Since I was craving Chinese food and since I was staying at Hotel Metropolitan Nagano, I decided to give Chinese Restaurant Fan Fahr a try. I will say that the food here was good though and there were actually some memorable menu items. That said, I don’t think my dining experience here was stellar. I think the best description for my dining experience here would be filling yet uneventful. By the way, there’s another good restaurant near this place, the Nagano-ken Choju-shokudo which I also tried and discussed my experience in another post.
Fan Fahr Chinese Restaurant Near Nagano Station: Flavorful, Filling Food at Reasonable Prices
I initially thought I needed to reserve a seat here in advance but turns out, you can actually just walk in. Take note though that they are only open for lunch and dinner service (By the way, I had my breakfast at the Hotel Metropolitan Nagano.). They open at around 11:30AM and close lunch service at around 2:30PM. The restaurant then opens again for dinner service at 5:30PM and this typically ends at 9:30PM.
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The interior has a decidedly modern look and I find that it’s actually well lit. The look is very basic though and some people might even go so far as to call it boring. I personally won’t care that much about the ambiance so long as the food tastes great.
The first thing I ordered was the Stir Fried Beef with Green Pepper that costs around JPY2700. I know what you’re thinking. No, this isn’t a noodle dish. While it might look like these are stir fried noodles, they’re actually strips of beef that’s been cut really thinly. I loved the velveting on the beef and the pepper really adds a little sweetness and texture to the dish as a whole.
For vegetables, the restaurant was offering this green vegetables stir fry that was low-key tasty. You knew the vegetables were fresh (or relatively fresh) because they still had some crunch to them and the greens still looked vibrant. It costs only JPY1800 for a serving and I thought it complemented the beef really well.
Considering this is a Chinese restaurant, I also decided to order shark’s fin soup. Unlike most Chinese restaurants I’ve been to though, the shark’s fin soup here is special thanks to the addition of crab meat. I thought it was a lot tastier and the texture was also a lot “richer” (for lack of a better term). An order of this cost me around JPY3200
Rounding out my meal was this order of soup dumplings. I really liked how these tasted. The soup was rich with flavor and the filling was quite tasty. To be fair, these probably aren’t going to be the best soup dumplings you’ll ever taste. That said, at JPY840 for an order of three, I think these were well worth the price.
Menu
One thing I’ll say about Fan Fahr, its physical menu looks really nice. I kind of like the imperial red color and the gold text.
Since this was during dinner service, I was given the dinner menu. On the bottom of this page, it says something about allergies and how customers should communicate if they have one to the staff. It also informs guests that all the food is prepared in the same kitchen so there might be a chance that ingredients that adhere to the cooking implements/utensils might mix.
Here’s a flowery description of the food here at Chinese Restaurant Fan Fahr. The blurb talks about the food in the restaurant having the best ingredients and made with traditional Chinese cooking techniques from throughout the country.
Here’s the restaurant’s most affordable casual course which it calls Botan. To order the course, you’ll need to be in a group of 2 at the very least. Meals included in this course range from Almond jelly, Fan Fahr style spring rolls, Wok fried prawns with rock salt, to stir fried chicken with sweet and sour sauce with pepper (just to name a few).
Much like with the Botan course, Gyokka will require guests to be in groups of at least 2 as well. This is available for dinner and is a lot pricier at JPY12000 per person. That being said, the price is wholly justified as guests will get to enjoy dishes such as stir fried wagyu beef with black pepper, braised shark fin soy sauce, stir fried prawn with spicy sauce, and a host of appetizers and desserts.
If you’re not too keen on the meal courses, you might want to order a la carte instead. Here’s a list of dishes you can order this way that are highly recommended by the chef. The topmost item is a braised shark’s fin soup with crab meat that is priced at JPY12000. There’s also stir fried truffle and shrimp (at JPY3200) as well as a wagyu beef dish for JPY3800.
Here are some of the other a la carte items in the menu. The restaurant has delicacies like braised dried sea cucumber in soy sauce and a leveled-up version of it that has braised abalone. Of course, the most expensive item on the menu here is the braised shark’s fin soup in soy sauce that sells for JPY18000. If that’s too much, you can always do like I did and just order the shark’s fin soup with crab meat for JPY3200.
For seafood dishes, the restaurant has stir fried shrimp and squid dishes with a variety of sauces. Stir fried meat dishes are also available and are priced as low as JPY2400 (for chicken) to a reasonable JPY 2700 for the stir fried beef and green pepper that I ordered.
If meat isn’t your thing, then you could opt for the stir fried leafy green vegetables that I got for JPY1800 or a braised eggplant and pork dish for JPY1600. You might also want to consider the Sichuan-style mapo tofu which also goes for JPY1600 for an order.
I would have wanted more dim sum items but the selection of dishes they have here is still nice. I was thinking of getting the spring rolls and shu-mai but I already had the xiao long bao so I just settled with that. I also would’ve wanted a dessert but I really wasn’t feeling what they were offering here.
To sum up my Fan Fahr Chinese Restaurant experience, I’d say the food here was okay but could have used more variety. What also could’ve used more variety was the interiors as I think it looked too plain and unremarkable. That said, the food that they did offer (or at least the ones I tasted) were flavorful, filling, and I think well worth the price. What are the Chinese restaurants you’d recommend when in Nagano? Share your thoughts and insights with us!
