Ikeda Tsukemen/Meguro池田 つけ麺/目黒

 

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
Diddlefinger Map (English labels)
Google Map

AIUEO/Meguroあいうえお/目黒

  

I've often passed by this shop over the last couple of years and always meant to stop in, but never had the time. So I found the time over the New Year's holiday this year as AIUEO was one of the few ramen shops that was open this week. AEIUO specializes in shio ramen and they do a very good job of it. I met and chatted with Tanaka-san (田中さん), the very friendly and enthusiastic proprietor of the shop. (Here's a link to his YouTube video site, with videos about his shop and the ramen business). Tanaka-san's English was probably better than my Japanese, and between the two of us we had a nice conversation about ramen and the Japanese New Year holidays. The shio-flavor butter-garlic ramen is very rich and has a good garlic and butter flavor without being too strong. I recommend getting the chuo-mori size for a very generous portion of noodles. Next time I plan to try the chashumen. Until November of 06, AIUEO also sold a dish (on Wednesdays only) called 三郎, it's a dish that was similar to the Meguro Ramen Jiro's ramen. (The Meguro Ramen Jiro is closed in Wednesdays). I definitely recommend that you stop by AIUEO if you are in the area.

Shop Home Page
Diddlefinger Map (English labels)
Google Map

Gonnosuke/Meguro権之助/目黒

   

This is a new Hakata-style ramen shop in Meguro (actually in an area of Meguro-ku known as Gonnozuke-zaka). It’s in the location of a former Chinese restaurant, right at the place where Meguro-dori splits into two (the shop is on the north side), going east towards JR Meguro station. There’s a takeout grilled eel place on the other (south) side, across from the Meguro Tavern. This area on and around the slope is one of Tokyo's unheralded ramen centers, with perhaps 10 different ramen or Chinese noodle shops within 3-4 minutes walking distance.

A large handpainted wooden sign outside (visible in the photo above) sings praises about the ramen and the tsukemen, including its collagen and vitamin B. The ticket machine has an extra selection for kaedama (extra noodles served later). Few shops actually have a ticket for this - at the ones that actually offer kaedama, you can usually just ask for it midway into your bowl. The base soup broth for tsukemen is a tonkotsu base (very salty though, even for tonkotsu) broth with shoyu. Noodles were done well, and the pork was good too. Vegetables were mostly moyashis. Large slices of pork, but not grilled though, that would be the one thing that would make it really good, it was thick enough for sure with a good fat/meat ratio. A large hand-painted sign above the counter describes the shop’s ability to cook the noodles to any desired hardness/softness. Still a bit under construction inside but it was neat and clean. A short counter, but several tables facing the road. Worth a walk from Meguro station.

Another blog entry
Diddlefinger Map (English labels)
Google Map

KatsuMaru/Meguro勝丸/目黒

 

Katsumaru is just across the Meguro River (目黒川) going west from JR Meguro station. This branch is the "hon ten" or original store. While overall it was a decent bowl, there's a few things that distinguish this place from others, both positive and negative. The store is clean and well-kept, with a 7-seat counter and 2 or 3 tables for 6. There was no one in the place at 2 PM on a Saturday. I had the shoyu tsukemen with extra chashu and menma. It was delivered with real seaweed that was very crunchy, not with strips of nori like most places. The menma was also crunchy too and tasted like it had been pickled in some sort of slightly sweet miso sauce. The noodles were strange though, they were the thin curly type sort of like Bannai, but they were cut very short, the average length of a noodle was 4-5 inches. This made it a little difficult for dipping into the tsukemen sauce. The sauce itself was just the usual chicken stock into which they added some soy sauce and a few negi shavings (they did this right in front of me), so no points added there. The volume was decent though, without me having to order an omori portion. The chashu was decent with very little fat but was cold, not grilled. There's an interesting store two or three shops down on the same side (going back towards JR Meguro station) that sells all kinds of Japanese pottery, plant pots, and planting materials, run by a very old woman who just sits in the back and looks out on the street as people walk by. Note: thh shop home page has several menu choices at the bottom - the last three are not available at the Meguro honten, for whatever reason.

Livedoor Gourmet Page
Shop home page
Diddlefinger Map (English labels)
Google Map

Ramen Ren/NakaMeguroらーめん 蓮/中目黒

 

Ramen Ren is on Yamate Dori near the large garbage burning tower in NakaMeguro. It's just north of and on the other side of the street from AIUEO and the Meguro Ramen Jiro. This place was quite busy for a regular neighborhood ramen shop on a fairly warm mid-September Saturday afternoon, three or four people in front of me. Fortunately they have several chairs inside. Very clean and professional interior. Watch your step when you go in the front door, there's a little landing you have to step up onto to get to the ticket machine. The tsukemen noodles were very good, the only problem is that they cannot do them al-dente (katame), for whatever reason, I think she said something about the lesser cooking time being a problem but not sure. Medium thickness, little to no curliness. The pork was good and thin slices but quite salty. Not grilled, boiled. The best part was the broth, very generous amount of tama-negi in it and a few small bits of chashu, it was almost like a stew it was so thick. Also there was a small portion of spinach- or horensou-like greens on the place, and a small dab of a slightly greenish mustard paste (I don't think it was wasabi), that went right into the broth. Noodles came in regular, large and very large amounts on the ticket machine, the regular was approximately 250g I think. Good taste.

Takehiko's blog page
Diddlefinger Map (English labels)
Google Map

Ramen Jiro/Meguroラーメン二郎/目黒店

 

The Meguro Ramen Jiro is located on Yamate Dori about 1/2 km or so southwest from Ebisu Garden Place. If you are coming from EGP then I recommend taking a map and trying the backstreets as that will save you a lot of time, however it's a bit hilly. This is one of the best known Ramen Jiro branches, however in my opinion it is not for beginners. It is regularly written up in various Tokyo ramen magazines such as Ikkojin's current special Ramen for Adults as one of the most popular Ramen Jiro branches, no small feat considering that almost every Ramen Jiro has a line to get in every day.

The proprietor is Wakabayashi-san, a very quiet and serious but friendly man behind the counter. This shop is another direct decendant of the Mita Hon Ten 三田本店 (home page). Ths shop offers the standard 4 Ramen Jiro toppings: yasai (veggies, in this store's case mostly moyashi), ninniku (garlic), abura (extra fat) and karame (spiciness). It's a somewhat cramped store, even for a Ramen Jiro, there are only 10 seats in the place (and one of them is on the part of the counter that folds up and is next to the restroom, being a big gaijin that is my least favorite seat). They are open quite late during the week (midnight), but are closed Wednesdays (水曜日). The hours have recently changed so if you see any indications or advertisements that they are open until 4 PM, that's not correct, they are only open until 3:00 or 3:30 now. This Ramen Jiro has a very strong taste, it's quite a bowl especially if you get the abura and karame. They have some of the best pork + broth of any Ramen Jiro anywhere. This one goes on the Recommended List, but for a first-time Ramen Jiro customer I would still go with one of the others on that list first, then work your way up to this one. I also recommend that if you go to this shop, that you poke your head in the door first, before waiting on line, to make sure you are comfortable with the level of crowdedness of the seats and the overall state of the place first.

It's also right down the street from AIUEO (あいうえお), a competitor specializing in shio ramen (salt-flavored broth) who apparently takes advantage of the fact that this Ramen Jiro is closed on Wednesdays. AIUEO offers a seemingly-competing dish called 三郎ラーメン, which I will review at a later date.

ramentokyo.com Ramen Jiro Information Page
NinnikuYasai Page
Amaojisan's Database Page
Google Map

Ramen Tai/Meguro Mitaラーメン隊/目黒三田

;   

Ramen Dai is a well-hidden shop in Mita Meguro-ku that does not appear on very many blogs or food sites. In fact I could only find it on Tabelog. It's well-hidden in a residential area (on the ground floor of someone's house, actually) about 10 minutes from Ebisu Garden Place. They serve Hakata Kumamoto ramen, similar to the Keika chain. They have a good selection of lunch sets (one of the menus says Set A, Set B, Set C, any of them in a good choice). The inside space is one table and a counter for 9 or 10, but it is air-con'ed. Outside there are two tables which are nice in the spring and fall but not so nice in the summer and winter. The ramen broth is very garlicky, the noodles are the thinner type (you can ask for katame). The chahan is also good too, you can get that in a set if you wish. Not a lot of chashu in the bowl for the lunch sets, you can also order a chashu-don (pork on rice) as a side order, you can see that in the corner of the photograph above.

If you're staying at Ebisu Garden Place and you really want to go to a ramen shop in that area that is off the beaten path and chances are no one you know has been to, this is a good choice. Also don't get the Mita (Meguro-ku) area around Ebisu Garden Place mixed up with the Mita area in Minato-ku, they are two separate Mitas.

Tabelog Page
Google Map

Yoshu Shonin/Meguro揚州商人/目黒

  

The Meguro Yoshu Shonin is down the hill going west away from JR Meguro Station, past a row of several other ramen shops. There are two branches of Meguro Dori that converge down at the bottom of the hill. there's sort of a mini-ramen mecca in that triangular area, between 10-15 shops last time I counted.

Yoshu Shonin is one of the best low/medium-priced Chinese restaurants in Tokyo IMO. There are a large number of branches and the food is consistently good between all of them. It has a really varied and interesting menu (with big pictures so you can just point if worse comes to worse), the service is very speedy, and the prices and portions are reasonable. I've been to four of them within Tokyo, and they typically are just a counter plus a few 2 and 4-seat tables, so unless any given shop has special arrangements, you won't be able to bring a big crew here. The Meguro branch has no tables at all, just a counter.

My favorite dish is the suratanmen - if you live in or have been to the US and have ever had "hot and sour" soup from a Chinese restaurant there? If so, Yoshu Shonin's version of that called "suratanmen" or "sanratanmen" (スーラータンメン or サンラータンメン) will blow your mind, it has thin ramen noodles in it and it's the best I've ever had, really really spicy and peppery, I almost guarantee you will be sweating at the end of the bowl. The above picture is of the house chahan which is also very good.

Shop Home Page
Bento.com review
Google Map

Fujiyama Seimen/NakaMeguroフジヤマ製麺/中目黒

Fujiyama Seimen is a (relatively) large shop right alongside NakaMeguro station on Hibiya-sen. It has an semi-outside seating area on the left side and a lot of room inside. It is well-known for its large selection of tsukemen variations, as you can see in pictures of the menu here (scroll down to the set of 4 pictures) and here. It was warm but not humid at all today in Tokyo, and there was a nice breeze so the shop was quite comfortable. Inside the shop the staff was very busy, they seemed good-natured but a bit disorganized, and I ended up getting my tsukemen 10 minutes after the gentleman sitting next to me got his, and he came in after I did. They were very apologetic when I pointed this out to them and they offered me free goodies. Oh well. The noodles are made on site, there's a glass-windowed room off to the side where a solitary worker sat and threaded dough sheets through a noodle-cutting machine. I must say that the noodles here are some of the best I have had recently, done perfectly. The omori was a decent portion but not huge however. The tsukemen shiru was pretty much your standard slightly sweet taste (maybe a bit too sweet for some, a stronger orange or yuzu taste possibly) but had strips of kamaboku in it though, not my favorite. If you want to try a lot of different types of tsukemen then you might find this place interesting. There is also a sister store in Takadanobaba, which I have not been to yet.

Amasan Review
Pictures+Address
Google Map

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

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.

Shop Site
Pictures+Address
More Pictures+Address
Even More Pictures+Address
Google Map

Kakuni Ramen/Himonya角煮ラーメン/碑文谷

Interesting place specializing in kurobuta pork (from black pigs, not clear whether they were Chinese or Japanese). Kakuni is the term for pork belly that has been boiled for a long time. Across Meguro-Dori from the GakugeiDaiGaku Daiei store, which is an interesting place to spend an afternoon in itself. The tsukemen broth had a very good taste, but the kakuni portion was a bit on the light side. It was served in large square chunks. I ordered the omori and the tsukemen ramen was actually served twice, first a plate of thinner men, then, presumably after they had cooked a little longer to reach the same level of katame-ness, another plate of thicker men. All-in-all not bad and they have a very diverse menus with a lot of interesting items, consider it if you are in the area.

Pictures+Address
Google Map

Ramen Tamaru/Shimo Meguroらーめん田丸/下目黒

Tamaru is a very small shop on the left side down the hill going west on Meguro Dori from Meguro Station in Shinagawa-ku, right where the two branches of Meguro Dori come back together. Rather cozy inside. Bright yellow awning, hard to miss. The broth is very well strained, fairly rich. The cook goes through a lot of motions with the various strainers etc. The veggies are almost all cabbage, well-cooked until they were very soft. The men are just a shade thinner than spaghetti and they were not katame at all. The pork is just thin (1/4") slices of chashu, not grilled, in fact it was cold the last time I went, as though it had just been taken out of the fridge. All in all not bad. In spite of all of the yellow outside and the general makeup of the ramen, I still hesitate to call this one Jiro-like though.

Pictures+Address
More Pictures
Google Map