Sanyouting: Udon Know What You're Missing

Nestled around the evasive exit D of Yonghegong Station just south of King’s Joy is a new Japanese eatery, a boon for an area seriously lacking in reasonably priced Japanese food. The store is petite, run by two staff members, and can seat 12-14 people, including a private room in the corner.

Sanyouting’s décor is typically Japanese and a TV plays a Japanese cooking channel in the background. The menu covers sushi, salads, fried dishes, udon noodle dishes, tempura, barbecue skewers, and rice dishes. Fortunately, there’s also a keg of fresh Asahi beer in the center of the restaurant, and sake bottles contour the walls: the ultimate mix of food and drink.

The Sanyouting salad (RMB 28) is fresh, with lettuce, cucumber, cherry tomatoes, a generous portion of deep-fried chicken hiding underneath, and a dressing of soy sauce, ginger, and miso. Perhaps the only thing that we had to hold against the salad was a little too much dressing. We also ordered up the house roll, the Sanyouting sushi roll (RMB 68), which was filled with prawn tempura, Japanese omelette, shredded cucumber, rolled in fish roe, and topped off with a spot of Japanese mayonnaise.

Except for a couple of neighborhood restaurants mainly catering to domestic tourists, or the more expensive eateries on the ever-gentrifying Wudaoying Hutong, this is a great addition to the Yonghegong area.

Sanyouting 
Daily 11.30am-1.30pm, 5-11pm. 31 Yonghegong Dajie, Dongcheng District (6408 7824)
三友町：东城区雍和宫大街31号

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