Chili Parlor 9 - Kudanshita, Tokyo

I do not claim to be any sort of expert on chili, but having grown up in Hawaii and having eaten Zippy's chili since "hanabata days" (Hawaiian Pidgin English for "since I was a wee lad"), it's definitely on my list of comfort foods. As good and affordable as Japanese food is in a city like Tokyo, occasionally those cravings for something familiar start appearing from out of the shadows. For example, I don't really eat Mexican food that often when I'm stateside, but after a few months of eating stuff like gyudon, curry, and kaisendon on a daily basis, I start hearing "yo quiero Taco Bell" in my head. However, that is a story for another blog entry to be written in the near future, today's entry is about chili.

I saw a review for this place Chili Parlor 9 pop up on bento.com, which is a site I use often when looking for new places to check out in Tokyo. The only gripe I have with the site is that most of the places I find myself in often (Hongo and Mitaka) don't seem to have a lot of places listed, but maybe that's because they don't really have that many? Bento.com's review claims that this place is "Tokyo's only specialty chili restaurant" and so I had to go check it out. Because they're only open from 8am-8pm Monday through Friday, I gave up trying to go there at 7pm a few days earlier. The fact that they are located squarely in the middle of three different train stations did not help either. Google maps does not compensate walking time for traffic, hills, stairs or crowds when estimating walking times.

When I finally decided to go, I walked from Ichigaya station (JR Sobu, Tokyo Metro Yurakucho, Tokyo Metro Nanboku, or Toei Shinjuku lines) but it is also accessible from Iidabashi station (JR Sobu, Tokyo Metro Yurakucho, Tokyo Metro Nanboku, Tokyo Metro Tozai, and Toei Shinjuku lines) and Kudanshita station (Tokyo Metro Hanzomon, Tokyo Metro Tozai, and Toei Shinjuku lines). Regardless of which station you might be coming from, prepare to walk for about 1km (a little over half a mile for Americans). Chili Parlor 9 is located across the street from the South entrance of Yasukuni Shrine and right down the street from the Budokan, so you can add sightseeing to the agenda, instead of just making it a "food mission" as I did. I would have done more sightseeing but when it's sunny, 33°C (92°F) and over 70% humidity outside, the feelings of "I'll check it out next time" or "I'll just Google what it looks like later" outweigh any feelings of wanderlust.

Chili Parlor 9 as seen from the street corner 

South entrance of Yasukuni shrine

Lunch menu

As seen on the menu, chili comes with either rice, bread or a bread bowl and the option of either cheddar cheese of sour cream. There is also vegetarian chili and a "chili of the day" (which got cut off at the bottom of the picture). Looking at the picture of the menu again, I am kicking myself for not getting the Chili with hot dog or sandwich (hummus sandwich!) set or trying the Sanktgallen microbrew ale. Looks like I need to go back again "for further research" in the near future. I ordered the "Standard Beef Chili" (Large) in a bread bowl with cheddar cheese and an "onsen (poached) egg" (1000円). While the idea of chili with bread instead of rice seemed bizarre to me, how often does one get to eat something in a bread bowl aside from clam chowder in San Francisco?

In addition to the chili, there is a small salad and a bowl of cole slaw, which is also in a jar on the counter next to another jar filled with what appears to be homemade pickled vegetables. Which means, "all you can eat cole slaw and pickles! The pickles were good; as a guest on a variety show might say, "it makes you want some white rice to go with it" but the cole slaw might have been too fancy for my liking. But then again, if anyone out there really likes cole slaw, please direct me to some good stuff. If it's any consolation, this stuff was "streets ahead" of the mysterious green slop that KFC passes off as cole slaw. While not as meaty or spicy as I would have liked, at least there were 3 different hot sauces available to add some heat. The main problem was trying to figure out which one was the hottest since all the labels had the word "mellow" on them. Next time I will take pictures of the sauces as well as not wait until I am starving to go there so I can pay more attention. Adding chopped onions and cilantro to the chili made it seem fancier than other chilis I have had before, but at the same time, it's like adding avocados to poke. 

Aside from the guy a few seats over at the counter sighing as if he was having the worst day of his life, atmosphere was nice. As an American-themed restaurant, I was pleasantly surprised to not hear a single familiar song playing in the background the entire time I was there. No rare feat since the music sounded like it came from an oldies station playlist and I spent many many hours in Honolulu traffic listening to the local oldies station when every other station seemed to play the same terrible songs every hour on the hour. But the state of radio in Hawaii is a topic for another time (and maybe another blogger who actually listens to the radio in Hawaii). In closing, I will be going back to Chili Parlor 9, perhaps when the weather is not trying to melt my face, perhaps earlier in the day to see what their breakfast menu looks like.

P.S. Why is it Chili Parlor 9? Are there 8 other locations? If not, what happened to them? Is this some arbitrary "add a number" naming ploy? Why is the K-pop group named 4 Minute when there are 5 members?

Kudan-Minami 3-7-12. Open 8am-8pm. Closed Sundays. 03-3234-2309

東京都千代田区九段南3-7-12　営業 8時ー20時　休業日曜日