MenYa Zeroshiki/Iidabashi麺屋零式/板橋

 

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

Junk Garage/Osakiジャンクガレッジ/大崎

  

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.

One Coin blog page
Diddlefinger Map (English labels)
Google Map

Kino/Ookayama基乃/大岡山

 

Ramen Kino is about 5 mins walk southwest from Ookayama Station on the Tokyu Meguro and Tokyu Oimachi lines. It's a small shop with 8 seats at a counter and two very small tables for two. Again this is a very good shop that serves excellent Jiro-like ramen and tsukemen dishes. You can come here and get practically the same exact taste of Ramen Jiro without having to wait on line for 1/2 hour or more at a real Ramen Jiro, not that I have anything against doing that though. There were a couple of free seats in the place when I stopped by, early on a Sunday afternoon. They also have miso-based dishes and a smaller ramen dish, for children I guess. I ordered the shouyu tonkotsu tsukemen with extra chashu and I am pleased to say that this shop comes as close to the true Ramen Jiro taste as just about any other Jiro-like shop I have been to. I ordered "ninniku yasai mashi" which included a large helping of extra veggies as you can see from the picture, since I don't think I've been eating enough vegetables lately. The noodles were more yellow in color than many Ramen Jiro noodles are, but they were very springy and tasty and decently sized (I got the regular size dish, not the omori, it's the same price for more noodles I believe). The yasai were mostly moyashi but there was some cabbage in there, perhaps 80-20. The pork was very good, but thinner-sliced than most Ramen Jiros, but about the same fat/meat level. There were two more slices than you see in the picture, I put them into my soup bowl before I snapped the pic. A TV in the corner was showing various Japanese Sunday news programs. I can definitely recommend Ramen Kino.

Livedoor Gourmet page
Diddlefinger Map (English labels)
Google Map

Tsukemen Marukami/MinamiKarasuyamaつけ麺 まるかみ/南烏山

 

Tsukemen Marukami is right near the Chitose-Karasuyama station on the Keio Line (not the New Keio Line), walk south about two minutes when coming out of the south exit. You will actually see a sign for it on the back side of one of its neighbor buildings, before you turn the corner onto the shop's street. The shop was very clean and orderly and well-run, even though there appeared to be some training of new staff going on during my visit. I had the 320g yasai soba (野菜そば) with three slices of extra chashu (total 1000yen), a hot dish which was actually like ramen, only with significantly less broth in the bowl, just enough to stir everything around in and get it coated. Good volume for the price. If you get the tsukemen instead, smaller and larger portions are available for the same price. Better pictures of all the dishes are available in the link below. The noodles were like thin spaghetti only darker and firmer. The broth was very much like the Shinjuku Ramen Jiro broth - the basic Jiro taste but with a lot less suspended fat and a stronger salty and slightly spicy taste. The yasais were evenly distributed between moyashi and cabbage, and several other types of veggies were available on the ticket machine, including scallions (わけぎ), something you don't see that often as a choosable topping. Fresh crushed garlic was available on the counter. The pork slices were a bit on the small side but well-done. No line at 11:30 AM on the Saturday before New Year's.

Shirasu No Ramen page
Diddlefinger Map (English labels)
Google Map

Ramen Hige/Heiwajimaラーメン髭/平和島

 

Today was quite hot and humid in Tokyo, so I really couldn't bring myself to toss down a steaming hot bowl of regular ramen. I decided to head south from the Yamanote-sen loop (via Shinagawa and the Keikyu line) to a place called Ramen Hige (pronounced "hee-geh", it means moustache, whiskers, beard, etc.). Both the February and May 2007 issues of Ikkojin's Ramen for Adults covered this shop. It is descended from the Musashi Kosugi (武蔵小杉) Ramen Jiro and the KoJiro (こじろう) shops, I went in hopes of catching a taste of their abura soba (油そば), a dish that appears on some ramen shop menus in summer. Abura soba is essentially like a regular bowl of ramen except most or all of the hot broth is replaced by an oily shoyu mixture, or in some cases they just leave a 1/2" or so of the original broth in the bottom of the bowl. The general procedure is to then stir up the entire bowl to mix all of the ingredients together. You then have something that has a taste similar to ramen but is not steaming hot. Ramen Hige also throws in a raw egg so if you don't like that be sure to say "tamago nuki kudasai". There was only one other person in the store when I arrived. The pork was very good but quite fatty, some bits were essentially just cubes of fat, since the chef chops up normal-size fatty pork slices (see the O'Taque pictures) into small pieces so that they will stir up easily. My only real concern would be perhaps that there wasn't enough broth at the bottom. Overall it was a generous portion, with fairly thin noodles (thin linguine size) for a Ramen Jiro or decendant.

I definitely plan to come back to this shop once cooler weather returns to Tokyo, in order to take in the full chashu and atsui shiru (hot broth) ramen experience.

Home Page
O'Taqe's Blog Review (more pictures)
Diddlefinger Map (English labels)
Google Map

MenYa! Bokkemon/Nishi Waseda麺屋!ボッケもん/西早稲田

 

MenYa! Bokkemon is in Takadanobaba, on Waseda Dori, right near the Nishi-Waseda campus of Waseda University. This is a little bit east of the louder, livelier part of Waseda Dori (closer to JR Takadanobaba station). MenYa! Bokkemon is definitely part of the Ramen Jiro-like category. The store was extremely clean, well-lit and attentively staffed. Yellow sign, red countertop. An orange sign on the wall indicates clearly what toppings are allowed. My friend from work Machida-san and I went at about 7:30 PM on a Thursday night - no wait, plenty of seats at that time. For ramen you can get any of the four toppings (ninniku, yasai, abura, or spicy sauce), while for tsukemen you can only get ninniku. The men were of decent quality but very soft. They went overboard on the nori also like many places do. The chashu in the W (double) chashu tsukemen was not really what I would call a W portion relative to other places, it was smaller and cut into small chunks, and then placed right in the broth. It was a very firm cut of pork, almost no fat at all. The broth was very very similar in taste (peppery/cloves) to that of Shinjuku Ramen Jiro. Overall I would call this one similar to Shinjuku Ramen Jiro, either one would be a good pick if that's the style of broth that you are looking for. The fact that you can't get yasai with your tsukemen here is a bit disappointing though.

Shop Page with Pictures + Address
Google Map

MenYa Basara/Ookayama麺屋 婆娑羅/大岡山

   

This is a little bit of an obscure place near Ookayama Station (double or long "o") but it's a special find and merits a Recommended rating. The store is very clean and roomy. Water and tissues are along the side near the back, the ticket machine is in the front on the left when you pass through the door. I had the lunch tsukemen (they only have it at lunch time per the attached links below). The soup base has a distinctive Jiro-like flavor, but with some spicyness added, possibly via something like cloves, and there was an onion taste also. Not nearly as much suspended fat in the broth as Jiro. The noodles are made in the back of the store by the standard-issue giant green noodle machine, with the rolls of noodle dough hanging to the right ready to be loaded and cut. The noodles were very fresh and well done, and the 350g portion was pretty big when the veggies (cucumbers, tomato and moyashi) were heaped on top. Tomato is rare for ramen or tsukemen (not uncommon for hiyashi chuuka though). No pork comes with the base tsukemen however - the single chashu ticket (the one with 豚 on it but without the W on it) gets you two generously thick slices with very little fat, if any, on them. If you buy the W ticket you will get two slices more. If you are in the Ookayama area or stations close by (Midorigaoka, Jiyugaoka, Senzoku) on the Tokyo Meguro or Oimachi lines (Ookayama Station is a junction for the two lines), I definitely recommend you stop by.

Livedoor Gourmet Pictures+Address
Another Review with Pictures
Google Map

Ramen Dai/Nishi-Ogikuboラーメン大/西荻

Ramen Dai falls into the Jiro-like category. It's is one of a chain of (currently three) ramen shops, all a bit outside the loop, one in Suginami-ku, two in Ota-ku. The distinguishing feature between this chain and Jiro, broth-wise, is that there's a lot more onions and garlic (both are very finely chopped) in the broth by default, and somewhat less fat. This gives it a really strong flavor, that I like, but not everyone may. As usual I went with the tsukemen o-mori with extra chashu. Broth was salty, but not as salty as some. Noodles were correctly katame and curly, thickness of thick spaghetti. The chashu was a bit on the dry side but still good. Best feature: no line, although the shop was still busy. Another good feature: open all day Saturday and Sunday. Worth a short detour if you are in the area.

Pictures+Address
Google Map

Menkobo DanDan/Heiwajima麺香房 暖々/平和島

There are a number of ramen shops that I will (for lack of a better term), refer to on this blog as "Jiro-like". Same salty/slightly peppery/garlicky, fatty shoyu/tonkotsu blend, same thick noodles, same moyashi/cabbage combination as Ramen Jiro. Menkobo DanDan is one of them and I would say it is one of the best of the Jiro-like crowd that I have been to so far. The line was not too bad (around 10 people) at about 2 PM on a Sunday. Nice music inside, very quiet, roomy, no small talk. Not more than 10 seats though. The noodles were fairly katame, probably as al-dente as you would want, and they are the squiggly kind that curl up well with the moyashi. The broth was very salty. I had the tsukemen with chashu (black and yellow chips from the picture page below). Very nice all around.

Pictures+Address
Google Map