ManRyu/Ebisu満龍/恵比寿

 

Manryu Ramen is a miso ramen chain that is primarily based in Sapporo, the home of miso ramen, with 5 or 6 branches up there. They also have a couple of branches in Tokyo, one branch that they run is in Ebisu Garden Place, in the 2nd-floor basement of Ebisu Garden Tower. Ebisu Garden Place also contains the Ebisu Westin Hotel. The ramen here is pretty standard, it's OK but there's nothing special to make it a Recommendation in my opinion. If you are staying in the Westin but don't feel like walking anywhere outside, you can go to this place since there is a underground tunnel that connects the hotel and the other buildings. Also in the 2nd-floor basement is the Mitsukoshi supermarket/food court/gourmet area, which isn't the equal of some of the ones in Shibuya but not bad as Japanese depachikas go.

On this visit it was extremely hot and sweaty outside so I had the cold miso ramen. I'm not normally a fan of miso ramen but it was either that or spicy cold dan-dan men. On the hot side they have both miso and shoyu ramen, and chahan, but it was too hot outside for those dishes. One of the things about cold ramen (the kind that comes with a full complement of cold broth, as opposed to tsukemen or hiyashi chuuka) is that the coldness can dull the tastebuds a bit while you are eating. This ramen only had one piece of cold chashu and the noodles were "garden variety". The service was quick and polite but basically taste-wise, this was the same experience that you would have by buying the noodles and broth in the supermarket and making it yourself.

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Ebisu branch page (恵比寿店)
Diddlefinger Map (English labels)
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