Kiwami/Gotanda極/五反田

 

Kiwami is located right under the Yamanote Line bridge in Gotanda, right near the large Tokyu Store south of the station, but you don't really hear anything from the trains once you are inside the shop. However the heater/AC blows right onto the seats near the door, so you are alternately cold and hot. All the other seats look OK though. There's a good selection of magazines and manga inside to the left. I had the "strong tsukemen" (強つけ麺) as advertised on the outside of the shop - the noodles were *very* chewy with a rich light brown color, and quite thick, even for tsukemen noodles. Thickness similar to Tetsu. The broth was a lot like Kookai's, very rich, almost creamy tonkotsu taste with a lot of that powdered pork stuff, very coarsely ground so it affected the texture of the broth a lot. The amount of noodles was a bit small so I would probably get the chou size (中) instead of the futsu (普) next time, there are ticket buttons on the machine outside for all three sizes. The chashu was very good too with very little fat. Containers of free zasai + red shoga were on the counter. They have a ramen and rice/shumai set for 750 for lunch that most of the customers were getting. The ramen and tsukemen dishes come with 1/2 boiled egg by default.

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