all, I think I'll try 珍来 again for the ramen next time since 珍来 is known for its ramen.  As for the fried rice, I'll give it 3 rice bowls out of 5 rice bowls.  I'll give the gyoza 4 dumplings out of 5 dumplings.

Thanks for patiently waiting over a month for my latest post and please come again.