Kenmin Foods, maker of Japan's best-selling bifun (rice noodle) brand with a 43.6% market share*1, is bringing its directly run Chinese restaurant, Kenmin Dining, to the Greater Tokyo area for the first time. From September 9, the restaurant joins "THE TIME, & Omeza Gourmet Festa" at Yagihashi Department Store in Saitama. Kenmin Dining recently refreshed its menu around a "gluten-free × Chinese cuisine" concept to mark its 30th anniversary, and the department store appearance is a chance for more people to discover it. Visitors can watch a live cooking demonstration of the restaurant's signature yakibifun (stir-fried rice noodles), a dish that has drawn loyal fans in Kobe for 30 years, as its rice-noodle base meets the growing demand for gluten-free options.
*1: Customs statistics, bifun category, January–December 2025 share: 43.6%
Menu Lineup
Kenmin-Style Yakibifun — ¥750 (tax included)
The noodles are thin, rice-flour bifun with a satisfying bite, paired with juicy pork belly and five kinds of vegetables that pair well with the noodles. Rice-based soy sauce adds a savory aroma.
Spicy Yakibifun — ¥900 (tax included)
Several types of chili pepper are blended in a precise ratio. Their sharp heat combines with the richness of nuts for a deep, layered flavor — a balance of umami, aroma, and spice that keeps people coming back.
Yakibifun Duo (Best of Both) — ¥1,080 (tax included)
A good-value plate that lets diners enjoy both the Kenmin-style and spicy yakibifun in one order.
Dishes are served in simple containers.
Event Overview
- Dates: September 9 (Wed) to September 14 (Mon), 2026
- Hours: 10:00 AM to 6:30 PM (closes at 5:00 PM on the final day)
- Venue: Yagihashi Department Store, 7th floor event space — https://www.yagihashi.co.jp/
- Address: 74 Nakamachi, Kumagaya, Saitama
Retail Sale of Kenmin Classics
Alongside the restaurant pop-up, a retail sale will offer Kenmin Foods' best-known packaged products, including the long-selling "Kenmin Yaki Bifun," a vegetable-packed dish that can be prepared in three minutes, and the wheat-free "Rice Pasta."
About Kenmin Dining
Kenmin Dining is a rare, nationwide example of a Chinese restaurant specializing in bifun, run directly by Kenmin Foods, Japan's largest bifun maker. It has been selected three times for Tabelog's WEST 100 list of top Chinese restaurants.
The restaurant opened in 1995 on the ground floor of Kenmin Foods' own building in Kobe's Motomachi district, created to introduce more people to the company's house-made bifun. Over the past 30 years it has drawn both local diners and visitors from other prefectures, with lines forming outside and frequent coverage in the media.
To mark its 30th anniversary, the restaurant was renovated and its cooking rebuilt from the ground up around rice-based ingredients — rice soy sauce, rice flour, rice oil, and rice-flour Chinese noodles — with the aim of drawing out the natural flavor of ingredients in dishes that are gentler on the body.
Kenmin Dining (exterior)
Kenmin Dining (interior)
Meet the Head Chef
Kenmin Dining's head chef, Ryota Matsumoto, graduated from the Osaka Abeno Tsuji Culinary Institute. He served as sous chef at a well-known Sichuan restaurant, then held opening head chef roles at several branches of a respected Cantonese restaurant group based mainly in the Kansai region. He joined Kenmin Foods in 2014 and became opening head chef of Kenmin Dining's second location, "Kenmin Dining Roppongi," when it opened in 2016 (that location closed in 2021). He became sous chef at the main Kenmin Dining restaurant in 2021 and head chef in 2022. Since the restaurant's 30th-anniversary renewal in December 2025, he has been developing dishes that bring together gluten-free cooking and Chinese cuisine.
Comment from Head Chef Ryota Matsumoto
Chinese cooking is often associated with wheat flour and potato starch, but using rice flour this time led to a discovery — it makes the oil finish lighter and improves the texture. It was enjoyable to think through dishes that bring out the natural flavor of the ingredients. Letting go of fixed ideas allowed us to arrive at a new kind of Chinese cuisine.
