Chichibu Pari Shokudo: Sauce Katsudon in a 1927 Cultural Property

A little ambition on the outside

From the street, the building makes a slightly grander claim than its floor plan can support. It is wooden and two storeys high, with a raised façade that makes it appear to have three.

The third floor is strictly for appearances.

Cornices and egg-and-dart moulding—alternating oval and pointed ornaments—give the weathered exterior a touch of Western architectural ambition. This was a shopfront built to attract attention in early Shōwa Chichibu. Almost a century later, it was still doing so.

Then there is the name. Pari suggests Paris, but the reason for choosing it is no longer known for certain.

First, find the rice

There was plenty here to occupy someone with a camera. Eventually, however, a lidded bowl arrived and gave me a reason to put it down.

Lifting the lid revealed pork cutlets covering almost everything beneath them. The rice was present, but receiving very little exposure.

Still serving

The old tables and chairs had helped persuade me that I was somewhere worth photographing. Once the bowl arrived, I was rather more interested in what the kitchen could do.

One of the posters on the wall was for Zetsumeshi Road, a TV drama about seeking out zetsumeshi—excellent food in danger of dying out. Its photograph had been taken at Pari Shokudo’s own entrance; the restaurant appeared in a 2020 episode.

The danger has since become structural. In 2025, the restaurant reported that a seismic assessment had found that the building could collapse in a major earthquake. A crowdfunding campaign followed, to help pay for the repairs.