Watanabe/Takadanobaba渡なべ/高田馬場

 

Yes, yet another tonkotsu gyokai place. However this is considered one of the "anchor stores" of the Takadanobaba area around Waseda. It was quite dark inside, only 8-9 seats, no tables. The the door is broken, they have to fix that, very hard to open and close, be careful not to slam it. Not flashy at all from the outside, honestly you would almost walk right by the place and miss it. So Juan Watanabe is a "ramen consultant" and was recently mentioned in various 2009 "review" magazines about ramen. He also has another venture, the Motoi ramen shop in Machida City. This shop "Watanabe" is quite famous and has a very high ranking on Supleks, this is probably considered one of the "anchor" shops. I had the chashu tsukemen, with standard standard plain noodles. The pork was very fatty, with strips of clear fat running down the slices. The menma here were an interesting difference - they were huge, 3-4 inches long, 1/4 inch thick and very crunchy. The noodle amount was small for the price IMO though, and there was a large amount of thinly sliced negis on top. Other reviews list this as a "date" restaurant, I can't argue with that since I went during the day, not at night, but there were only 1 or 2 couples in there when I went.

Tabelog page
Waseda Ramen review (English)
Diddlefinger Map (English labels)
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