Menya Shimiru/Meguro麺屋しみる/目黒

     

Menya Shimiru just opened recently under the Rasoi and Meguro Tavern locations on Meguro-Dori going southwest from JR Meguro Station. (If it's the one I am thinking of, then shimiru しみる means "to penetrate"). Shimiru is in the basement of the building, and there are actually two ways to get in. It offers a very thin, quite dark and slightly sweet gyokai broth, more shoyu than fishy, with a powdery texture. There is no pork in the broth, only in the tsukemen bowl. All items were served on a nice lacquer tray. The tsukemen noodles were slightly-less-than-medium-thickness and good hand-made ones - the ramen ones are slightly thinner then those. I got there around 11:30 AM on a Sat and I was the first one there. They have a high counter so I was unable to see most of what was going on in the kitchen. Posters on the counter expound on the marvelous power of katsuobushi. Ask for tissues if there aren't any under the counter as the sign says they should be there. I am researching the first kanji character on the noren (the one in front of "hara" and will update this post when I know what it is. They have a number of sake bottles placed around the room and hanging from the ceiling but it is not clear or not whether the place is also an izakaya at night - they close at 9 PM so that suggests "not". No vacation day.

Their Home Page, Sort Of
Google Maps
Tabelog Page