Nagi nicai/Nishi Shinjuku凪 nicai/西新宿

 

Nagi "nicai" (lowercase intentional) is related to the main Nagi chain according to Supleks, but does not appear on their home page as a branch. Word has it that the bottom floor of the building, which has the Nagi noren on it, has closed as of this writing, or will soon close. This review is about the recently-opened combination ramen shop/izakaya on the second floor. They are a ramen shop at lunch, and an izakaya at night, with a limited set of ramen dishes. I was one of the first customers of the day last Saturday. They were doing some construction on the stairs (very steep and narrow) and they seemed surprised to see a gaijin at that time of day. Note the noodles above in the niku tsukesoba (肉つけそば) - they are almost the width of lasagna noodles, but are slightly thinner. They are laid wet and thick 20-30 layers in the bowl and lots of fatty pork cubes are layered on top. The tonkotsu gyokai was very think and good and matched the noodles well, it was just a bit hard to get them into the broth for soaking. Very different texture and taste.

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Mita Seimen Sho/Ebisu三田製麺所/恵比寿

 

This is the third branch of Mita Seimen Sho, a fairly accurate knock-off of Rokurinsha, basically the same taste, quite good, there is frequently a line here at lunch time, whereas there rarely was one when the place was Misomaru. The pork is better here than at either of the branches in Mita (near JR Tamachi Station) or Kabukicho. As I write this they are now opening a fourth branch in Ikebukero.

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Xi'an/ShinjukuXi'an/新宿

  

Across from the Shinjuku station Yodobashi Nishi Guchi Tokei Kan (watch store) - where I was getting my wife's watch battery replaced, is Xi'an. It has some of the hottest and most flavorful toshoumen anywhere. It's on the fourth floor in one of the these crazy Sega game buildings. When I got there it was about 1/2 full at 2 PM, and the floors were sort of dark. Many of the wait staff spoke both Chinese and Japanese. Unfortunately you don't get to see them slice the noodles up by hand into the pot (from a block of dough) from the non-smoking section. I ordered the ra-yu-su-ran-men, a form of toshoumen and suratanmen combined - very slippery and rich noodles, lots of ground beef and ra-yu in the broth - definitely good to the last drop, with sesame seeds too. The combination of the ra-yu and the added vinegar gives it the type of taste and smell that can easily overwhelm your nose and tongue - be careful. For another 500 yen you can get a plate of 8 good-sized gyoza with a dipping sauce. However these gyoza have a fairly light taste, not strong, and they was more filler in the filling than meat. However they might be good to dump into the soup, the sauce that came with them was good but not spectacular. They will bring you a special bib and there is a pitcher of water at your seat. The portion was decently-sized for the price and there was an option for omori. Take a look at the regular dinner menu also - several delicious-looking things there including a togarashi chicken and black vinegar pork spare ribs.

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Tsukemen at Ippudo/Ebisu一風堂/恵比寿

  

Wonder of wonders - Ippudo now has tsukemen, at least the one in Ebisu does. What they call Hakata Tsukemen is really just tonkotsu gyoukai. But it was quite good. The default noodle size is 200g and you can get omori 300g for +100yen. Takes 8-10 minutes to cook as the waitstaff will remind you. The taste of the broth was quite like Ryoga in Ookayama, Dai Dai in Jiyugaoka or Matchbo in Shibuya. Very strong age-ninniku and onions taste. Quite good but a touch gritty as you get to the bottom, unless you keep stirring it up. Small chopped up bits of pork, menma and onions. The Ebisu/Meguro area now has another option for tonkotsu gyoukai. Remains to be seen if this is a summer-only thing or not, the below web site says another 6 months.

Read more about it on the Ippudo "What's New" site here.

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Mitsuyado Seimen/Musashi Koyama三ツ矢堂製麺/武蔵小山

  

Mitsuyado merged with Fujiyama Seimen some time last year. The four locations for this combined chain are now in Nakameguro, Takadanobaba (right near Menya Sou), Musashi Koyama and Kawagoe City in Saitama. This chain is an excellent place for those who desire a high level of noodle customizability, if such a phrase makes sense in any language other than Japanese. Like all other branches, they display the workers making noodles in the window so you can see the freshness and the procedure. There are a large number of different items on the menu. I had the current "special", the national-wheat-made noodle with yuzu tsukemen. Good but quite sweet - the noodles were the color of soba. They have a standard set of condiments - but the big story here is the noodles. Very mochi mochi and tasty. The service was very quick, this is the busiest place I have been to in a long time (there's a recession going on here you know and other places seem to be more empty) - they have two counters and some tables. You can choose your noodle amount, several choices at the same price and you can also choose the level of noodles warmness/coldness. For this shop the ticket machine is outside - the menu is very easy to read. I will say however that the regular tsukemen is a slightly sweeter broth than most others and if you are put off by eating a sweet taste with your noodles then I would say avoid the tsukemen. Also for what it is worth, IMO the Musashi Koyama shotengai is one of the better ones in the south west part of the loop. Very stylish bowls and plates if you are into that sort of thing also.

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Ramen Zero/ShimoMeguroラーメンゼロ/下目黒

The early February 2009 meeting of the Ramen Lovers Club convened at the relatively new Ramen Zero, about 3-4 mins walk north of Tokyu Fudomae Station, or about 15 mins walk west from JR Meguro Station, if you take this path past the Meguro Gajoen then be prepared for a steep down hill. Well this place has gotten a lot of press recently and was more often than not been featured in the first few pages, the prime real estate, of most of the 2009 ramen preview magazines that came out in January. Getting there very early has its advantages - we got there just before 7 PM, and waited only about 15 mins, then took about 20 mins to eat. However when we walked out there was a very long line, about 15-20 people. I ordered the chashu tsukemen, with some slices of chashu and some small bits in the bowl. The broth from ramen zero appears to be a chicken/pork mixture, with menmas and small bits of pork mixed into the broth. The wait staff really rushed people in and out, also it was very brightly lit inside, not a lot of ambiance overall, So I think this place is a bit over-hyped and not the type of experience that I was hoping for from this place from the Setagaya ramen chain (the Setagaya ramen location and some of its sister locations in Setagaya-ku). The service was very quick, as I mentioned they will they will take your order before you sit down. Here is a picture of the ticket machine. Suprisingly, given the chicken flavor, the similar noodles, and the little bits of meat in the broth, overall I got a strong taste "flash-back" to Campbells' Chicken Noodle soup, which I probably had not had in 5 years.

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Sujita/Hirakawachoすじ田/平河町

  

Sujita is a chain of 3 shops in Tokyo (also in Iidabashi and Ochanomizu). Line of about 10 people outside. They make a very good tonkotsu gyokai (yes another one, seems like they are all the rage for a year or two now). Their gimmick is a special green yuzu-like fruit called a sudachi. Their special instructions say to mix the sudachi and the shichimi together (actually on top of the noodles, not the broth, according to the staff, they corrected me). There's a very limited menu on the ticket machine, not large at all, and they have no way of ordering chashu topping, just menma and nori. The portion was decent and the wait staff was extremely friendly, asking me where I was from and showing me the correct way to mix the ingredients together. My only recommendation (other than a bigger store), would be a a bit more chashu in the bowl. A picture of the proper mixing procedure is above.

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Genbu/Shimokitazawa玄武/下北沢

Billed as a gyoza senmonten (expert shop), the sui gyoza were better than the yaki gyoza. The place was decent but very smoky, there's no separate smoking place. The service was exceedingly slow. Cheap lunch sets though. The shoyu ramen had very thin slices of pork in it. Very good chashu don on rice. This is a chain of several shops. You can order from the regular menu at lunch time. Interesting place for an interesting little town of Shimokitazawa.

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Poppoya/Yushimaぽっぽや/湯島

  

This is the second Poppoya that I have been to - the first one being in Nihonbashi. The portion at this branch was much bigger than the other Poppoya. This branch also has a special abura soba that looked similar to Ikaruga's.... but only a fixed number of them per day. This is probably the smallest ramen shop I have been in a in a while - only 8 seats in an awkward 4x4 configuration. It's right across from Daiki, and you can see the length of the Daiki line in the above picture. There were about 5 people outside, including older and younger couples. If you get the tsukemen you will be asked warm or cold noodles. They have that free Ramen Bank magazine there now, the one that is like the Torasan one but free. This place is closed on Sundays but open on holidays (but check first). The things that distinguish Poppoya from Jiro, even though the pictures look similar, are the garlickyness and onionyness of the broth and the more rounded shape and significantly harder firmness of the noodles. As I said they were much more generous on the portion and the extra chashu. Very quick service. The branch in Nihonbashi is ranked the best as of this writing, but this one is a close second. Always good as a backup if the line at Daiki is too long , which it always seems to be. I always walk out of any Poppoya with the same satisfied feeling (at least taste-wise).

TabeAruki review (much better pictures)
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Satsuma-ko/Denenchofuさつまっこ/田園調布

  


Satsumako is a tonkotsu ramen chain mostly in Tokyo, but in some other prefectures too. All three stores in Ota-ku - Heiwajima, Harukibashi and Denenchofu are run by the original company, whereas any other store you see mentioned in the shop list page on the site is a franchise. On the main drag in Denenchofu, walking east from the station through the little shopping streets and then coming out on 311 in Higashitamagawa, is Satsumako. You can stop in there while also going to National Den-en (sister shop to National Azabu) on the other side of the station. It has a long line of seats at a counter, you have to go in via the sliding wooden door nearest your seat, the guy running around outside will direct you. Be sure to take your water and oshibori while you are outside, if there is a line it will probably be next to the water machine. The menu is on a laminated card on the right side of the machine. These guys in this shop really hustle - there were four of them and they were all really moving fast. One of the shop owners will typically be out there taking orders and directing people - you will be served your order within 2-3 mins of sitting down. He also was on "parking patrol" for the customers, as two limegreen-jumpsuit clad parking inspectors wobbled by on their bicycles, he hurriedly ran into the shop and started yelling at one of the customers to move his car from the street before they wrote him up. The menu is fairly simple for a shop, you have the various types of ramen and a couple of tsukemen dishes. There's fresh garlic on the table, but check to make sure it is fresh first before you put it in your soup. If the noodle amount is too big, you can get a smaller portion for a discount. The tsukemen looked fairly plain. The negi chashu men is what I had - it started to get all stringy with the negi's and they got all mixed in with the noodles, which were average at best. The soup was not fatty for tonkotsu at all - it had a very clean and slightly shoyu tonkotsu taste - but fairly plain, no "richness", more saltiness than anything. The pork was decent, probably one of the biggest portions I have ever had for chashumen. Both wet and dry nori were in the bowl. Other than ramen there wasn't much special in the way of sides on the menu, although they do have an otsumami chashu plate. On your way back, if you are still hungry, the Maison Kaiser shop next to the station entrance is pretty good.

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Ramen Gyoten-Ya/ShimoMeguroらーめん ぎょうてん屋/下目黒

UPDATE 2008-11-06 - This shop in Meguro has closed - however the Machida City shop might still be an option. Use the shop link below and call first to make sure other branches are still there.

A place that has had a bit of recent Japanese ramen blog buzz is Gyoten Ramen in Shimo Meguro. Gyoten Ramen was formerly known as Noodle Kitchen last year but apparently underwent a name change, although not much on the inside changed, which is good news since it's a good shop. The new dishes of note are Ramen Giro (ラーメンぎ郎) and Tsuke[men] Giro (つけぎ郎). Giro is pronounced "gee-ro" in this case. These dishes are this ramen shop's take on Ramen Jiro's special blend of "11 secret herbs and spices" that makes it such a favorite with the Japanese ramen hardcore. In any case, this dish, the Tsuke Giro, was pretty good. The base broth was a cross between the standard slightly-sweet tsukemen broth and the Ramen Jiro broth, as though they just mixed the two together, however the bulk of the suspended abura chunks did not appear to come from the usual boiling pork pot behind the counter, but instead from some little jar that the ramen-ya ojisan had hidden somewhere. The base buta portion was small (two slices for the つけぎ郎), so you might want to get extra, but the cut was very good with just the right amount of fat. It was a layered cut which suggests he rolls it himself. However it was not clear that it was a standard tenderloin cut. the noodles were standard Jiro type, and the yasai were almost all cabbage, very few moyashi.

They also have hand-made gyoza, and several other types of a la carte buta including grilled chashu that all looked good but I didn't have room for them today. They even had a Slurpee machine (sort of, "スラーピー") in the corner.

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Aoba/Okachimachi青葉/御徒町

  

Aoba is a chain of approximately 15 shops in Tokyo. It specializes in tsukemen and chuka soba similar to Taishoken. The Okachimachi branch is technically in Ueno but I list it under Okachimachi since it is almost right next to the JR Okachimachi Station. It's located in the Ramen Yokocho (横丁), which is a group of three shops in one building under the Yamanote line tracks. It's a very open and airy shop with a somewhat California look and new furniture and fixtures. Very simple ticket machine with four choices. The store was almost full but very quiet, most of the people were waiting and not eating yet. The counter stretches all the way around the shop to the back. Spoons but no tissues. I had the regular tsukemen, the broth was more like regular shoyu than Taishoken-style shoyu, and the noodles were quite a bit thinner, almost like somen thickness but not quite. The regular (futsu) size was quite a large amount, and was still a bit scary when the woman brought it over to my until I realized that there was one of those bamboo support things in the bottom of the bowl making it look bigger. I sat right next to the work room in the back and I saw what must have been the largest pot of cooking menma I have ever seen, it was like a 55-gallon drum almost. This place is decent but there are better options within 10 mins walk.

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Toumenbou/Yushima東麺房/湯島

   

Toumenbou is around the corner (almost) from Daiki. It has a small U-shaped counter, no tables, only 9-10 people max, and there was only one other person in there when I came in. Being right around the corner from Daiki, maybe that explains why - probably their only customers on any given day will be locals, anyone else who comes to the area will opt for Daiki instead, justified or not and may have come here for that reason anyway. Toumenbo sports a weaker shoyu broth than most places. An interesting unique point was that there was lots of free kimchi on the table (they sell it to take home also), that was nice, and it was of good quality. The noodles were nothing special, supermarket type, pork was decent, broth had a lot of floating onions in it and was slightly sweet for shoyu. I did receive a coupon for free gyoza on my next visit. For a limited time they have a special chicken wonton men (picture above), but that is probably gone now.

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Shinbashi/Oshima Ramen新橋/大島ラーメン

 

Keiji Oshima's Ramen is a chain of about 10 stores in Japan, mostly in Tokyo (Ginza, Shibuya, Ueno etc.). The Shinbashi store is pretty plain inside and is located in the slightly seedy area east of the athletic track south of JR Shimbashi Station. Their shoyu wonton ramen has a decent Tokyo shio/shoyu taste, with a generous amount of noodles, but the wontons were just flat pieces of noodle with no filling. The menma were the good thick kind but were served cold, like they were just taken from the fridge. The ticket machine is a little hard to understand and has some really damaged buttons. It was a large portion, served very hot, but just based on regular chicken broth, shoyu, some other flavorings, since he put it together right in front of me this was obvious. It wasn't something that was lovingly boiled and fussed over for hours. The grilled pork was decent but thin. They also have 1/2 chahans and kitokuchi gyozas. Not much else to say here, typical street corner ramen shop, they also have tsukemen but nothing else notable on the menu.

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GoGyo/Yoyogi Uehara五行/代々木上原

 

On the way to Maruichi Bagel I stopped at GoGyo one warm Sunday afternoon. Gogyo is a sleek modern shop in a basement, in the hilly section of Yoyogi Uehara near the station, also near several interesting flower shops on the nearby corner. There are several tables in a slightly sunken table area and 11-12 seats at a glass-walled counter that affords a decent view of the kitchen, this is a "ramen-dining restaurant" type of place. There are two menus, one an all-day menu (from 11) and one for dinner (after 6). There are 5 types of ramen that come with four set possibilities, including chashu gohan, gyoza, ranging from 1000 to 1200 yen. They serve linguine-style noodles, actually quite flat, in the shio sort of tsukemen broth that I chose, which was decent but not outstanding - a small portion of noodles was served along with one piece of fairly fatty rolled pork, marinated think menmas and some spinach. I also got the chashu gohan, which wasn't chunk style pork but was more like Yoshinoya style. For just the tsukemen, the portion was rather small all over. Good if you are in the area. Don't get this one confused with any other GoGyo in Tokyo such as the one in Nishi Azabu.

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Menya Musashi Bukotsu/Okachimachi麺屋武蔵武骨/御徒町

  

Above the always-interesting shopping district on the east side of the Yamanote-sen near JR Okachimachi Station is Menya Musashi Bukotsu. There always seems to be a line, the store is right on the corner. Now Okachimachi doesn't have a large number of famous ramen shops, so this place is a standout. The place is divided into two sections by a building column, and you have to buy your ticket and wait inside on the right-hand side, and then when a seat frees up you might be asked to walk over to the other side and sit down there. There are 11-12 seats total. There are spoons but the tissues are on the left next to the column. There are classy little paper bibs on the left-hand side of the ticket machine in a hanging box. The black chashu men (sans egg) is what I had. The seating area is rather narrow so I really had to squeeze in. Black tonkotsu chashu-men (the black comes from squid ink) - what's that all about? I really tasted garlic more than anything else. There were medium thickness noodles, which were very soft - the noodles themselves did not have a lot of texture or taste on top of the regular tonkotsu broth, which I thought was a bit less flavorful than normal, with the layer of black squid ink floating to the top. However the star of the show is the kakuni boiled pork - three huge slices, each an inch thick and three inches long, like Sunday pork roast, the guy in the middle of the store was chopping them up furiously with a huge cleaver and throwing them into bowls along with a large number of chopped scallions. I recommend that you cut off the fatty parts and let them melt into the soup to increase the flavor but this place was pretty good just like it's sister shops, one of which in Takadanobaba we have already reviewed.

Amasan.jp review with a link to the machine menu
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Daruma/Akihabaraだるま/秋葉原

  

Right in the middle of the back streets of Akihabara, on the west side of Chuo-dori where they have all the little (and medium-sized) shops selling cheap stuff like usb drives and screwdriver sets from China out of blue milk crates, is a large brown shop containing Daruma, one of a chain of several shops specializing in tonkotsu ramen. The tonkotsu broth was interesting since instead of the small suspended abura chunks floating in the broth, you could actually see little eddies and swirls and rivers of clear fatty liquid running around on the top layer. They give you little trays to put your ramen on - I wonder if that is really easier than just wiping down the counter - and curtains hanging from the ceiling sort of like Ichiran. When you come into the shop, the ticket machine is immediately on your left when you walk in the door and it has an English menu hanging from the side of it on a string. The bowl of ramen is a bit small compared to others in this genre. The noodles are standard Hakata type. The broth was a bit less salty, but had a rich taste due to all the fat described above. The pork was almost bacon-like with its alternate strips of white meat and shiny fat. They had the old school style round spoons, along with some interesting condiments on the table including karashi takana, red shoga and a very good type of dried fried garlic particles. You also get your own mini bowl of sesame seeds and a stick to grind them with, like in some tonkatsu restaurants. Note during this hot summer though that they have no tsukemen. Also I ordered the menma chashu tonkotsu, and the menma was cold, as though I was the first person to order it that day and they took it straight from the fridge. Based on the overall experience, the English menu, the proximity to Akihabara, I can say this is recommended.

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Haruki-ya/Kichijoji春木屋/吉祥寺

  

The original hon ten of this Haruki-ya chain of three stores is nearby in Ogikubo. The Kichijoji shop is a a cramped store with table in back and never a line of less than 5 people while I was in there - it seemed to be mostly couples and family though. They have a fairly limited menu with different variations on the classic Tokyo style shoyu broth. It's a very strong flavor broth, very salty and you can see 1/4 inch of oil on top in the picture. Interestingly enough they have noodles to take out - and fresh pork too - this is a first I have seen a place with take out noodles also having take out portk. The weirder thing is that they have no extra pork topping on the topping menu. For a limited time they have some hiyashi chukas. The noodles were quite good, fairly thin though, with sesame seeds and nori. The noodles themselves actually had some flavor, I'm thinking that some sort of oil like sesame or similar might have been put on them prior to serving.

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Menya Daito/Kanda麺屋 大斗/神田

 

Menya Daito ("daito" = "big fight" I think) is a small shop along side the tracks, (walk south along the side of the elevated Yamanote line tracks from the east exit of JR Kanda Station) with only 7 seats on the ground floor. But they do have a second floor and more importantly, they do not have any afternoon break. Once you walk in, watch the step down after the ticket machine. The broth was good but thin. They have this deep red home-made kotteri ra-yu, tasted a lot like "to ban jan" - and pureed garlic on the counter. The toku sei mori soba chu-mori (特製　もりそば　中盛り) - about 400g - comes with an aji tsuke tamago. The dai (大) for the tsukemen/morisoba tickets is 600 g, so be careful here. The noodles were like slippery spaghetti, very strong level of kansui, like Taishoken, again the broth was Taishoken too - not quite as sweet, I added the garlic and rayu to it to jazz it up. They have the familiar Taishoken kanji on the red lantern in front. There were three slices of thinner no-fat chashu, the kind that looks sort of like roast beef.

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Menya Musashi Takatora/Takadanobaba麺屋 武蔵 鷹虎/高田馬場

   

I went to Menya Musashi Takadanobaba with several friends from work on one of our (semi-)regular after-work ramen runs. It was a moderately humid Wednesday night but fortunately there was no line. There were 7 of us and 7 seats free, suprisingly, after one of the 5 guys behind the counter asked a couple to move over one. I had the tonkotsu gyoukai, the broth was thinner than some other shops and and slightly sweeter, if you can call it that. The noodles were excellent, very mochi-mochi (thick and chewy) and almost twice as think as spaghetti, but also curly and still firm. Note that the normal noodle amount is 300g, and the chu-mori or o-mori (both 100 yen) are 400 and 500 grams respectively. The ticket machine is divided into two sections, the chicken broth on top and the pork broth on the bottom, toppings are on the right, but if you get the tonkotsu chashu tsukemen I don't think you will need any other toppings as the pork wasn't bad - fairly thick and marbled fat, better than your average rolled slices. There were also some individual chunks in the broth. They will also offer you a pitcher of the men-yu for your soup. One interesting difference is that there are paper bibs on top of the ticket machine, free to take. The hawk and tiger are the logo and kanji in the store name - "taka tora" means hawk and tiger.

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