Menya Musashi Takatora/Takadanobaba麺屋 武蔵 鷹虎/高田馬場

   

I went to Menya Musashi Takadanobaba with several friends from work on one of our (semi-)regular after-work ramen runs. It was a moderately humid Wednesday night but fortunately there was no line. There were 7 of us and 7 seats free, suprisingly, after one of the 5 guys behind the counter asked a couple to move over one. I had the tonkotsu gyoukai, the broth was thinner than some other shops and and slightly sweeter, if you can call it that. The noodles were excellent, very mochi-mochi (thick and chewy) and almost twice as think as spaghetti, but also curly and still firm. Note that the normal noodle amount is 300g, and the chu-mori or o-mori (both 100 yen) are 400 and 500 grams respectively. The ticket machine is divided into two sections, the chicken broth on top and the pork broth on the bottom, toppings are on the right, but if you get the tonkotsu chashu tsukemen I don't think you will need any other toppings as the pork wasn't bad - fairly thick and marbled fat, better than your average rolled slices. There were also some individual chunks in the broth. They will also offer you a pitcher of the men-yu for your soup. One interesting difference is that there are paper bibs on top of the ticket machine, free to take. The hawk and tiger are the logo and kanji in the store name - "taka tora" means hawk and tiger.

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