Shoujin Kadofuji/Kashiwa City匠神角ふじ/柏市

 

Kadofuji is a member of the Kouji Dream group of shops - this also includes Tomita (next review, currently the #1 shop in Japan), a couple of Taishokens, and 25-3- other shops in the Kanto area. Kadofuji has been on television a few times and the emphasis there is always on the giant noodles and the heaping bowls of veggies and pork that are provided - sort of like Jiro (see some of the pics below). If you scroll down through the chain's home page below, you will see some of the examples and then also some of the stranger ramens that they have experimented with in the past. In any case today I went there to try their extremely thick tsukemen noodles with shoyu-yuzu dipping sauce. The emphasis at this shop is on very strong flavors. The yuzu dipping sauce was extremely potent and salty, I was almost looking for something to water it down with. A bit lighter on the yuzu ttaste (relative to the shoyu) would have helped also. I was unable to get the "baka buta" (バカブタ), the "stupid" amount of pork topping selection for 300 yen, since that was sold out already. However I only arrived at about 1 PM so if you want to get that one then better get there earlier. Note on the ticket machine they also have a special "collagen ball", recommended for women, that you can purchase as a topping for 100 yen (I didn't). Now the most importany thing in your bowl are the noodles, and these are some of the thickest around. fairly katame and almost as thick as the chopsticks at the thick end, these were excellent. You will be asked what size of noodles you want, the chuu-mori (370g) was enough for me, that was 3/4 pound of noodles. You can get even bigger sizes if you want and I believe that some of the TV shows that have highlighted this place show people getting 1.5 pounds, 2 pounds of noodles and then eating them all. Also not to be missed was the slightly fried shoyu garlic mixture in containers at each seat, you can see some of it on the menma in the picture.

The second-to-last picture above is actually that of a interestingly-owl-themed yakiniku shop a few doors down.

Shop page
Chain home page
Google Map