SOULMEN魂麺/ShinDaitaSOULMEN魂麺/新代田

   

Soulmen (I'll just call it Soulmen since I can't find any pronounciation like "so" or "soru" for the first character "魂" in any of my dictionaries) is a place that serves 鶏白湯排骨麺 (tori-pai-tan-pai-ko-men) - basically Chinese (fried-) chicken ramen. This place opened last month in ShinDaita, going south on the main drag called "Kannana Dori" that runs directly perpendicular to the Keio Inokashira from ShinDaita station. This is the same street that the ShinDaita Ramen Jiro is on, only another couple minutes south and on the opposite side. First ramen place inside the loop that I have been (to that I can remember) that had parking spaces. No matter, no car. Kannana Dori actually has 5 ramen shops between both sides before you get to this place. Another first - outside tables and benches - two of them to be exact, each looks like it can sit 4 or 6. Could be good for a nice evening meal, if the street wasn't so noisy. Inside there is one more table and several counter seats. Very neat and clean as would be expected from a new shop.

Slightly expensive and strangely priced at 1207 yen, this bowl offers a moderately strong chicken taste, semi-kotteri, not thin at all, but the chicken taste was not as strong as you would hope. Also not that salty either, but for some people that is a good thing. The chicken was almost a full breast, with some dark meat too, freshly fried, and it was very tasty and juicy. The noodles were tonkotsu-ramen style thin straight noodles, actually a little thicker than normal. Cabbage and greens rounded out the dish. Decent portion but somewhat higher-priced than the average bowl. Service very friendly and easy-to-understand. Since they are just starting out, we will give them the benefit of the doubt and return at a later date.

The last picture above has nothing to do with this ramen shop, it is an announcement of the fact that our beloved Ebisu Garden Place has moved a couple more steps into the 21st century - we're getting both a Burger King and a Krispy Kreme, on 11/2. The Ma-ku-do-na-ru-do on B1F, there for 17+ years and one of the very first ones to get a McCafe, goes away as a result. Suprised since that place was almost always busy. Anyway...

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