Ramen Jiro/NishiDaiラーメン二郎/西台

    

The NishiDai Ramen Jiro opened at the end of June, practically right across the street from NishiDai station on the Toei Mita line. You can see the sign for the Jiro in one of the pictures above. However the shop is not on the street, it is in the back alley on the left. Enter under the "A" in AntenDo, and go to the back, make a left, and then a right and walk back until you get there. Odd. Watch the people walking up and down the alley, but at least it won't be too bad with the mamachari bicycles. Note on the poster above that it says "地図不要" (no map required). Had an interesting experience - for the first time in my life at any Jiro, or perhaps any shop in Japan with a ticket machine at all, I put my money in and no ticket (in this case a plastic chip) came out for my sho buta double (小豚ダブル, 850 yen). Uh-oh. Not sure what to do so I told one of the two guys behind the counter. He came out to look in the machine to see if it got stuck somewhere but it wasn't. Considering events like this are probably non-existent here, and of course I'm the only gaijin in the shop that day/week/month, I expected a problem. However I was relieved when they simply said "OK no problem - go ahead and sit down". So anyway, it's obviously a new store, very clean and well-laid out. The management team is very particular on where you stand, how many people can be waiting in the store, etc. Very professional. When the bowl came it was quite big, a bigger portion than most Jiros, especially for the sho (小). Very good pork not, much fat. Pork volume appropriate for a double order. Noodles were very thin, thinner than linguine.

Edit: also forgot to mention that there is a Daiei right down the street for some inexpensive value-oriented shopping immediately thereafter.

Google Maps
Good Pictures

Ramen Fujimaru/Minamimachiラーメン富士丸/南町

Ramen Fujimaru is a fairly "informal" store some distance north and west of the west exit of JR Ikebukero Station. It has a large orange awning and is visible from a fair distance away, along a road (under the highway) of mostly warehouses etc. Inside they had a lot of loud music playing. The chashu ramen there was probably one of the biggest bowls of the "shou" size that I have ever had from any ramen shop, Jiro-like or otherwise, in my entire time here, for 950 yen. It was full of linguine size noodles with a very "coarse" texture and a medium amount of taste. Remember that the thinner the noodles, the more of them they can cram into the bowl. The broth was quite thick and more like a shoyu taste than a tonkotsu taste, with a very thick clear layer of oil on top. The pork was probably 50% or more fat and I ended up leaving a lot of it in the bowl. You have to spoon a lot of the broth over the noodles and moyashis in order to get everything to a common temperature and get started. It's a very hot, very greasy and messy bowl and there will be food all over the counter when you are done. While you can get extra abura in a separate dish, if you go here I instead recommend that you get the small dish of shoga in shoyu that is available according to the orange toppings sign in the back. It's intended to be put over the top of the moyashis. Self-service oshiboris are in a large milk crate in the back of the store next to the bathroom. This store's employees will ask you to move if necessary in order to create a continous space for more customer groups to come in, so if they are talking to you and motioning to another seat, take the hint. However I have to say they were very polite and friendly, as though I was the first gaijin that they had seen for a long time. Note the benches outside where you should be waiting before they motion to you to come in.

Livedoor Gourmet page
Diddlefinger Map (English labels)
Google Map

MenYa Zeroshiki/Itabashi麺屋零式/板橋

 

This ramen shop is about a 10 minute walk from Shin-Itabashi 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