Shinkansen

Pretty much your standard greasy Japanese-​American take-​out. I came here because it was the only Asian option in the MIT food court and I was craving some Asian food. They have some bubble tea sitting on a refrigerator shelf which was a little disappointing since I like watching my bubble tea made fresh. Their Thai iced tea ($ 3.00) was passable but nothing special.
I ordered the teriyaki chicken hibachi ($ 6.25), which is their standard teriyaki chicken but with fried rice instead of white rice. The rice and chicken were pretty greasy, but the chicken was flavorful and tender as well. Portions were large. I was disappointed with the vegetables, which seemed barely steamed.
The line moved pretty quickly and they did a good job of moving people along during the lunch rush.

Came here to get a quick bite. The sushi I got was eh, nothing special. The jasmine boba was mushy and generic. Nothing to really say much about.

Boba here is bad in the mushy bubbles way, which is better than boba that is bad in the hard bubbles way, but still to be avoided. (And is also bland and watery.)
On the other hand, the chicken teriyaki is not bad — lots of rice and chicken, a few veggies. I think most of the food in the catering-​to-​MIT-​lunch tends to be in the $ 5 range, which this was, so it was a decent price for a decent amount of food.

Only $ 5 to get some Japanese food on MIT campus.
I never eat more than half of the teriyaki before getting disgusted by all the grease. And the veggies are just barely cooked enough to be passable in a warm meal.
Also the boba sits on a refrigerator shelf. It’s the closest boba you’ll find, but… I just don’t trust it. The dude sold a bunch of straws once though when we needed that.

I’ve had both the beef and chicken teriyaki here on numerous occasions. Served with steamed vegetables on a bed of white rice for $ 5.25, their prices aren’t too steep.
While moderately tasty, their teriyaki sauce is thick, greasy, and not quite palatable enough to mask the lack of freshness in their beef. Luckily, you can douse your meal with the big bottle of Sriracha at the counter to mask any shortcomings.
Contrary to their name, Shinkansen’s service is not as fast as a bullet train; its one redeeming factor is its convenient location at the MIT Student Center. If you’re craving cheap Asian food and don’t mind a short walk, Teriyaki Café and Beijing Tokyo at the Kendall food court or Goosebeary’s would yield a much tastier meal.

This place isn’t too bad. If you’re ever in the general MIT area and really crave some Asian food, this is probably the closest place in the vicinity. That said, the food isn’t terrible, either. It’s fresh, hot, and contains enough veggies to boost your nutrition level. Plus, the servers definitely don’t skimp on the portions, and the sauce and flavor taste fine. There didn’t seem to be an insect infestation at all when I went just the other day, and all in all, I don’t have a single thing to complain about.

The famous Ron Burgundy once said, «WHAT IS THIS? AMATEUR HOUR?»
and no other phrase better describes Shinkansen «Bullet Train» Teriyaki. Normally I wouldn’t even bother Unilocaling a place in the MIT student center, but after four years I cannot deal with their incompetency anymore. If my one star review prevents one poor visiting family or student from eating here, then I will have done my duty.
The teriyaki is pretty bad, the service awful, the prices high, and it’s just not satisfying at the end of the meal. Yes, even their boba/​bubble tea sucks.
Even worst, they just haven’t improved in the four years, and I have no reason to believe they will ever.

Their Chicken Teriyaki and Beef Teriyaki are pretty good and reasonably priced. If you order them with fried rice (Hibachi Chicken or Hibachi Beef) you’ll notice the fried rice is so greasy you’ll probably die of a heart attack at some point soon, but you’ll die happy. So I’d recommend that instead.

Good Asian restaurants close to MIT’s campus are few and far between — there’s Royal East a few blocks away, and Hong Kong and Mary Chung’s up the street near Harvard Square, but who has time to walk all the way over to a sit down restaurant just for lunch? Not I, said the fly. For me, when I craved Asian food, my two options were the food trucks on Mass Ave or Shinkansen in the student center, and since I hate carrying cash, Shinkansen usually won.
Man, I love this place — for 4 years it kept me fed with its sketchy, tasty fare. I will always love BBQ’d eel and Salmon & Avocado rolls because of this place, and even now, I find myself getting cravings for the huge teriyaki chicken lunch boxes with extra teriyaki sauce. Mmmm, teriyaki…
OK, sure, there was the tiny snafu with the cockroach infestation in the kitchen a while back. And yea, the cooks with shaggy hair don’t ever wear hairnets when they’re bending over the sizzling strips of teriyaki’d meat. But you know what? I never found cockroach poop or long black hairs in my food, so screw you, health codes. Shinkansen will always have a very special place in my heart.

### HAVE ONLY ATE HERE AT LUNCH ###
If you are positively hungry!!! GO HERE!!!
Sure its a tad greasy, sure its a pile of chicken, on a mound of rice with a pile of veggies… But the real wonder of this place — its around 5 dollars… yeah thats it. sure Subway have a good foot long — this is about 3 times the food of that sandwich. If you want it spicy they have this kicking japanese ketchup you can spread all over your meal. Hot as hell. wonderful stuff. Also, if you are not a big fan of all that rice, they will take out half the rice and apply more steamed vegetables… great!!! they also will give a second helping of teriyaki sauce for free, which is good if the rice is dry, it certainly helps with swallowing it. But I am now being a picky fella — seriously — if you have a gaping hole where your stomach used to be, and you are burning about 5000 calories a day — go here you will not be disappointed with the food.

Shinkansen is one of the restaurants in the MIT student center, and as would be expected from any dining establishment on the MIT campus, it is pretty bad. I think there are 4 things on the menu besides sushi and bubble tea: chicken teriyaki, beef teriyaki, chicken hibachi and beef hibachi. The meals are actually fairly tasty and fairly cheap, but they are definitely low quality, and there was some investigation a while ago into the health quality of the place after apparently cockroaches were found in the kitchen. yikes…