Numbing taste! For a pepper-filled bowl of homogenized noodle soup, try the "Shirinashi homogenized noodle piriri" white sesame homogenized noodle soup, 950 yen!

When you come to Akihabara, you may have a hard time deciding where to have lunch.

In order to help you choose the right place for lunch, here are some Akiba eats recommended by Shun Gori, who is a frequent visitor to Akihabara even when he has no other business in Akihabara.

As an Akibaite who likes to spend money on his hobbies, I will focus on those who can eat for less than 1,000 yen, assuming that the amount of money you can spend for lunch is within 1,000 yen.

Akihabara is a battleground for ramen. You can find delicious ramen just a short walk away, but since ramen tends to focus on tonkotsu (pork bone) and back fat, you may find yourself craving a different type of noodle dish every once in a while.

This time, we visited Piriri, which specializes in "tanranmen," noodles with the intense spiciness (numbness) of huajiao (Chinese pepper).

Piriri is located along Kuramae-bashi-dori, an 8-minute walk from JR Akihabara Station and a 1-minute walk from Suehirocho Station. The exterior of the shop looks at first glance like a stylish coffee shop, so don't pass by it by accident.

On the outside of the restaurant, there is a hand-painted signboard with the name of the restaurant "Piriri" (担担麺ピリリ). It is a good idea to use this as a landmark when looking for the restaurant.

The restaurant has three tables (8 seats) and a counter with 7 seats, for a total of 15 seats, which is medium-sized for a restaurant in the Akihabara area. The aisles are wide and comfortable.

There is no special lunch menu, so order from the regular menu. You can choose to add more noodles, meat, toppings, etc., depending on how hungry you are.

As the name suggests, the signature item on the menu at Piriri is "dan dan men" (noodles without soup), but the pepper used at the restaurant is a standard spice often used in mainland Chinese cuisine, such as Sichuan cuisine. It is the rind of a plant belonging to the sansho genus of the mandarin orange family, and is also called "kasho" in Japan.

Since I came to the restaurant seeking the numbing spiciness of this pepper, I chose the "spicy" option. Because of its peculiar spiciness, first-time customers may want to choose "moderate" or "normal" to find the best spiciness for them.

Here is my order of "White Sesame Dan Dan Noodle (spicy).

You can see that a large amount of hwaseng (pepper) has been sprinkled on the noodles (the brown powder is hwaseng).

Toppings include green onions, potherb mustard, minced meat, and a lot of pepper. The author has lived in mainland China and Taiwan, so he is used to it, but if you are not accustomed to it, you may find the smell quite pungent at this point.

The noodles are flat and wavy, and the white sesame-based sauce goes well with them.

The soupless noodle soup has to be mixed before it can be served. Before eating, mix and mix and mix.

The most popular item on the "Piriri Piriri" menu is the "White Sesame Tangramen," which I ordered this time.

Indeed, the white sesame-based sauce mitigates the numbing effect of the pepper, and even with such a large amount of sesame seeds poured on the noodles, they are not too spicy to be eaten.

The minced meat is also very satisfying, as it is coarsely minced.

The spiciness and numbness of the pepper, the mild taste of the white sesame sauce, and the texture of the ground meat and potherb mustard accented with the spiciness and numbness of the pepper and the white sesame sauce, will make your appetite grow stronger and stronger.

By the way, after eating this amount of food, I was drenched in sweat, and I could feel my body warming up from the inside.

I finished the meal without incident! I find that the cold water after eating cools my body like the water you drink after completing a full marathon. You can taste that intense numbness and spiciness.

That is why I visited Piriri, a restaurant near Suehirocho Station that specializes in tan-an-men (homogenized noodle soup).

The restaurant uses hwajo (Chinese pepper) imported from mainland China, so we hope you will enjoy the authentic taste of hwajo in Akihabara!

The pepper is said to help improve loss of appetite and indigestion, as well as stimulate the central nervous system and activate the workings of the internal organs!

Store Information

Name:Shirunashi Tantanmen Piriri

Address:D.B Suehirocho Building 1F, 3-7-8 Sotokanda, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo

Phone:03-6262-9993

Business hours:
Mon. 11:00-15:00

Tue-Fri 11:00-15:00, 17:00-21:30
Sat. 11:00-21:30
Sun. and holidays 11:00-20:00

Closed: Unscheduled holidays, Year-end and New Year holidays

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