Nankokutei/Kandaたま館/神田

 

Basic Chinese plate-by-plate cuisine. Very cheap chahan-and-soup lunch specials. Nice inside, very quiet. Walking distance to Akihabara.

Tabelog page
Google Maps

Tamayakata/Tachikawaたま館/立川

   

Tamayakata is a ramen theme park (more like just 4 shops crammed into a big garage) in Tachikawa, about 5-10 mins walk east from the station, out the south exit. They threw a bunch of fake bamboo into the place too, not sure what they were trying to make it look like (another definition for "yakata" or "kan" is palace). The interior is nothing to scream about, not like the Ramen Square much nearer the station. The shop I picked today was Inosho, a place that usually specializes in tonkotsu gyoukai. The reason I went to this shop today was their special limited time gentei menu item called tsuke-inoji (つけイノジ) was out of the ordinary. This is a clever combination of hiyashi-chuuka (cold noodles with vegetables), cold grilled pork cuts, and Ramen Jiro-style tonkotsu shoyu broth with a lot of moyashi in it. This combination works suprisingly well. The broth is extremely fatty, a slight amount of togarashi, with the pure Jiro taste (even though this place is not a Ramen Jiro). The noodles are fairly thick and home made. The only problem with the fat that was ladled on top of the broth, it had some of those stringy sinewy bits in it that I could have done without. Once I got those out of the way, dipping the pork (there are 3 different cuts) into the broth along with the noodles was quite excellent. Sort of like a Jiro tsukemen thing.

Tamayakata Home Page
Inosho Home Page
Google Maps

Yamara/Ningyocho麺やまらぁ/人形町

 

Fairly highly ranked (64) on Supleks. Chicken/fish mixture. Fairly rich, with good pork. Noodles good too. Opened in Feb 2010 in a little backwater area of Ningyocho. Very clean and nice new interior with a cho-genki attendant at the front who helps you out and goes out to check every few minutes to see if anyone's coming. Not crowded at all, but good shops take a long time to develop a following. Easy-to-read menu for the kanji-challenged. They also have shio and miso variations that I would not bother with. A nice yuzu sherbet desert too. Closed Sundays. This one has real potential.

This place is also not too far from one of the few tabehodai branches of Salvatore Cuomo Pizza. For 1450 yen you get quite a spread here also:

http://www.salvatore.jp/restaurant/ningyocho.html

There are a number of interesting omiyage shops in Ningyocho too. Worth part of a day for foodie visitors - don't forget about the famous oyakodon shop Tamahide.

Ikemen Blog (good pics)
Shop Home Page
Google Maps

Keifa/Seijo桂花/成城

  

Excellent Chinese dishes, including a good peppery sour suratanmen. Excellent volume and good balance of noodles, mushrooms, pork and egg. Semi-hidden on the second floor of the building next to and north of Odakyu Seijogakuenmae Station. Waitstaff very friendly, interior a bit old but excellent reviews on Livedoor.

Livedoor Gourmet Page (good pics)
Google Maps

Namidabashi/Shimbashi泪橋/新橋

  

Namida ("tears") bashi is a simple shop tucked in on a street in Shimbashi south of the station near the KFC, advertising "old time natsukashi" shoyu taste. To me it was good but not spectacular. Crowded and sort of hot, however they are very friendly and will guide you to the machine and help you. Make sure to tell them if you don't want the katsuobushi on top. If you go I recommend going after 8 PM in order to be able to order the "mammoth" (マンモス) ramen, with better grilled pork and a tonkotsu base.

Tabelog Page
Google Maps

HuTongSanRaKyo/Roppongi胡同三辣居/六本木

The Chinese word "hutong" (胡同) refers to a kind of narrow neighborhood street in certain Chinese cities such as Beijing. I wasn't able to find a hutong with the above name on any Beijing map (I have a couple from trips to mainland China), but I'm not an expert and my search was by no means exhaustive. This shop HuTongSanRaKyo is actually owned by the Kiwa Group, a large holding company of numerous Chinese and related restaurants in Japan, and they also own the former Dragon Hanten, now dubbed the "HutongSiFang" (胡同四坊) in Ebisu, which is very good and does a very respectable suratanmen and Sichuan pepper chicken among other things. The only thing I had at HuTongSanRaKyo was their suratanmen and it was a different experience - extremely thick and almost sludgy, with a much darker color than other suratanmens, a large amount of black vinegar, that's their standard way of making it. Taste and consistency not dissimilar to the "black vinegar pork" dish seen at many Chinese places. It took so long to cool down (because it is so thick that it retains the heat for so long) that I wasn't able to finish it. The noodles are buried at the bottom and took some effort to excavate to the surface. Too much of an experience for me - although the place filled up very quickly at lunch time and the service was quick and attentive.

Shop Home Page
Google Maps

Jiraigen/Nakano地雷源/中野

   

About a 1 month back-up on reviews, as you can probably tell from the sakura trees in the above photo, looking north on Nakano Dori. This is what the place in Ebisu should have been, if it wanted to stick with the shoyu thing. Latest creation from the Jiragen people, who started off in Honancho IIRC. Even richer broth, well-grilled pork with texture and flavor, and excellent store-made noodles. For the tsukemen, it is available in both shoyu and shio flavors. Good ranking on Supleks. The inside and outside of the shop are made up to look like some sort of jazz club or soul food diner, and there is a liberal amount of English signage around, but not so much on the ticket machine. Shop is a bit loud due to the layout, the cramped conditions, and the fact that there were 4 people working there that day. 2 tables for 4 upstairs I believe. No real fixed vacation day. I believe this place moved from its original location in Honancho (Marunouchi Line) to become this chain's new "hon ten". Worth it if you are in the area but would not make a special trip.

Shop Home Page
Google Maps

Kiwa/Ebisu紀和/恵比寿

 

Another new addition to the Ebisu ramen scene. Very small shop, just down the street from What The Dickens. Shoyu ramen made with chicken broth. The chicken broth is a nice addition and yields delicate yellow running globules of fat on top of the base broth in the bowl. That's the best part - unfortunately the rest is very average, with very boring noodles. Pork was above average but not by much, and the portion size was a bit small for the price. Recommend holding off until they go through their first revision. Seriously, how much do higher-quality noodles actually cost anyway?

Tabelog page
Google Maps

Menya Musashi Kanzan/Kanda麺屋武蔵 神山/神田

 

Another one in the line-up of Menya Musashi branches. Each location deals with dead pig in a different and tasty fashion (usually). This one is in one of the brick street areas immediately to the west of JR Kanda Station. The tsuke-chashu (つけ焼豚) is the one to get here at the Kanda branch. The kaku-ni buta is extremely tasty, and quite an amazing portion of both the noodles and the meat, the broth is slightly sweet as usually is standard thin tsukemen broth. 1200 yen but worth it. Note the cool samurai sword designs on the counter.

Shop Home Page
Better pictures than I can take
Google Maps

Uoton/Kanda Ogawamachi魚トン/神田小川町

Excellent tonkotsu gyoukai in Ogawamachi. They also have shoyu and miso. Interesting noodle type, extremely wide (pappardelle-size) noodles are available as an option, I strongly recommend. I would stay away from the thin paper-like pork strips with all the white tasteless fat on them as pictured. Slightly cramped shop layout and the man and woman team seem sort of new to the job and rushed. They use Kaikarou noodles as evidenced by the boxes outside the shop. Very tasty.

Walker Plus site
Google Maps

Takaraya/Shinjukuたからや/新宿

   

This time, the opposite of the last review - a shop with a lower ranking on Supleks that I do not think is deserved. Takaraya is down the street going west from the venerable Horiuchi, just north of the Shinjuku Bic Camera. They do a very rich and salty, deeply-colored shoyu-base broth with just a hint of spiciness. They also offer some cuts of pork that are not normally seen - I ordered the aburi chashu tsukemen (special kanji for this one, 炙り叉焼つけ麺), and it came with a giant almost 1-inch thick slice of some of the tenderest pork I have ever had, I was able to cut it easily with the chopsticks. Just looking at it made me think of beef prime rib, that was a good approximation of the texture and softness. You also get a flatter rolled piece, and both pieces were freshly grilled with burn marks. The noodles were interesting, they were wider than linguine but thinner than pappardelle, and a very generous portion, I didn't ask but it must have been more than 300 grams. Add to this some very thick menmas and I think you have a winner. The main complaint, if you want to make one, might be the price, at 1200 yen this is at the extreme upper-end of the ramen scale, discounting one-offs like the 10000 yen ramen at Fujimaki Gekijo. Listen to the sing-song greeting of the waitress as she greets you.

American Steed blog
Google Maps

Goriramen/Meguroゴリラーメン/目黒

 

A relatively high ranking on Supleks for this one, seems unduly high to me. This place is in the basement of the restaurant building directly across from the west exit of JR Meguro Station. Go up the steps to the right of the Yoshinoya and then turn in on the left, going down the stairs to the 1st floor instead of up them to the 2nd. This place is almost directly under one of the better but less well-known Indian/Nepalese places in the area (IMO), Laxmi. Goriramen, in addition to clever portmanteau construction, specializes in one thing - miso ramen. Now I am not a big fan of miso ramen and generally avoid it. However I could not let this place that just opened up near my workplace go by without some sort of review. A bit warm inside, they need to turn on the A/C a bit. Really the broth tasted like miso mixed with chicken broth 5 minutes before we walked in the door. Some pork fat artifacts floating too and fro. Generous veggies, mostly moyashi. I do not have as much experience tasting miso ramen so I welcome constructive criticism here. Noodles were the star of the show, very thin and hand made. The pork was thinly-shaved pork that could just as well have come from the Yoshinoya on the street upstairs. Nothing special there at all. No tsukemen, no other special dishes of note. No lunch on Sundays.

Amasan blog page
Google Maps

Taishoken Nama Tsukemen at the Supermarket

 

I don't usually post pictures of supermarket ramen here, although I do keep track of them myself. When something above the noise level happens along, occasionally I will mention it. Yesterday I saw special Taishoken Nama (not frozen) Tsukemen at the Garden Jiyugaoka supermarket on the second floor of JR Meguro Station. Noodles and broth in separate packages, along with menmas and eggs in an optional third package, indicates that this is potentially something worth looking into.

Ramen Jiro Schedule for Golden Week 2010

For anyone planning to visit Ramen Jiro during Golden Week, here is a schedule of shop openings/closings. These characters (定休) in a green box, or this character (休) in a blue box indicates that the shop will be closed that day.

http://www4.atpages.jp/~jirou/vacation/vacation2010spring.html