Chinya
ちんや · Chinya
- Ward
- Taito
- Price
- ¥3,500~8,000
- Hours
- 11:30-21:30 (Sun·holidays -21:
- Closed
- Tue
- Getting there
- 1 min walk from Asakusa Stn
- Founded
- 1880
- Founded 1880 and defined by an unusually sweet warishita
- Against the assumption that more marbling is better
- If the main-floor sukiyaki feels like too much
We do not republish copyrighted photographs. Use the links below to see the actual venue.
Obvious to locals, invisible to visitors
There is a simple reason guidebooks leave this out: to the people who live here it is too obvious to be worth explaining.
Founded 1880 and defined by an unusually sweet warishita — almost too sweet to drink on its own, yet exactly right once beef cooks in it. Plenty of regulars prefer it to the better-known Imahan for that reason.
Against the assumption that more marbling is better, this house uses what it calls 'appropriately marbled' beef — thirty-month-raised, low melting point, very fine grain — to its own defined standard.
If the main-floor sukiyaki feels like too much, the basement sister shop is a counter-only steak place with far cheaper lunch sets — open 11:30 to 16:00 only.
What it is
Taito is a ward the shitamachi ward holding Asakusa and Ueno. Walking from the station you will pass it once. It only registers the second time you take that street. Portions run generous — think twice before upsizing. After six in the evening the atmosphere shifts completely — pick your hour to match your purpose. Map apps drift in the narrow lanes; for the last hundred metres, look for the sign instead. This is one of those places that beats its photos. People often arrive with low expectations and leave surprised.
What to order
Why locals keep coming
Prices have barely moved in a decade, meaning the shop has absorbed much of the rise in ingredient costs. Turnover is fast — food arrives quickly and twenty minutes is enough from sitting to standing.