Gyoza

Utsunomiya, a city north of Tokyo is famous for Gyoza and just southwest of the main exit of the station (near bus stop 6) is my favorite gyoza shop.  I'm reluctant to say it's the best because I have only been to a few of the 100's of shops in Utsunomiya. 

If you happen to be in Japan and near Tokyo or Ueno station with a JR rail pass, it's really easy to hop on a bullet train and within 45 minutes be standing at the door of this shop.  The menu is below, like most shops, it's simple with about 4 or 5 items.  It's not really important to be able to read this too, because the people around you have all ready ordered everything on the menu and they can help you.

Below is the yaki-gyoza and beer.  What you can't see in the photo, this shop is special for serving mayonnaise with gyoza.  The other kind they serve is boiled gyoza.

Once you are here, it's really easy to travel on to Nikko.  The JR Nikko line starts at Utsunomiya station, it's 40 minutes to Nikko (famous for the three monkey carving for see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil).

He is preparing the stove for the next set of gyoza.  I'm not sure what the name of this shop is.

(Update: June 2012)

Another gyoza recommendation is a small shop called Masashi, about a 15 minute walk from Utsunomiya station.

It open at noon, so if you so up at 11:30 you have to wait for a while.

By 12:10pm the first round of people are all ready seated and a line is outside waiting to get in.

They only serve two things, fired gyoza and soup gyoza... no beer!  Above is two orders of fried gyoza, cost is 440yen.  It can be hard to fine, here is a link to google map.