Keisuke RokuDaiMe/Yushimaけいすけ 六代目/湯島

   

Down Kasuga Dori going east from the famous Daiki and (the former Poppoya), is Keisuke Takeda's latest shop Keisuke RokuDaime. This shop opened on Oct 1 and your intrepid ramen reporters are of course there just a few days later to check it out. Line of about 10 people on a Saturday morning. Like most Keisuke shops, this place (his 6th) specializes in one specific style or dish of ramen. In this shop's case, it's thick linguine-style tsukemen noodles covered with a healthy portion of pork shavings and onions stewed together with a light brown sauce. Very hearty and satisfying, like his previous shop Niku Soba Keisuke in Sumiyoshi. Accompanying it is a seriously salty dipping sauce, extremely different from regular tsukemen broths, this is almost like a thick inky black soy sauce. Keisuke Takeda was there overseeing operations during the first few days and he actually served me himself, however I decided to be polite and not ask for a picture since he was clearly busy.

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Shop Home Page

Ivan's Second Shop

Ivan Orkin launched his second shop, in Kyodo (Odakyu Line), on 9/23. Good luck Ivan!

http://ivanramen.blogspot.com/2010/09/todays-big-day.html

Menba Fuuten/Oimachi麺場 風天/大井町

   

The first picture above is our brand-spankin'-new safety gates on the platform at JR Meguro Station (Ebisu has them too now IIRC). How lovely. I guess it will help to keep accidents from happening, but not the "human accidents" (人身事故, which are usually but not always very determined jumpers who have had enough of this vale of tears). The second is a cleverly-labeled bag I saw once I got on. Poor Doug, I hope at least he has a happy life.

Fuuten is decent but uninspired Tokyo tonkotsu and tonkotsu gyokai near JR Oimachi Station. On the same street as a few other non-descript ramen places (but the opposite direction), the street that takes you to our friendly Shinagawa Ward Office (which has a really nice bunch of people working there by the way). Very hot inside the ramen shop for an early fall weekday. High counters make it difficult to see what's going on under the hood. Very simple menu on the machine, few choices. Generous amount of pork makes up for it, generous even for chashu-men. Noodles scarce though, however omori or tokumori are available for 100 yen more. Niboshi shio soba also on the menu but I did not partake. In any case there's better in the area.

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Amaojisan Page
Supleks Page

CHOW.COM - Ramen Basics for the Noodle Novice

Recently we, along with other Japan ramen sites, were mentioned in and consulted for an article by Roxanne Webber for CHOW.COM: Ramen Basics for the Noodle Novice. Enjoy.

http://www.chow.com/food-news/61894/ramen-basics-for-the-noodle-novice/

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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Supleks Page

Ramen Jiro/Tochigiラーメン二郎/栃木街道店

         

The first Jiro in Tochigi-ken, the northern-most Jiro, and the last Jiro for me on Planet Earth. What a long strange trip it's been - I've completed my personal goal of eating at every Jiro branch in Japan. There are 35 of them as of this writing, with a couple that have fallen by the wayside. Took 3+ years, my cardiologist be damned.

The Tochigi Ramen Jiro is way out of the way, near Mibu Station on the Tobu Utsunomiya line. All in, 1-3/4 hours from JR Meguro Station. After getting off the train, there are actually several taxis lined up with sleeping drivers outside the station. You could wake one of them up to take you to the Jiro, but it's only about a 15-minute walk through a pleasant residential neighborhood. About 10 parking spaces around the building. The line at 12:30 PM on a Sunday stretched about 20-25 people all the way around one side of the building. Large roomy interior with seats for 5 or 6 people to wait. One of the benefits of being out in the sticks is the low rent I guess. I had the buta double tsukemen, only available in the summer. The winner here is the broth - fully blended between tonkotsu and shoyu. Creamy and rich. Even though this isn't the best Jiro in my opinion, it's pretty close to the top, and the broth itself has to be one of the best ones of any Jiro anywhere.

The first picture above is the "noodles sold out" sign ("men kee-ray"). Get there on time and don't let this happen to you.

Thank you for your support. Okage sama de.

Google Maps

YaRou Ramen/Kanda野郎ラーメン/神田

   

This is an interesting semi-Jiro clone place, with only 7 seats. Note the reverse yellow-text-on-black sign, compared to Jiro's black-on-yellow. They have both abura-soba-like items and regular ramen. Very cramped at a small counter. One of the guys was horsing around and a whole set of metal pots came down on his head. Good taste overall, but it needed a kick. The instructions on the all (printed above) say to add the special "punch" oil/sauce, but I did not find that to make a big difference. The raw egg that they put in the shiru-nashi dishes is not noticable. Some extra abura was sprinkled on top. They could have left the shredded nori out, that texture just does not mix with the other stuff in the bowl. Not clear whether they have a second floor, or a basement, or not. It's down the street from Rramen Kenkyujou and Motoishi, this is becoming a new ramen street of leading-edge and different ramen places, all with abura-soba-type dishes as their lead items.

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Shop Home Page

Niboshi Kashi Ramen En/Hachioji City煮干鰮らーめん 圓/八王子市

  

Apologies for the hiatus in posting - I was on a rather long business trip to China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan (first time to Taiwan). Stopped by Din Tai Fung and some lesser-known dumpling and noodle places in HK and Taipei. Rest assured that the ramen reviews will restart in volume and in earnest shortly.

Niboshi Kashi Ramen En is is a niboshi (broth from dried sardines, anchovies) ramen shop located in Hachioji City. It's sort of far to get to from the loop in central Tokyo. It was really hot that day, and the place is about a 10 min walk from JR Hachioji Station. This place is one of the perenially top-rated places on Supleks, not just for niboshi but overall, for all types of ramen also. It definitely appears like a destination place, since there were at least two or three other people with guide books or maps milling around. There's a noodle-making machine and niboshi fermenting area at the front of the store, separated by a plastic panel from the rest of the shop. The husband and wife team work diligently at the back of the store mixing and chopping. The soup has a very clear taste, it's not really that fishy at all, in case the description puts you off at all. Good sliced pork. The soup was served very hot, and needed to cool down a bit before it was edible. This shop's bowl is quite photogenic and it was pictured on the cover of several famous ramen magazines in the last year or two, including Dancyu.

Note the Indian restaurant on the way back from the shop. Sounds spicy.

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Tabelog Page
Nice Pictures from Happy Noodle