Calling All Mapo Tofu Lovers!

Mrs. Ibaraki Eats is an amazing partner to go on food adventures with. She has a sweet tooth and loves dessert. She is also a fan of flavorful and spicy food like curry. When it comes to Chinese and Taiwanese cuisine, her eyes light up when she sees mapo tofu. That being said, you can imagine her excitement when she found out that there was a place in Tsukuba that was well known for its mapo tofu. That is how we found ourselves at Kin No Baketsu.

Kin No Baketsu

Kin No Baketsu is a Taiwanese restaurant that mainly specializes in mapo tofu, located in the Amakubo area of Tsukuba. It is a pretty small restaurant tucked away between a few other buildings. If you are coming from Route 55, turn left onto the small road after the men's hair salon. Immediately turn right and follow the small side street to the restaurant. If you see the build-your-own-ramen place and the Chinese supermarket, you have gone too far. There are a few parking spaces around the restaurant and a few places to park your bike if you plan on cycling.
Kin No Baketsu has a super long name in kanji that I am not even going to bother translating. Even the name Kin No Baketsu was a bit confusing for Mrs. Ibaraki Eats. She thought the place was called Kin No Uma Yui since the kanji literally says that. But hey, whoever said kanji was easy.
The Ibaraki Eats Duo went to Kin No Baketsu on a hot, muggy Tuesday evening. Mrs. Ibaraki Eats was very excited to have her mapo tofu.

Inside

The inside of Kin No Bakestu is pretty small and narrow. There is a small counter space area to the right of the entrance, and the rest of the restaurant is all tables and chairs. I believe that this restaurant can hold maybe 18 people max. Most of the customers were college students since the university is close by. Since the restaurant was full, we had to sit by the entrance and wait for some chairs to open up. While we were waiting, we checked out the menu.

The Menu

Sorry, my non-Japanese speakers, this menu is in Japanese only.
This menu is all about the mapo tofu. You can have your mapo tofu with rice, yakisoba, or as ramen. You can also mix rice with yakisoba and mapo tofu. The numbers under the mapo tofu plates are the spicy levels. Good luck if you choose level 7. Under that are different toppings like cheese and nuts. Under that is the salad and drink set.
On the other side of the menu is the ramen section, the gyoza section, and the dessert section.
After looking at the menu for a little bit, two seats opened up at the counter area and we were seated and ready to order.

Fried Cheese Spring Rolls

Mrs. Ibaraki Eats wanted an appetizer before we dug into our mapo tofu. She found fried cheese and that was that. Before our mapo tofu made its way to our counter, these beautiful-looking spring rolls showed up and made our dinner experience so much greater. Sprinkled with a little bit of salt, these fried cheese spring rolls were amazing. I loved how crispy and brown they were and I loved how I got a satisfying crunch when I bit into the spring rolls. What came after that initial crunch was delicious, gooey, melted cheese. This was an amazing decision by Mrs. Ibaraki Eats.

Rice and Yakisoba Mapo Tofu

It was time for our mapo tofu. This was my order: the rice and yakisoba mapo tofu with a level 1 spice level mapo tofu. What surprised me was how huge the plate was. It was huge. It may not look like it from the picture, but this plate took up almost the whole section of my counter area. I was shocked by how much mapo tofu I was getting, and I couldn't wait to dig in.
I got a spoonful of mapo tofu and tried it. First off, the spicy level. Level 1 is not spicy. It has some spicy flavor to it, but otherwise, it is very mild. If you can't handle spice at all, this is the level for you. Secondly, the tofu was great and I really loved putting in some rayu (chili oil) to spice things up. Kin No Baketsu makes their own rayu, and it is heavenly. The rice was Ok, but I loved the yakisoba. It had a burnt part on the bottom that went very well with the mapo tofu.
Not a bad mapo tofu Kin No Baketsu.

Two Mapo Tofu with Rice

This was Mrs. Ibaraki Eats' order. Two different mapo tofu with a crescent moon-looking shape of rice. My wife decided to have a level 1 spice level of mapo tofu on the left side, and a level 2 on the right. She grabbed a spoonful of mapo tofu with rice and gave it a try. My wife had the same opinion on the level 1 mapo tofu. Not spicy but good. She was also a big fan of the rayu. She loved it so much that she bought a small jar of Kin No Baketsu's rayu to take home.
My wife then gave the level 2 mapo tofu a try and she liked it way better than the level 1. She said that it had more flavor and had a bit of a spicy kick to it. After trying it myself, I had to agree. It had way more flavor, and if you added the rayu, it became a fantastic plate of mapo tofu. Speaking of the plate, it was roughly the same size as my plate. Meaning it was huge. We were both so surprised by how much food we got that we were sure we were going to be extremely full by the end of our meal. To our pleasant surprise (well not really since this was 80% tofu), we weren't super full but just full. It was nice to feel light and satisfied after having such a large meal. Not bad, Kin No Baketsu.

Kin No Baketsu, thank you for curing my wife's craving for tasty mapo tofu. She was in a state of bliss after we finished our meal and is hoping we can visit your restaurant again soon. I feel the same way and would love to try the ramen mapo tofu next time.

So, if you are in the mood for some mapo tofu and are around the Amakubo area of Tsukuba, why not give Kin No Baketsu a chance? Who knows? You might see us there. We will most likely be trying the ramen mapo tofu with gyoza and crispy spring rolls.
Enjoy!

For more information on Kin No Baketsu, check out their Instagram page:
https://www.instagram.com/kinnobaketsu/