Ramen Tokyo

Shanghai Shokudou/Ebisu上海食堂/恵比寿

2008-04-29T15:52:00.006+09:00

Shanghai Shokudou in Ebisu, just east of the station, is a somewhat new and fairly plain Chinese restaurant that has large amounts of decent food at relatively low prices (for Ebisu). I usually get the large chahan (almost big enough for 2 people) plus a plate of 8 large sui gyoza, all for 950 yen. The interior is basically like a cafeteria, but I doubt anyone goes there for the atmosphere. The Ebisu branch (I think there is one in Shibuya too) has three floors (B1, 1 and 2). Service is quick one day and slow the next. If you are in Ebisu and want cheap Chinese then this place and Chinese Cafe 8 are good options, portions are slightly bigger here but CC8 has a larger selection.

basic information in Japanese
some more pictures
Diddlefinger Map (English labels)
Google Map

Menya Sou/Takadanobaba麺屋宗/高田馬場

2008-04-29T13:02:00.008+09:00

Menya Sou (Sou 宗 = "religion", "sect" or "denomination") is located about 10 minutes walk west from JR Takadanobaba station. One of the ramen trends from last year was "ramen dining", the idea that ramen can be presented in a nicer "restaurant" setting than the traditional ramen shop, and that there can be other dishes on the menu such as salads, other appetizers, fish, etc., not just noodles and various liquid and solid forms of farm animals. In addition to Menya Sou, another well-known ramen shop subscribing to this ramen dining theory is GoGyo. Menya Sou was on the cover of the June 2007 Torasan monthly ramen guidebook, which is a big deal.

In any case the wait inside the dimly-lit shop was quite pleasant as they had several chairs and a large number of ramen-related magazines to read while I waited. There was a single table the size of an ottoman that four people were somehow sitting at and eating. The service was a bit on the slow side, it took 5 minutes just to get the guy to come over and take my order. I ordered the aburi yaki toro soba (炙り焼トロそば), which was two pieces of well-grilled but thin, fairly fatty chashu over a bed of thinner noodles and chicken-type shio broth that had a fair amount of pepper in it. For the broth they also had an yuzu shio option that I did not choose. I also had the plum flavored gyoza which were good too. You will be asked whether you want thicker or thinner noodles to go in your bowl. It was all tasty but the portion was a bit small for the price. Good overall. Closed every second Sunday.

Shop home page
Tabelog page (more pictures)
Diddlefinger Map (English labels)
Google Map

Ramen Jiro/Mejirodaiラーメン二郎/めじろ台

2008-04-28T21:48:00.006+09:00

Only three more Jiros to go to after this one, since they just added a new one in Tachikawa. The Mejirodai Jiro is in Hachioji City, a fair distance from the loop. You have to take the Keio Honsen (the Takaosanguchi branch) and then get off at Mejirodai. To do this you can take whatever the next express is to Kitano, then switch to the local to Takaosanguchi, or they do have a Special Express (no change of trains) that goes from Shinjuku to Takaosanguchi, and Mejirodai is the stop before Takaosanguchi. After you get to Mejirodai you can take the 05 (グリーンヒル寺田) or 06 (法政大学) bus, you will see the yellow sign on the right after about 10 minutes, the closest bus stop is Harunabashi (榛名橋はるなばし), there is a small river and bridge right next to the shop. If it looks like you are going into a forested mountain area then you have gone too far. Each bus line in Tokyo seems to do things a bit differently, but with this bus line you get on in the back and swipe your Suica card, then when you get off you swipe your Suica card again. At 1 PM on a Saturday there were about 10 people on line. The service is very fast at this Jiro as there were three people behind the counter. In order to get the tsukemen you have to buy the correct chip for the base ramen size/style that you want, and then add a 150yen chip for the tsukemen. This is a lot of food. When it comes you may be a bit scared by the amount of noodles but there will be a bamboo support under it to suspend it about 1/2" off the bottom of the bowl, I believe this is done to allow the water to drain underneath. Presumably you get more noodles and broth for that extra price. The broth is quite similar to the Nishi Shinjuku Ramen Jiro except with a significantly higher percentage of onions and much less suspended fat and surface oil. The pork was very good cuts, not too fatty, and some of the thickest that I have had recently (3/4" or so). The noodles were the size of thick linguine, but you have to ask for them to be katame. The veggies were about 50/50 between moyashis and cabbage and the cabbage had quite a large amount of the larger greener leaves in it. Not too convenient unless you live in the area but definitely one of my top Jiro experiences.

OTaqe's Blog page
Tabelog page (more pictures)
Local directions once you get to Mejirodai
Diddlefinger Map (English labels)
Google Map

Yasubee/Shibuyaつけ麺やすべえ/渋谷

2008-04-28T21:19:00.006+09:00

The Shibuya branch of Yasubee (yah-soo-bay) is on Meiji-dori just south of Shibuya station, on the west side of the street. Down the middle of the street you can see the surface construction for the forthcoming new "line 13" of the Tokyo Metro. At 6:30 PM on a weeknight there was a line of about 10 people inside and outside the store. I had the shoyu tsukemen, which had a fairly sweet broth and very plain noodles. The sui goyza that I added to the order (4 for 300yen) were good but rather expensive for the size. Watch your head when you sit down and stand up as there is a coat rack and a luggage rack right behind the counter. All in all, while it was decent, there's nothing to specifically recommend this shop. There are somewhat better options in the area, for example Kookai or Sakurazaka.

Shop home page
Tabelog page (more pictures)
Diddlefinger Map (English labels)
Google Map

Izoji/Yoyogi麺恋処いそじ/代々木

2008-03-30T21:20:00.006+09:00

Not too far from JP Yoyogi station is a place called Isoji, a well-regarded shop that was on a couple of Tokyo television programs late last year. At 1:30 PM on a Saturday when many people would have been going to do hanami at nearby Yoyogi Park, there was a line of 5-10 people out front. Once you get inside there are 3-4 chairs to sit on. The toku (得 = advantage, gain) tsukemen consists of three thin but decent slices of chashu and a few menmas on top of a bed of tsukemen noodles. The noodles were very mochimochi (springy like rice mochi) and there was a very large portion of them. At the time of order, you will be asked whether you want yuzu flavoring (from a fresh-squeezed one, yuzu is a lemon/lime like citrus fruit) added to your dipping sauce. I opted to do so and it was good. The soup base is tonkotsu gyoukai, like Tetsu or Rokurinsha, but with less taste in my opinion, a thinner mixture. Not a lot of texture either, but a generous amount of onions. The shop is easy to miss as it has no protruding sign, just a blue noren hanging out. It's also right next to a soba place "Yamazaki Tsukesoba" that I will have to investigate on a future trip.

Ramen Livedoor Biz page
Diddlefinger Map (English labels)
Google Map

Taizou/Ebisu節骨麺たいぞう/恵比寿

2008-03-30T20:37:00.005+09:00

Taizou is a small chain of three shops in Shibuya-ku and Setagaya-ku. Mostly they have shoyu and gyoukai flavors of ramen soup, along with shio tsukemen. They also have some black pork gyoza that are quite good. Recently they started advertising a new Ramen Jiro-like dish, a special (katsuo) mega bushi-men that is intended to be a lot like Jiro (Jiro-inspired) in terms of pork, vegetables and noodles. It's decent but it doesn't really come that close to Ramen Jiro. It was less garlicky and more salty, though the taste was decent overall. They don't put the garlic in it for you, you have to crush it yourself with the press on the counter. The broth has a high suspended fat ratio, but it was moderately-strained, no huge clumps of fat. The noodles were sort of the right consistency and color but too thin to compare to Jiro. The pork was very crumbly and fell apart, it's meant to be dunked in the soup and melted a bit I think. It was a total of 6 slices since I bought a extra chashu ticket from the machine. The veggies were mostly moyashis. Taizou's noodles are also available for order on-line. There will usually be at least a short line outside this shop most weekdays between 12 and 1.

Shop home page
Supleks page
OTaqe's Blog page
Diddlefinger Map (English labels)
Google Map

Taishoken/Higashi Ikebukero大勝軒/東池袋

2008-03-21T16:14:00.007+09:00

This is the new Taishoken in Higashi Ikebukero that opened in February to much acclaim, and to some, rather unexpectedly. The original Higashi Ikebukero Taishoken was finally knocked down last year (after one stay of execution if memory serves) to make way for one of the usual glass and concrete monstrosities. The founder of Taishoken and the supposed inventor of tsukemen, Yamagishi-san, sits outside this restaurant on days both cold and not-so-cold, chatting with customers and greeting them with a "domo, ki o tsukete" when they exit. Someone behind me on line who presumably didn't know who he was asked him to make change for a 10000 yen note. You can see Yamagishi-san on the left of one of the pictures above. Occasionally while I was waiting a customer or two asked to have his or her picture taken with him. I've walked past this place two or three times since the opening but didn't have the time to stop and try it until today, the line has been 20-30 people long each time. Well I am glad to say that the line moves quite quickly actually, an average of one person every 1-2 minutes I think. Be sure to get your ticket *before* you get on line, I had the mori chashu (もりちゃーしゅう, middle ticket on top row) which is a quite sweet tsukemen broth (from yuzu I believe) with a medium-sized helping of glassy light-colored noodles that sort of look like spaghetti but are much softer after cooking. All Taishoken's broths taste like this. Probably one of the sweeter broths around. A few menmas and negis and half of a boiled egg also, but that's it. There were only two pieces of chashu in the bowl and they were decent, but for the price (1000 yen) I think there could have been a bigger portion, I guess that explains why people were coming in and out so fast. The interior of the place is nice, newly constructed, 11-12 seats at the counter and 4 or 5 tables for 2, with photographs and hand-drawn pictures of Yamagishi-san and the old original Taishoken on the walls. If the line here is too long you could always walk down the back street to Kuro Nabe. The Taishoken on the other side of Ikebukero Station and the one next to Ikebukero Jiro serve roughly the exact same dish with crowds but no serious line, people are coming here for the novelty factor. I think Taishoken is good food and I give it a recommended rating based on this, however I can't say that it is the best tsukemen in Tokyo.

Shop home page
Tabelog page
Diddlefinger Map (English labels)
Google Map

ShinKouYou/NishiShinjuku新高揚/西新宿

2008-03-21T15:44:00.005+09:00

ShinKouYou is a small, crowded, very chummy and "after-work" type of place located in a office building basement right around the corner from Yodobashi Multimedia Kan in Nishi Shinjuku, west of the station. I went there with my coworker Machida-san after picking up some computer parts we needed for work at Yodobashi. Many visitors like to go to Akihabara to see the electronics district but you can also have a lot of fun in the Yodobashi Camera area just west of Shinjuku station, there's a number of places to eat and drink there too and it has a loud street market type of atmosphere. There are various Yodobashi specialty shops there including one shop dedicated to electronic dictionaries, that's where I bought mine and I got a pretty good deal. In any case, ShinKouYou has very nice tables and benches made out of polished wood. A square counter is in the middle of the room and there are two or three tables for four around it. Very loud with the various cooks and employees shouting all sorts of things to each other. We had the paiku (ぱいく) tsukemen and ramen respectively, the paiku idea was new to us, it is sort of like tonkatsu but with much more thinly-sliced pork, and very finely breaded and salted. Sort of like weinerschnitzel except with pork. The broth is a Tokyo-style shoyu broth, except slightly stronger than usual, it contains green beans and chopped negis. The noodles were served on an interesting bento-like noodle tray, however the amount was a bit small, and they were fairly thin. The hand-made gyoza were good and larger than you usually see. There are other options that I might consider in this area but this would be a respectable choice for sure.

GuruNavi page
Masshi's Gourmet Diary page
Diddlefinger Map (English labels)
Google Map

Tenkaichi/AkasakaMitsuke天下一/赤坂見附

2008-03-20T23:03:00.005+09:00

Not a lot to say here. Decent for a quick cheap stop, that's about it. Down the same street from Abura Soba, going towards the station. Think of it in the same vein as Hyaku Ban. Standard chahans, stirfrys, basic ramens and some tsukemen. Noodles all taste like supermarket style. About the same ambiance as a high school cafeteria. In all fairness it is reasonably priced for a basic meal (large shoyu ramen and 1/2 chahan 700 yen). There are 12 or so of these shops in central Tokyo including one next to Yodobashi Akiba.

Diddlefinger Map (English labels)
Google Map

DaiDai/Jiyugaoka豚骨世界大大/自由が丘

2008-03-20T22:41:00.007+09:00

DaiDai's full name is "Tonkotsu Sekkai Dai Dai", meaning "the big-big/best-best pork bone world". Jiyugaoka is a very nice place to visit on a weekend, there are many nice shops and restaurants and it is fairly upscale. Not really known for its ramen though but this shop is a standout. After about a 15-20 minute wait outside I had the 1000 yen niku mori 肉盛り (lots of meat) tsukemen and to my surprise the grilled pork was actually done yakuniku-style: 7 or 8 thin strips of marbled fatty pork that must have been marinated in a light sauce and a touch of pepper prior to grilling. Extremely tender and tasty. The broth was very similar to Tetsu's, pork and fish blend, same thickness but with a lighter taste. This store is affiliated with the Setagaya chain, which includes Hirugao, Fukumori and a store in New York City I believe. The counter was quite spacious, they could have easily fit another person or two in between the 7 or us, and like Fukumori there is also a separate shoes-off zashiki (sitting on the floor) area for several people, presumably for families and kids. A good way to end a day of shopping in Jiyugaoka or recharge for a second round.

Shirasu Ramen Diary
Diddlefinger Map (English labels)
Google Map

Abura Soba/AkasakaMitsuke油そば/赤坂見附

2008-03-16T20:45:00.012+09:00

Abura Soba is a very busy shop in Akasaka Mitsuke, less than 3 mins walk from Akasaka Mitsuke station on the Marunouchi/Ginza lines. Almost a line but not quite. At the time I went there on a Saturday at 2 PM there were 6 people working there, I don't remember the last time I saw that in a shop that only had 11 seats. The girl next to the ticket machine knew some English. There are several different sizes of noodle dishes, regular (普), big (大) and double (W). Abura soba is actually a generic term for regular noodles in a "sauce" that is actually a mixture of oil and shoyu. Similar to Junk Garage. The chashu ticket on the ticket machine is 4 slices, this chashu was decent but a bit thin for 300 yen. Tell them if you don't want nori, they put nori on it by default and that might mess up the effect with this style of ramen, for some people who aren't used to it. The texture of these noodles with the abura and shoyu is a bit like pasta with sauce on it. I think it world work a bit better if the noodles were freshly made, or at least special in some way, these weren't really special. They have spicy versions of the three sizes too, look for the 辛 kanji on the buttons. If you want a whole meal then get at least the dai (big). The sign outside the store and on the counter (above) claims that the abura soba (because it is not a lot of fatty salty broth), only has 2/3 the calories, and 1/2 the fat. You decide.

Shirasu Ramen Diary
Diddlefinger Map (English labels)
Google Map

Shinki Restaurant/Nakanobu新記/中延

2008-03-16T19:22:00.006+09:00

Shinki Restaurant in Nakanobu is an interesting little Chinese restaurant that has some slightly different dishes on the menu. The shop is near Nakanobu Station on the Toei Asakusa line. Shinki is actually a small chain of three places in Setagaya-ku, Minato-ku, and this one in Shinagawa-ku. I tried something that I haven't seen anywhere else (yet) in Tokyo, the tsuyu nashi (no soup, つゆなし麺), very thin Hong Kong-style egg noodles. Sometimes this is called "dry noodle" style in Chinese restaurants. The noodles were served with a very salty shoyu-based sauce drizzled over them, not regular soup style. You can get either thicker Japanese noodles or these thinner (angel hair or thinner) Hong Kong-style noodles. There were also a lot of different small dim-sum type dishes on the menu, such as spare rib meshis and various sauteed vegetables, and the actual in-store menu is bigger than what's on the site. The shop was not crowded at 3 PM on a Saturday. I think the food here is good but for the price (1050 yen) I would want a somewhat bigger portion, or at least the option for an omori size.

Shop Home Page
Diddlefinger Map (English labels)
Google Map

Ippudo/Ebisu一風堂/恵比寿

2008-03-16T14:48:00.002+09:00

What Tokyo ramen site would be complete without mentioning Ippudo. The Ebisu Ippudo (technically it is in Hiroo) is a branch of a well-known Hakata-style tonkotsu ramen chain, actually that chain's first branch in Tokyo. They have a broth that is not *extremely* fatty but still has a rich taste (it is very salty though). Since I work near the Ebisu branch I find myself in there (with my coworkers) for lunch about once or twice a month. At this and pretty much all Ippudo locations that I have been to, you get free spicy moyashi, karashi takana (spicy greens) and shoga at your table to eat on your rice or on your ramen. The Ippudo shiromaru or akamaru lunch sets (ramen, gyoza and all-you-can-eat rice), for 750 yen at the Ebisu shop, are probably one of the best deals in town, along with the special "African tea" pitchers at each table. The akamaru is a slightly stronger flavor, I recommend the shiromaru but they are not that different. My personal recommendation is to ask for the noodles to be "katame" (somewhat firm), although you can get them extremely hard "harigane". A couple of months ago they also introduced an "ultimate" version of the akamaru, called kiwami shin-aji, with some suspended egg in the broth, a bigger portion, and a side dish consiting of a strange cube of a miso-like substance which I believe was meant to be mixed into the broth to your own taste. This ultimate version was 1300 yen and was good but wasn't worth the extra cost IMO. Also the waitstaff at this location is used to foreigners and is very friendly, although they are very rushed too. Chances are you will wait on line if you go between 12 and 1 PM. If you are visiting Tokyo for the first time and you only have time to go to one ramen shop while you are here, this would be my recommendation.

Also of recent interest is the announcement that Ippudo will be opening a branch in NYC: http://intertrend.com/wordpress/?p=387

2008-03-16 - UPDATE - Ippudo has switched to slightly smaller platform bowls (agesoko?, third picture above) so the base soup amount has gone down, and the price also recently went up to 850 yen. And they don't give you a stick of gum anymore. However everything that was tabehoudai before still is (rice and veggies), and it looked like the buta slices were a bit bigger and thicker. Still my area recommendation though.

2008-3-28 - ANOTHER UPDATE - Here is the flyer that they are handing out in Tokyo to advertise the opening of the new Ippudo in New York City:

Home Page
Ebisu Shop Page + Address
Ramen Road Review
Bento.com Review
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MenYa Zeroshiki/Iidabashi麺屋零式/板橋

2008-02-28T21:44:00.003+09:00

This ramen shop is about a 10 minute walk from Shin-Iidabashi station on the Toei Mita line. There was about a 20-25 minute wait, inside the store, no chairs, and this was on a Sunday. The store is 10-11 seats and was almost completely full of teenage boys in blue blazers, probably returning from Sunday cram school. The "zero" kanji in "Zeroshiki" actually means zero (0), and shiki means "ceremony". Not sure what the two of them together means, my dictionaries didn't have a compound like this. I will have to ask at work to see if anyone knows there. The man behind the counter is a very intense younger guy working alone and really hustling. Very firmly asking customers to wait and filing their orders carefully on the wall above him. Some good pictures of the regular tsukemen are here. You can see the thick noodles similar to Tetsu's noodles, for example. I actually had the zeroshiki tsukesoba (零式つけそば) which was a tsukemen-type dish, with larger amounts of veggies but not a lot of pork, with close to a Jiro taste. This is limited to only a set number of bowls per day, and it took about 10 minutes to prepare due to the very thick noodles. It included two boiled quail eggs, and one of those really long strange pointy mushrooms (6" long) so be sure to specify if you don't want those. The noodles were fairly thick and rectangular cut, I recommend getting them katame in this case.

Tabelog page
Shirasu Ramen Diary
Diddlefinger Map (English labels)
Google Map

Ramen Jiro/Hibarigaokaラーメン二郎/ひばりヶ丘

2008-02-24T21:26:00.007+09:00

Crossed another Ramen Jiro off my list today, we are now down to 4 left. But the trips are getting longer and longer and I don't know what I will do about the one in Tochigi-ken. In any case on the recent advice from some other bloggers I traveled out to the Hibarigaoka Ramen Jiro. I made sure to leave very early in the morning so that I could be there at or near the opening time as this Ramen Jiro has a reputation for very long lines. When I got there (around 11:30) the line was about 10 people long outside (there's a rickety old bench outside that I didn't dare sit on) and it was full inside already. A man and woman team were hurriedly tossing ramen and pork around behind the counter. No tsukemen at this Jiro. In this branch, the oil seems to blend with the broth somehow in some strange and marvelous way, so that you do not have the soup on the bottom and then 1/2 inch of oil on top. Very rich taste, without that many suspended fat chunks, and that taste goes well with the very thin noodles. The pork was very good and cut into smaller chunks. The only question was "ninniku iremasu ka"? It's a bit cramped near the ticket and water machines, be sure to bring a drink or get water on your way in. If you are waiting outside listen carefully as you have to listen for the guy to call you in. Go there.

OTAQE's Blog page
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Google Map

Kuro Nabe/Minami Ikebukero黒ナベ/南池袋

2008-02-24T20:52:00.008+09:00

Well my efforts to dine at the new Ikebukero Taishoken were thwarted today (again) as the line was about 30 people long at 1 PM on a Saturday. (However I was lucky enough to snap a picture of the famous Yamagishi-san sitting outside the entrance to the restaurant). About 3 minutes past Taishoken, on the same side of the road, going east, near the stop for the Toden Arakawa line, was Kuro Nabe. Very small and cramped shop, looked like 8 seats max and no tables. Very "cozy". Bilingual English/Japanese radio was playing in the background. The broth was very dark and rich, a slight thickness to it, shoyu with maybe a bit of tonkotsu, and had a "grilled sweet" taste, like AjiichiI would say that the onions were a good addition for this dish and help distinguish it. Just the right amount of ground pepper was placed on top of them. I got the dai (大) for 1000 yen, while the bowl and the broth were generously portioned, my opinion is that while the taste is excellent, there should be a little more pork for the price. Tissues are under the counter.

ramen.livedoor.biz page
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Hong Hu Jiao Zi Fang/Futako Tamagawa紅虎餃子房/二子玉川

2008-02-24T20:30:00.008+09:00

We stopped into Hong Hu Jiao Zi Fang Chinese Restaurant after shopping a bit at Garden Island in Futako Tamagawa. This chain from Kiwa Group has a number of locations throughout Japan, several in Tokyo. The walls of the Futako Tamagawa have Chinese motifs on them. The Peking black vinegar sauce pork was one of the most incredible dishes of this type that we have ever had. The pork was cooked until you could cut it with a fork, moist with no gristle. The vegetable ramen was quite tasty, frequently some places throw a bunch of veggies into a simple chicken stock and call it vegetable ramen, however this tasted a level up from that and the noodles were ample, this is a dish for two people to share. We also ordered the sanratan (hot + sour soup) and that was made with white vinegar when most places make it with dark vinegar I think. Not too crowded at 3 PM on a Friday afternoon. They have an excellent menu with pictures and both English and Japanese descriptions and everything is very reasonably priced. The service was quick and friendly. Definitely a good way to start or end a day of shopping near Futako Tamagawa station.

Shop home page (Kiwa Group)
Tabelog page
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Google Map

Asahikawa Ueda Ramen/EbisuMinami旭川　うえだ　らーめん/恵比寿西

2008-02-24T19:22:00.008+09:00

Asahikawa Ueda Ramen is on one of the east-west entertainment streets emanating from the west side of JR Ebisu Station. They serve several different ramen styles and broth, including shoyu, miso, shio and a special grilled chicken ramen which I will have to go back and try some time. Pictures of all their dishes are on the website below. At lunchtime on a weekday it was mostly salarimen slurping it down. The shoyu ramen was definitely good with a salty but rich broth. The noodles were a bit thin and a small portion, and sort of looked like the type from a supermarket ramen package. The chashu was good, the rolled up type. However there were a number of things that differ from the standard definition of Ashikawa ramen, such as the noodles being not so straight, and the broth more like shoyu, with no added abura, than the tonkotsu/fish blends that the Asahikawa region is known for.

Tabelog Page
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Hyaku Ban/Nishi Gotanda百番/西五反田

2008-02-24T19:04:00.006+09:00

This branch of Hyaku Ban (there are several) is near Fudomae station in Nishi Gotanda. The lunch teishoku was decent but unremarkable, a ramen + rice + scrambled egg set. The ramen was Tokyo shoyu style and tasted very "regular". There weren't many people in the store at the time I went. If you are in need of a cheap meal, this is acceptable, but Chinese Cafe 8 would be a better choice for cheap Chinese food. I have to admit that they did have a large number of things on the menu (but few pictures though) and if you want to have a large number of things to choose from it might be worth a try.

Gourmet Navi page
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Google Map

Ikeda Tsukemen/Meguro池田　つけ麺/目黒

2008-02-24T18:46:00.006+09:00

Ikeda Tsukemen is down the hill from JR Meguro Station going west towards FutakoTamagawa. The ticket machine is outside the store and inside there is a long counter (a bit narrow behind it as you are getting in and out). The broths that Ikeda Tsukemen has are both salt and pork/fish broths, the salt (shio) was my preference. They put a little slice of lemon in the noodle bowl, a nice touch. The omori and regular portions are the same price, and I recommend that you get the katame hardness. If you order the salt-based broth then you will get noodles that are a bit thinner (like thin linguine) than the regular ones. You can also order extra chashu, however each buta ticket gives you four more slices of pork, but it's not grilled. Don't forget that you also get some pork chopped up in the broth. Last year Ikeda Tsukemen had a special limited-each-day Thai-curry flavored tsukemen broth, that was very interesting, let's see if they do that again this year or something even more creative.

Amasan Blog
Tabelog page
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Google Map

Ivan Ramen/Minami Kurasuyamaアイバンラーメン/南烏山

2008-02-17T19:57:00.011+09:00

I saved my 100th review for Ivan Ramen, a very enjoyable shop in Minami Kurasuyama in Setagaya-ku, about 5 minutes walk from Rokakoen Station on the Keio Line. Ivan Ramen is a ramen shop run by Ivan Orkin, an American from New York who has been living in Japan for a long time. Ivan Ramen is the only ramen shop in Tokyo that I am aware of that is run by a non-Japanese person. (There are a couple shops run by celebrities of mixed heritage but they are a separate review.) On a cold, cold Saturday afternoon in February I was finally able to get out there after reading about him in the Wall Street Journal, hearing the reports on NPR, and various mentions on other people's blogs. When I got there, there was already a line of 10-15 people outside the shop. This is really impressive after only 7 months of operation. Frequently, ramen shops, even in more centrally-located areas, take a year or more to get famous and profitable.

I had the chashu slow roasted garlic mazesoba. Maze (mah-zay) means "mix", and the mazesoba is noodles mixed with a small amount of thick soup. While the ingredients are different (e.g. compared to a place like Junk Garage), the basic idea is the same - to have a small amount of soup to flavor the noodles. In a certain sense then mazesoba is halfway between regular ramen and tsukemen. The garlic flavor was well-balanced, not too overpowering, and the leek onion topping with a clove of roasted garlic on top complemented it nicely. Other customers in the store ordered other things in addition to ramen, some of the pork and tomato meshi bowls looked exceptionally good and I will get them on my next visit. I was able to chat with Ivan for a few minutes before leaving. He's a very friendly guy who clearly enjoys making and eating ramen and chats and jokes around with both his customers and employees. Having worked in New York City (as he has) and the surrounding areas for a large part of my adult life, I can tell you that this type of positive attitude towards your product and your customers is great to see anywhere. It's also good to see that he supports other local businesses by buying local ingredients and participating in the community.

Please visit Ivan Ramen and show your support for him and his delicious ramen!

Ivan Ramen homepage
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Benten/Takadanobabaべんてん/高田馬場

2008-02-03T21:02:00.000+09:00

Benten is located on a corner location right next to the Kanda River in Takadanobaba. It was always ranked as one of the most popular shops in the area, including still being ranked within the top 10 tsukemen places in Tokyo in magazines within the last few month, and I can remember the lines being extremely long at one point. This trip (my first) was actually on a cold evening so perhaps that had something to do with the fact that there was a line of only one or two people. Note that the line sometimes starts in front of the store but then continues across the street. Inside the store is quite cramped and informal. There is no ticket machine, you order directly from the cooking staff when you sit down. Benten's claim to fame appears to be the large volume. The default noodle size is 350g, but you can get 650g or even 1000g (2.2 lbs of noodles) if you want. Perhaps these large volumes are because the shop is so close to Waseda University and all of the hungry college students. It's also not too far from a good Chinese/Singaporean restaurant that my wife and I have been to: Big Land's Tree. The noodles are Taishoken-style, the lighter-color kind that goes well with a lighter dipping sauce. The dipping sauce was a decent pork/fish mixture but the big story is that it was crammed full of chopped pork slices, however the menma was already sold out by the time we got there. Normally the chashu menma tsukemen is 1000 yen. I give this store a Recommended rating based on the large volume.

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Kinmaru/Ginza金丸/銀座

2008-02-03T20:25:00.001+09:00

Within the 23 wards, Ginza is not really known for ramen overall, but it does have a few good shops to write about. Kinmaru is a tonkotsu ramen shop a bit off the beaten path in Ginza, a few blocks away from Chuo-dori. They opened in May of 2007 and their tonkotsu ramen has an excellent tonkotsu taste, some of the best I have ever had. Not too crowded at 1 PM on a cold Saturday afternoon. Ramen Jiro starts with this type of taste, then they add the shoyu to it to make a shoyu tonkotsu blend. If you go to this shop, or a good specialty tonkotsu ramen shop, you will be able to taste the base "Jiro" flavor if you close your eyes and concentrate. In Kinmaru's tonkotsu broth, there were occasional small chunks of suspended fat (abura) that really contribute to the taste. I also taste a bit less salt in this broth than Ippudo's. A chain ramen shop like Ippudo probably filters out the suspended fat chunks due to consistency concerns, e.g. they want every Ippudo to taste the same, however for an individual shop they can really add to the shop's flavor and make a name for it. Kinmaru offers 5 levels of hardness for the noodles (including two "extremely hard" levels) and you can order kaedama (an extra helping of noodles) for 150 yen. The noodles at Kinmaru are a shade thicker than Ippudo's standard style thin tonkotsu Hakata noodles, which are used by many other shops too. The scallions (onions) and menma are also excellent. You can get tsukemen but that dish comes with the regular pork by default. Both kaku-ni (boiled pork belly) and regular chashu are available, and as like at Ippudo, Kinmaru has fresh goma grinders and fresh niniku for crushing into your bowl, be careful with the fresh garlic as that stuff can squirt all over the place.

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Kiwami/Gotanda極/五反田

2008-01-14T20:59:00.000+09:00

Kiwami is located right under the Yamanote Line bridge in Gotanda, right near the large Tokyu Store south of the station, but you don't really hear anything from the trains once you are inside the shop. However the heater/AC blows right onto the seats near the door, so you are alternately cold and hot. All the other seats look OK though. There's a good selection of magazines and manga inside to the left. I had the "strong tsukemen" (強つけ麺) as advertised on the outside of the shop - the noodles were *very* chewy with a rich light brown color, and quite thick, even for tsukemen noodles. Thickness similar to Tetsu. The broth was a lot like Kookai's, very rich, almost creamy tonkotsu taste with a lot of that powdered pork stuff, very coarsely ground so it affected the texture of the broth a lot. The amount of noodles was a bit small so I would probably get the chou size (中) instead of the futsu (普) next time, there are ticket buttons on the machine outside for all three sizes. The chashu was very good too with very little fat. Containers of free zasai + red shoga were on the counter. They have a ramen and rice/shumai set for 750 for lunch that most of the customers were getting. The ramen and tsukemen dishes come with 1/2 boiled egg by default.

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Junk Garage/Osakiジャンクガレッジ/大崎

2008-01-14T20:29:00.000+09:00

Junk Garage is known for a very different style of ramen, more of a "bunch of stuff in a bowl" style, as you can see from the pictures. We arrived at about 6:30 PM and there was a line of about 10 people already. There are 7 seats, interesting wood paneling on the counter and and lots of porn under it. Junk Garage is only open in the evenings, starting at 6 PM. It's right next to the famous Rokurinsha (六厘舎), which closes at 4:30. You have to be very careful standing on line as the cars come down that street very tightly, the store staff comes out every few mins to take your tickets and remind people to stay behind the orange cones. The base style that the shop is known for is the mazesoba (ma-zeh, まぜそば), that's firm noodles with a bit of oil and just a small amount of soup in the bottom of the bowl, similar to shiru nashi (汁なし) style or abura soba (油そば). And it had some coarse-ground black pepper on it, just a perfect amount, and the noodles were done perfectly. There were some noodles of a thinner width in the bowl but they were mostly thick, almost as thick as the chopsticks as you can see from the picture. They have ramen too, and it is prepared in a manner very close to the Jiro style. The set of available toppings is slightly different for ramen vs. mazesoba, and you can see a picture of the toppings menu below. By default for the mazesoba you get a raw egg on top (actually the yolk only), so be sure to tell them if you don't want that. The default amount of garlic was a little small, perhaps get ninniku mashi. However you can only get yasai with the ramen, not with the mazesoba. Free tissues on top of the ticket machine round out the deal. Somewhat different and very impressive.

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