櫻花
Numbing heat, drawn in ink — authentic Sichuan in Nakano.
麻×辣
Two characters. One discipline.
麻 — the slow electric hum of Sichuan peppercorn, a numbness that opens the palate. 辣 — the bright bloom of chili oil, vivid and immediate. Held together they are not heat, but architecture.
For six years from a quiet street in Nakano, Ouka has worked the canon of Sichuan and greater China without compromise — hand-folded dumplings, double-broth pots, slow lacquers of black vinegar — drawn with the precision of ink on rice paper.
Six plates we would put our name to.
The full menu runs past one hundred dishes — these are the ones our regulars order before they sit down.
- 01
鴛鴦火鍋 Yuanyang Twin-Broth Hot PotMala fire on one side, milk-white restraint on the other — a study in opposites.
辣 麻 - 02
焼き餃子 Pan-fried DumplingsLace-thin skin, a hard golden floor, pork and chive folded by hand.
辣 麻 - 03
よだれ鶏 Saliva ChickenCold poached chicken under a slow lacquer of red oil — quiet, then thunder.
辣 麻 - 04
黒酢酢豚 Black-Vinegar Sweet & Sour PorkOld Zhenjiang vinegar reduced to a glossy lacquer over crisp shoulder.
辣 麻 - 05
ラム肉炒め Cumin Lamb Stir-fryWok smoke, toasted cumin, dried chilies — a desert wind off the wok edge.
辣 麻 - 06
麻婆豆腐 Mapo TofuSilk tofu in a broth of doubanjiang and Sichuan peppercorn — the canonical 麻.
辣 麻
貸切
Up to fifty guests, one long table, the full kitchen.
Weddings, company dinners, family banquets — we open the dining room in full, set a tasting of fifteen courses, and let the wok speak. Chinese-, Japanese- and English-speaking staff throughout the evening.
Warm wood, paper lanterns, low conversation — a Tokyo dining room that holds its volume the way good calligraphy holds the brush.
Nakano. Five minutes on foot.
- Address
- N Square Bldg 1F
3-31-8 Nakano, Nakano City
Tokyo 164-0001 · Japan - Phone
- 050-5488-8382
- Hours
- Mon — Sat 11:00 — 15:00 · 17:00 — 23:30
Closed Sundays - Access
- 5-min walk from JR / Tokyo Metro Nakano Station, south exit.
