Tokyo    ramen    in English    24 by 7     
 

2007-07-07

MenYa! Bokkemon/Nishi Waseda
麺屋!ボッケもん/西早稲田

 

MenYa! Bokkemon is in Takadanobaba, on Waseda Dori, right near the Nishi-Waseda campus of Waseda University. This is a little bit east of the louder, livelier part of Waseda Dori (closer to JR Takadanobaba station). MenYa! Bokkemon is definitely part of the Ramen Jiro-like category. The store was extremely clean, well-lit and attentively staffed. Yellow sign, red countertop. An orange sign on the wall indicates clearly what toppings are allowed. My friend from work Machida-san and I went at about 7:30 PM on a Thursday night - no wait, plenty of seats at that time. For ramen you can get any of the four toppings (ninniku, yasai, abura, or spicy sauce), while for tsukemen you can only get ninniku. The men were of decent quality but very soft. They went overboard on the nori also like many places do. The chashu in the W (double) chashu tsukemen was not really what I would call a W portion relative to other places, it was smaller and cut into small chunks, and then placed right in the broth. It was a very firm cut of pork, almost no fat at all. The broth was very very similar in taste (peppery/cloves) to that of Shinjuku Ramen Jiro. Overall I would call this one similar to Shinjuku Ramen Jiro, either one would be a good pick if that's the style of broth that you are looking for. The fact that you can't get yasai with your tsukemen here is a bit disappointing though.

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