Piao Xiang: The hottest Szechuan joint in town

If it weren't for the line of customers snaking up the stairs and spilling onto the sidewalk, Piao Xiang would be easy to miss. This Szechuan cuisine specialist in Yoyogi-Uehara does little to announce its presence. From the outside, it looks like an ordinary hole-in-the-wall Chinese restaurant, with only a sun-faded poster to mark its entrance. Despite this, and the fact that it relies primarily on word-of-mouth marketing, Piao Xiang is often fully booked for dinner up to two weeks in advance.

The big secret to Piao Xiang's success: the food is delicious. Chef Yoshiki Igeta has wooed his audience with a special combination of Tokyoite sophistication and authentic Szechuan flavors. The Chiba native has been working at Chinese restaurants since he was 15, and it shows. He cooks with a light touch, but his dishes resonate with the intense, nostalgic flavors he discovered while training in the Szechuan region of China.

Morsels of moist steamed chicken and fried tofu accented with a dollop of spicy sesame paste are fragrant and earthy. A tidy mound of rice tossed with strips of Napa cabbage, bathed in a thick sauce flecked with dried scallops, surprises with its richness. Over a bed of suirensai water lily stems, plump boiled shrimp and juicy pork dumplings are drizzled with homemade la yu chili oil. The heat of the chili oil is just hot enough to offset the mild sweetness of the shrimp without overpowering it. 

Though simple in presentation, desserts such as ice cream infused with tongue-tingling, aromatic sansho Japanese pepper (one of the key ingredients in la yu) display Igeta's flair for creativity. Some of Igeta's after-dinner inventions are arrestingly unusual: A fresh strawberry granita with jelly-like white wood ear mushrooms is strangely reminiscent of spiced berry pie.

Piao Xiang: Yoyogi-Uehara 001 B1, Uehara 1-29-5, Shibuya-ku, tel. 03 3468 3486