'Do you know any good places for soup fried rice?' He asked, "Soup fried rice? What's that?" I took a bite and went to the Chinese restaurant he introduced to me! The Chinese restaurant is located in Higashi Ward, Niigata City, and is called Sadun ( JODAN).

2-5-13, Higashinakajima, Higashi-ku, Niigata City, Niigata Prefecture

The shop is set up like this. A private house (?). It looks like part of a house and is rather tasteful. We headed there while being guided on our way, but the location is by no means good.　 Click here for a map.

In fact, I had heard in advance that it was a Dirty but Michelinrestaurant. Dirty but MichelinI didn't know what it meant, but it seems to mean 'a restaurant that looks ugly but tastes good'. However, when I actually went inside, it was completely beautiful.

We visited the shop on a Wednesday. Many private restaurants are closed on this day, but the restaurant was almost fully booked. We decided to have our food at the counter.

The chef at Sadun trained at that famous restaurant in Yokohama Chinatown, HENCHINRO! 'Eh? Where? How do you read that?" How do you read that? It is the oldest Chinese restaurant in Japan! Incidentally, I had never heard of it (sweat). I asked the waiter, "Well, how do you read this? It's Chochinro, isn't it?" I didn't know it at all. The correct name is "Heichin-ro"!

The menu is like a Chinese restaurant, with many varieties! I wanted to order a lot of different things, but this time there were two of us, so we chose the rice dishes. I chose, of course, the 'Fried Rice with Superlative Soup' (極上スープかけチャーハン, \950}. I heard it was recommended, but there was no comment on the menu, so I guess it's not a speciality.

And this is what was brought in!

D'oh! It came in a bowl like a big bowl of ramen. As you'd expect from a Chinese restaurant, what they do is big.

And the prawns are huge.

But soup fried rice is soaked in soup, isn't it! I was surprised because I had never seen it before. When I went home and searched for images on google, I found that there are many types of soup fried rice, from the slightly submerged under the floor type to the submerged in the soup type. ( Reference.)

As for the taste, the combination of the superb soup and the fried rice, as described on the menu, was a perfect match. The soup is a bit lightly seasoned, but it complements the flavour of the well-seasoned fried rice. The shredded pork mixed in with the fried rice also added a nice flavour. The meal went on and on and on.

But, however, the volume is a bit large! As it is soaked in the soup, the rice soaks up the water and increases in volume every minute. It's hot at first and catty eaters may struggle, but it's probably just as well to eat it a bit quickly.

Incidentally, photos were also uploaded of my Tsure's Ankake Fried Noodles \840} and dessert of Apricot Bean Curd \420}.

The apricot bean curd was as the menu commented, "Very soft and drinkable (?)". As the menu commented, "It's very soft and drinkable (?) apricot bean curd"! I drank it down in the sink at the end.

I first came to JODAN. I posted it on Facebook and got responses such as "It's good there!" I posted it on Facebook and received responses such as "It's delicious there, isn't it? I guess it's a famous restaurant for people who know about it. When it comes to shops, we tend to only look at the ones that appear in magazines, but when we find a 'hidden gem' shop like this, it makes us very happy.