Ramen Jiro/Mejirodaiラーメン 二郎/めじろ台

 

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.

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Ramen Jiro/Hachiojiラーメン二郎/八王子野猿街道店2

Wow! すごい！This was the 20th Ramen Jiro I've been to (yes I have a lot of back reviews to put up) and it ranks as one of the best of them, if not the best. Out back there was a row of 12 or 13 old Mini Coopers in the parking lot, some looked like they ran, some didn't (yes this one has a parking lot with special Jiro-labeled spaces). Got there around 12:15 after shopping at the Machida City Costco with my friends from work Tami and Claudio. The place is one of the largest Jiro shops I've been to, very clean and roomy, new countertops, and faux brick wallpaper almost like a Shoney's Breakfast Bar or an Arby's back home in NJ. Small TV on the wall and the requisite pictures of the employees with the staff from 三田本店. Cold water and ice, tissues, all of the accoutrements were there. Only had to wait about 15 minutes, during this time we played a game of musical chairs that took us from one end of the room to another in the waiting queue, which was spread amoungst two areas. We were seated at a table and about 5 minutes later they brought the bowls out. The shou（小）tsukemen was 300g of men and definitely a very large volume, not quite the equivalent of a dai at other shops but bigger than the normal shou. Glad I didn't get the dai, which they had on the machine for both ramen and tsukemen. If you just want a normal-size portion or aren't really hungry then your best bet might be the 180g pucchi Jiro (プチ二郎). Yasai was about evenly balanced between moyashi and cabbage. The soup was quite good but had no koshio (pepper) taste in it, but it also had no huge chunks of fat floating around either. When they are able to achieve the base Jiro taste without loading the soup up with fat chunks, probably via continual fine straining, that's a good thing. The men were chewy and katame, but didn't have the hard part in the center, somehow they were uniformly underdone. The buta was the brightest spot - large pieces as you can see in the picture which were perfectly done. Prices were a little bit higher than the average Jiro but I was happy to pay. Barely finished it all. This shop definitely adds to the Hachioji area's reputation as one of Tokyo's ramen centers.

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