Ramen Jiro/NishiDaiラーメン二郎/西台

    

The NishiDai Ramen Jiro opened at the end of June, practically right across the street from NishiDai station on the Toei Mita line. You can see the sign for the Jiro in one of the pictures above. However the shop is not on the street, it is in the back alley on the left. Enter under the "A" in AntenDo, and go to the back, make a left, and then a right and walk back until you get there. Odd. Watch the people walking up and down the alley, but at least it won't be too bad with the mamachari bicycles. Note on the poster above that it says "地図不要" (no map required). Had an interesting experience - for the first time in my life at any Jiro, or perhaps any shop in Japan with a ticket machine at all, I put my money in and no ticket (in this case a plastic chip) came out for my sho buta double (小豚ダブル, 850 yen). Uh-oh. Not sure what to do so I told one of the two guys behind the counter. He came out to look in the machine to see if it got stuck somewhere but it wasn't. Considering events like this are probably non-existent here, and of course I'm the only gaijin in the shop that day/week/month, I expected a problem. However I was relieved when they simply said "OK no problem - go ahead and sit down". So anyway, it's obviously a new store, very clean and well-laid out. The management team is very particular on where you stand, how many people can be waiting in the store, etc. Very professional. When the bowl came it was quite big, a bigger portion than most Jiros, especially for the sho (小). Very good pork not, much fat. Pork volume appropriate for a double order. Noodles were very thin, thinner than linguine.

Edit: also forgot to mention that there is a Daiei right down the street for some inexpensive value-oriented shopping immediately thereafter.

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