Hunting around you can still find a bowl of noodles in Hangzhou for very little money so Ajisen Ramen’s 20-30RMB per bowl seems a little cheeky. Of course your local Xinjiang Hand-pulled Noodle cupboard isn’t exactly 5-star comfort, in fact most of those places don’t even have a front door, a slight turn-off in the winter. But paying four or five times the rate for the pleasure of a front door?

On the other hand, Aijsen doesn’t have a happy family of rats kicking back at the next door table having had a good filling of Xinjiang Banmian. (And they probably wouldn’t be kicking back at all if they knew from which animal came that meat.) In fact, Ajisen, while a chain of almost fast-food restaurants ,is comfortable, with soft chairs, great decoration, and a speedy service.

The menu is huge, with photos of all items, and listings in English, Chinese and Japanese. The dishes listed as spicy are spicy so be warned. I would recommend getting a bowl of noodles and one other dish person – chicken wings, dumplings, spring rolls, deep-dried Yellow Fish filets are all good homely grub with a jig degree of consistency.

They shot me down trying to photos in the restaurant so I had to scrounge these from their uncopiable website.

There are 3 restaurants in hangzhou, and another 11 in Zhiejiang – maybe an option after one of those factory visits
-

-

-