Tokyo    ramen    in English    24 by 7     
 

2009-08-29

Tomita/Matsudo
とみ田/浅草

  

With a score of 99.532 as I write this, Tomita is the #1 ramen shop in Japan according to Supleks Database. If you also want to make the argument that Japanese ramen is the best in the world, then I guess the logical conclusion is that this is the best ramen shop on the planet. Doesn't look like much from the outside though, but looks are deceiving as anyone who has spent any amount of time in Japan can tell you.

Tomita combines high-quality tonkotsu gyoukai broth, very thick and rich, puts chopped onions and menmas in it, and serves it up hot. The noodles are well done but are a shade darker and thinner than other similar places like Rokurinsha. The pork is slightly fattier than I would like but overall is quite good as you can see from the picture. There were about 25 people on line as I got there and my total waiting time before I sat down was about 1 hour. No benches, but fortunately it was a nice day outside, a rarity for the middle of August, and I was happy to be on line for ramen (and not at work, I took a vacation week). Is this ramen significantly different from other tonkotsu gyoukai places such as Naoji, Rokurinsha, etc. No, not in my opinion.

Make sure that as soon as you get to Tomita, you buy your ticket, even before you get on line, as they come out from the shop every 5-10 mins or so to take the tickets from the last few people on line. This enables them to tee up the proper amount of noodles in the pot so that your bowl is in front of you within a minute of you sitting down - this is a difficult trick to get right all day I guess.

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