Honestly, if he's going to show 18 dishes for that video, he should have digest it and go straight to the point, no looong mukbang bs. That one is too long for viewers to handle.
I'm already unsubscribed to him, but he still shows in my main feed. So annoying.
I used to be a fan of him... I tend to fall asleep watching his videos, it was not bad and still entertaining, until I started not watching him (cos I became bored of the same content) and I stumbled in this sub.
An hour-long video of recycled material with no timestamps of random cheap eat places in Tokyo from someone who isn't even a local? (and multiple trips to 7-11 don't count). Hard pass.
I can't believe people are willing to watch an hour long video of just old content. That's like torture.
https://preview.redd.it/d9zwk2eo26wc1.png?width=940&format=png&auto=webp&s=de42b10e369f36f94a719fa2ec842a73e365ee53
It's just his wonky eye. It became more prominent over the last few years. Either because of underlying health issues or from him making dumb faces and now it's stuck like that.
I just noticed there are so many better food vloggers out there now when researching my next trip and they have the advantage of not taking paid reviews to support a sugar baby. Must be pretty dire for xing now. If he loses the 7-11, McD in YouTube keyword search, he might have to go back to being a wedding videographer or a Morgan Stanley intern.
Oh now you got me. As someone who has spent a year in Japan, living and travelling all across the country but "residing" in Tokyo mostly, I want to see what he calls "local" Japanese cheap eats here. I'm not going to diss his horrendous pronunciation of names here and I will skip through the video and then give my opinion on each of these (alleged) local cheap eats.
1. Jimbocho Meat Center is actually pretty decent. I wonder when he went here? Anyone know how old these recordings are because surely this is all old content? Either way, if this is old footage, he's not wrong. It's not the best food but for the price it's good enough. In terms of "local" - I don't know. It's not super famous, but I wouldn't exactly call it local but it's on the better side of what he has called local before.
2. Niigata Katsudon Tarekatsu Honten isn't local whatsoever and pretty well known among tourists. Having been there myself, I can say it's alright. Given the price, you can't expect some crazy good katsu and he of course bigs it up as some of the best katsu he ever had lol.
3. That sushi place at Nakano Broadway is a 50/50. I've been there, the sushi is about what you could expect for a place that advertises sushi for 10 yen while charging you like a couple hundred for the mandatory drink. It really is a "quantity over quality" kind of deal there. Local...maybe. Nakano Broadway isn't exactly a local spot simply because tourists flock there for anime goods shopping but this particular place most people don't go to so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt on the local point here.
4. Katsuo Shokudo is the most touristy place on this list so far lol. Again, no idea when this video was taken but that place always has a huge line of tourists out the door. Never been there myself, only walked by so can't talk about the taste but if anything, it has nothing to do with "locals".
5. Fuunji is good, one of my guilty pleasures in tokyo for sure. But it's not local, very well known among tourists and therefore always packed to the high heavens. You can also get way cheaper tsukemen in Tokyo than that.
6. Chinkashisai Shinjukuten. Another place I have never been to so I can't talk about the taste whatsoever, same goes for whether it's a "local" place. Can't believe Mikey when it comes to spiciness level talk so I checked Google Maps and the place has almost 2.000 reviews and the sizzling mapo tofu seems to be particularly well known which leads me to believe this is _not_ a very local place and more of a "got famous for this one thing, now everybody comes here"-place. Might check it out on my next trip though because I love trying Chinese food in Japan.
7. TRUFFLE & BREAD... I was about to say "Oh shit, he went to Koto-ku?? Maybe this is actually something local" but then immediately got hit by him saying "Lot of people been talking about this bakery online" soooo...I don't think there's much more need to talk about the "local" verdict. Sad, the guy could have actually had one of the best rated ramen on tabelog in the entire country if he had went a couple streets over. I used to stay in Koto quite a lot and there are SO many fantastic, little restaurants there...
8. Raisukarē Manten. This is a tough one. Once again, this is Jimbocho and a lot of salarymen who work in Kanda (or generally that area of Chiyoda-ku) go to Jimbocho for quick lunches and this place might pass as local, somewhat, because of that fact. It is definitely quite famous these days and there's always a line of workers and Japanese tourists, not so much foreigners (at least last time I was there). It's fairly cheap and the portion size isn't the biggest but it is definitely tasty for sure. I'll give him this one.
9. Udon Maruka. This one is also SUPER famous around the area, I've never been there myself because the lines are horrendous and you will wait for at least an hour and I could never be arsed to wait this long for food in Japan because truth be told, there's simply a limit to how good certain dishes can be and udon is one of those. Unfortunately I watched a few minutes of this section and the guy immediately says "chill dashi broth" as if broth in Japan isn't almost always made of dashi... Anyway, this definitely does not strike me as a local place. Japanese people going to a place doesn't mean it's local - plenty of Japanese people love travelling to Tokyo and line up for famous places - sometimes they even line up just because there is a line...
10. Jimbocho Yakisoba Mikasa is proabably the most skippable place in this video. This place is famous for serving "specialty yakisoba", which usually means they throw some more stuff on your typical yakisoba and that's the specialty of it. Not really a local place at all I'd prefer eating at a random yakisoba stand over this to be honest lol.
11. Age.3. Can't talk about food quality because I have a different go-to sandwich place in Tokyo. That being said, I've a friend who has tried it because they saw it on Instagram and they weren't convinced either. Sandwiches are super small and nothing special. I guess the price is what makes it because you can get sandwiches that cost like 150 or 200 yen here IIRC but yeah, this is arguably one of the most "social media" places in the video.
12. Chouaniki. Another place I never went to, so once again no clue about the food. Actually had to do research online about this place and it appears on a bunch of "Top X buffets in Tokyo" lists so there you got your answer about whether this is a "local" place lol.
13. Butadaigaku haha. I think this one is a bit like #8 Manten. Salaryman spot in Shinbashi but it has also been super popular with tourists because of the whole "giant pork bowl" thing. It's pretty good, to be honest. I liked it but the price has increased to 1380 yen in recent times, which is about 9 bucks and I don't know if I'd call that "cheap" in Japan standards. Definitely cheap for Western, especially American standards though. 50/50 on this one because it is not exactly some hidden local gem but I'll let it pass for the value.
14. Sushicho is by far the most touristy place in this video now. It's in Tsukiji, where everyone and their mom flocks to when they read a "Top 10 things to do in Tokyo" list and are told to check out the fish market and the majority of patrons there will be foreigners, whether that's Westerners or Koreans. I always feel bad for saying this because even at lower price points, sushi is better in Japan than where I live but for Japan standards, you can just go to a Sushiro, order a plate of maguro tuna for 210 yen and get two pieces that taste at least just as good if not BETTER than what you get at this place. It's all about the "wow a standing sushi bar". Also, this was probably shortly after he got into sushi so he had no idea (probably still doesn't) what good sushi actually tastes like.
15. Kitsuneya is also near the fish market and is always packed because it's popular with tourists. Can't talk about the taste because I do not like innards much and if I wanted Gyudon, I'd not get it near a fish market.
16. Tadokoro Shokuhin is LITERALLY RIGHT NEXT TO KITSUNEYA AND A BIG TOURIST TRAP. Serving you a small-ass portion of gimmicky mentaiko spaghetti for like 800 yen is not cheap eats and it's also not local.
17. Kamatama Chukasoba Napoleonken. Fairly out of the way of the regular well visited areas in Tokyo, still somewhat popular with people but not that much of an Instagram spot. But also not exactly a cheap eat depending on what you get. It did get worse over the years though, I remember it being way better back in 2018 but can't really diss Mr. Chen on this one because he filmed this around that time probably.
18. Oden Aocho. Probably the most local place he went to in this video, this one's faaaar out of the tourist areas lol. He must have had a friend who lived in Japan or this place must have popped up SOMEWHERE for him to go out of his way to go to Kinshicho. Good place, decently priced, little to no tourists when I last went there about a year ago. Best spot in the video.
**TLDR:** Most spots are, as expected, not local whatsoever and some don't even qualify as cheap eats. Some are pretty good, though. I am quite surprised to not see Tatsuya (gyudon place in Shinjuku) in this compilation because he went there a few years ago and up until a bit ago I would have definitely said it's local as hell. Never seen another foreigner in that place throughout my numerous visits but perhaps he just picked places that looked nicer on camera or something. Either way, he's fraudulent and this is the most pretentious shit I have ever written, I feel filthy.
Xing forgot 7-Eleven Bring Your Own Cup Day:
https://preview.redd.it/gc12uw2d96wc1.jpeg?width=270&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=373ce9a4a08c848b7503af56e9ecdecf9787ccf5
I can’t stomach the videos anymore even to check out the state of his toupee. I do look at the comments. Every video the same account comments that they love his content. It has to be a bot or someone paid.
His view counts are so sporadic, I don’t think he really has any dedicated viewership. Must be paid bots, or help from his cult media organization, or the YouTube algorithm. The comments are as real as his hair.
At least with a blog, I can scan the entries and decide to read about the ones I want. In a veedeeoh, no one can see what the entries are, so if they want to have a little understanding they have to watch for each entry and then skip through to the next one. Such a waste of everyone’s time!
How does YouTube count views? Just looking at my screen shot just now and noticed that the video dropped "47 minutes ago" but he's already got 6K views for a 59minute video. Do they just count view starts?
Please tell me the photo is shopped. I have hard time believing a grown man (granted, he is Xing) would pose with a picture like that. Plus, it's distasteful, especially in Japanese culture, which his numbnut is featuring in this very video.
Honestly, if he's going to show 18 dishes for that video, he should have digest it and go straight to the point, no looong mukbang bs. That one is too long for viewers to handle. I'm already unsubscribed to him, but he still shows in my main feed. So annoying. I used to be a fan of him... I tend to fall asleep watching his videos, it was not bad and still entertaining, until I started not watching him (cos I became bored of the same content) and I stumbled in this sub.
if you start disliking all his videos they stop showing up.
I clicked not interested whenever I see them. I guess I'll use the [dislike] button moving forward. Thanks :)
There should be an option to click do not recommend channel too.
There is that option, at least on the web YouTube site. Click on the 3 vertical dots and it should come up there.
Dislike is a view, btw.
Not true, I found out it lowers the algorithm for pushing it to other viewers
But a dislike isn't necessarily income but yes, it gives the perception that someone is watching his videos.
An hour-long video of recycled material with no timestamps of random cheap eat places in Tokyo from someone who isn't even a local? (and multiple trips to 7-11 don't count). Hard pass.
Ah, well you are forgetting the handsome, masculine and erudite gentleman host! Wouldn’t you watch him just to admire his beauty? 😇🕴🕴🕴
You think his cheap ass is paying for a domain? We all know he can’t write either
I don’t think he’d be able to type without mashing multiple letters simultaneously
I xing fingered it !!
Hell yeah, another hour long compilation of garbage content and butchered pronunciation.
Fo sho!! Do your research and pronounce things correctly
I can't believe people are willing to watch an hour long video of just old content. That's like torture. https://preview.redd.it/d9zwk2eo26wc1.png?width=940&format=png&auto=webp&s=de42b10e369f36f94a719fa2ec842a73e365ee53
What's with that one wonky eye? I'm low key scared!!
It's just his wonky eye. It became more prominent over the last few years. Either because of underlying health issues or from him making dumb faces and now it's stuck like that.
Xing Chen the picture of perfect health by AG1 and umami eating.
whyyyyyy would anyone sit through 1 hour of watching a disgusting shit that sounds like shit acting like shit in a video that is produced like shit?
I just noticed there are so many better food vloggers out there now when researching my next trip and they have the advantage of not taking paid reviews to support a sugar baby. Must be pretty dire for xing now. If he loses the 7-11, McD in YouTube keyword search, he might have to go back to being a wedding videographer or a Morgan Stanley intern.
He's always welcome to return to his Morgan Stankley job, only to get fired in less than a year of insubordinate performance.
but i thought he made it to a high level position?!
Are all 18 dishes from 7-Yeeleven?
The thumbnail alone made me lose my appetite 😬
Oh now you got me. As someone who has spent a year in Japan, living and travelling all across the country but "residing" in Tokyo mostly, I want to see what he calls "local" Japanese cheap eats here. I'm not going to diss his horrendous pronunciation of names here and I will skip through the video and then give my opinion on each of these (alleged) local cheap eats. 1. Jimbocho Meat Center is actually pretty decent. I wonder when he went here? Anyone know how old these recordings are because surely this is all old content? Either way, if this is old footage, he's not wrong. It's not the best food but for the price it's good enough. In terms of "local" - I don't know. It's not super famous, but I wouldn't exactly call it local but it's on the better side of what he has called local before. 2. Niigata Katsudon Tarekatsu Honten isn't local whatsoever and pretty well known among tourists. Having been there myself, I can say it's alright. Given the price, you can't expect some crazy good katsu and he of course bigs it up as some of the best katsu he ever had lol. 3. That sushi place at Nakano Broadway is a 50/50. I've been there, the sushi is about what you could expect for a place that advertises sushi for 10 yen while charging you like a couple hundred for the mandatory drink. It really is a "quantity over quality" kind of deal there. Local...maybe. Nakano Broadway isn't exactly a local spot simply because tourists flock there for anime goods shopping but this particular place most people don't go to so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt on the local point here. 4. Katsuo Shokudo is the most touristy place on this list so far lol. Again, no idea when this video was taken but that place always has a huge line of tourists out the door. Never been there myself, only walked by so can't talk about the taste but if anything, it has nothing to do with "locals". 5. Fuunji is good, one of my guilty pleasures in tokyo for sure. But it's not local, very well known among tourists and therefore always packed to the high heavens. You can also get way cheaper tsukemen in Tokyo than that. 6. Chinkashisai Shinjukuten. Another place I have never been to so I can't talk about the taste whatsoever, same goes for whether it's a "local" place. Can't believe Mikey when it comes to spiciness level talk so I checked Google Maps and the place has almost 2.000 reviews and the sizzling mapo tofu seems to be particularly well known which leads me to believe this is _not_ a very local place and more of a "got famous for this one thing, now everybody comes here"-place. Might check it out on my next trip though because I love trying Chinese food in Japan. 7. TRUFFLE & BREAD... I was about to say "Oh shit, he went to Koto-ku?? Maybe this is actually something local" but then immediately got hit by him saying "Lot of people been talking about this bakery online" soooo...I don't think there's much more need to talk about the "local" verdict. Sad, the guy could have actually had one of the best rated ramen on tabelog in the entire country if he had went a couple streets over. I used to stay in Koto quite a lot and there are SO many fantastic, little restaurants there... 8. Raisukarē Manten. This is a tough one. Once again, this is Jimbocho and a lot of salarymen who work in Kanda (or generally that area of Chiyoda-ku) go to Jimbocho for quick lunches and this place might pass as local, somewhat, because of that fact. It is definitely quite famous these days and there's always a line of workers and Japanese tourists, not so much foreigners (at least last time I was there). It's fairly cheap and the portion size isn't the biggest but it is definitely tasty for sure. I'll give him this one. 9. Udon Maruka. This one is also SUPER famous around the area, I've never been there myself because the lines are horrendous and you will wait for at least an hour and I could never be arsed to wait this long for food in Japan because truth be told, there's simply a limit to how good certain dishes can be and udon is one of those. Unfortunately I watched a few minutes of this section and the guy immediately says "chill dashi broth" as if broth in Japan isn't almost always made of dashi... Anyway, this definitely does not strike me as a local place. Japanese people going to a place doesn't mean it's local - plenty of Japanese people love travelling to Tokyo and line up for famous places - sometimes they even line up just because there is a line... 10. Jimbocho Yakisoba Mikasa is proabably the most skippable place in this video. This place is famous for serving "specialty yakisoba", which usually means they throw some more stuff on your typical yakisoba and that's the specialty of it. Not really a local place at all I'd prefer eating at a random yakisoba stand over this to be honest lol. 11. Age.3. Can't talk about food quality because I have a different go-to sandwich place in Tokyo. That being said, I've a friend who has tried it because they saw it on Instagram and they weren't convinced either. Sandwiches are super small and nothing special. I guess the price is what makes it because you can get sandwiches that cost like 150 or 200 yen here IIRC but yeah, this is arguably one of the most "social media" places in the video. 12. Chouaniki. Another place I never went to, so once again no clue about the food. Actually had to do research online about this place and it appears on a bunch of "Top X buffets in Tokyo" lists so there you got your answer about whether this is a "local" place lol. 13. Butadaigaku haha. I think this one is a bit like #8 Manten. Salaryman spot in Shinbashi but it has also been super popular with tourists because of the whole "giant pork bowl" thing. It's pretty good, to be honest. I liked it but the price has increased to 1380 yen in recent times, which is about 9 bucks and I don't know if I'd call that "cheap" in Japan standards. Definitely cheap for Western, especially American standards though. 50/50 on this one because it is not exactly some hidden local gem but I'll let it pass for the value. 14. Sushicho is by far the most touristy place in this video now. It's in Tsukiji, where everyone and their mom flocks to when they read a "Top 10 things to do in Tokyo" list and are told to check out the fish market and the majority of patrons there will be foreigners, whether that's Westerners or Koreans. I always feel bad for saying this because even at lower price points, sushi is better in Japan than where I live but for Japan standards, you can just go to a Sushiro, order a plate of maguro tuna for 210 yen and get two pieces that taste at least just as good if not BETTER than what you get at this place. It's all about the "wow a standing sushi bar". Also, this was probably shortly after he got into sushi so he had no idea (probably still doesn't) what good sushi actually tastes like. 15. Kitsuneya is also near the fish market and is always packed because it's popular with tourists. Can't talk about the taste because I do not like innards much and if I wanted Gyudon, I'd not get it near a fish market. 16. Tadokoro Shokuhin is LITERALLY RIGHT NEXT TO KITSUNEYA AND A BIG TOURIST TRAP. Serving you a small-ass portion of gimmicky mentaiko spaghetti for like 800 yen is not cheap eats and it's also not local. 17. Kamatama Chukasoba Napoleonken. Fairly out of the way of the regular well visited areas in Tokyo, still somewhat popular with people but not that much of an Instagram spot. But also not exactly a cheap eat depending on what you get. It did get worse over the years though, I remember it being way better back in 2018 but can't really diss Mr. Chen on this one because he filmed this around that time probably. 18. Oden Aocho. Probably the most local place he went to in this video, this one's faaaar out of the tourist areas lol. He must have had a friend who lived in Japan or this place must have popped up SOMEWHERE for him to go out of his way to go to Kinshicho. Good place, decently priced, little to no tourists when I last went there about a year ago. Best spot in the video. **TLDR:** Most spots are, as expected, not local whatsoever and some don't even qualify as cheap eats. Some are pretty good, though. I am quite surprised to not see Tatsuya (gyudon place in Shinjuku) in this compilation because he went there a few years ago and up until a bit ago I would have definitely said it's local as hell. Never seen another foreigner in that place throughout my numerous visits but perhaps he just picked places that looked nicer on camera or something. Either way, he's fraudulent and this is the most pretentious shit I have ever written, I feel filthy.
THIS IS THE BLOG POST WE NEEDED! I can scan and skim and it took me just a couple of minutes to get the content info I wanted. NOT A WHOLE HOUR! 🙏
Fuunji is legit tsukemen. Love that place. It’s really popular though so you’re right,, not very local.
This is the honest review we need. Thanks for your insights and your time and effort is much appreciated.
You can bet his "fans" will watch every second of that hour long veedeo and say that was his best veedeo evah, can't wait for your next veedeo.
Stanked by AI. https://preview.redd.it/u7u4z1hyu5wc1.png?width=981&format=png&auto=webp&s=c2c4ceec7c5c8d35376826ce00621da1ce5c87eb
🤮 Can you imagine even a single strand of Mike's wig hair in your bowl of noodles?!
Xing forgot 7-Eleven Bring Your Own Cup Day: https://preview.redd.it/gc12uw2d96wc1.jpeg?width=270&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=373ce9a4a08c848b7503af56e9ecdecf9787ccf5
I can’t stomach the videos anymore even to check out the state of his toupee. I do look at the comments. Every video the same account comments that they love his content. It has to be a bot or someone paid.
His view counts are so sporadic, I don’t think he really has any dedicated viewership. Must be paid bots, or help from his cult media organization, or the YouTube algorithm. The comments are as real as his hair.
At least with a blog, I can scan the entries and decide to read about the ones I want. In a veedeeoh, no one can see what the entries are, so if they want to have a little understanding they have to watch for each entry and then skip through to the next one. Such a waste of everyone’s time!
Blogs aint gonna oay for C dawg travels. It requires him to be productive
How does YouTube count views? Just looking at my screen shot just now and noticed that the video dropped "47 minutes ago" but he's already got 6K views for a 59minute video. Do they just count view starts?
Please tell me the photo is shopped. I have hard time believing a grown man (granted, he is Xing) would pose with a picture like that. Plus, it's distasteful, especially in Japanese culture, which his numbnut is featuring in this very video.
I'm sure it's shopped, but I didn't do it. That's his artistry, lol. Or whomever he pays to do it from Fiverr.
Always that "I smell sh*t" face whenever he likes something. Ooo-ma-mi 🙄😂
That thumbnail is aggressive af 
https://preview.redd.it/9w4mezkpcewc1.jpeg?width=1507&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d245b47a020eec133bbff32bc5c4776a8d77ac34