Shinki Restaurant/Nakanobu新記/中延

 

Shinki Restaurant in Nakanobu is an interesting little Chinese restaurant that has some slightly different dishes on the menu. The shop is near Nakanobu Station on the Toei Asakusa line. Shinki is actually a small chain of three places in Setagaya-ku, Minato-ku, and this one in Shinagawa-ku. I tried something that I haven't seen anywhere else (yet) in Tokyo, the tsuyu nashi (no soup, つゆなし麺), very thin Hong Kong-style egg noodles. Sometimes this is called "dry noodle" style in Chinese restaurants. The noodles were served with a very salty shoyu-based sauce drizzled over them, not regular soup style. You can get either thicker Japanese noodles or these thinner (angel hair or thinner) Hong Kong-style noodles. There were also a lot of different small dim-sum type dishes on the menu, such as spare rib meshis and various sauteed vegetables, and the actual in-store menu is bigger than what's on the site. The shop was not crowded at 3 PM on a Saturday. I think the food here is good but for the price (1050 yen) I would want a somewhat bigger portion, or at least the option for an omori size.

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Hyaku Ban/Nishi Gotanda百番/西五反田

 

This branch of Hyaku Ban (there are several) is near Fudomae station in Nishi Gotanda. The lunch teishoku was decent but unremarkable, a ramen + rice + scrambled egg set. The ramen was Tokyo shoyu style and tasted very "regular". There weren't many people in the store at the time I went. If you are in need of a cheap meal, this is acceptable, but Chinese Cafe 8 would be a better choice for cheap Chinese food. I have to admit that they did have a large number of things on the menu (but few pictures though) and if you want to have a large number of things to choose from it might be worth a try.

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Kiwami/Gotanda極/五反田

 

Kiwami is located right under the Yamanote Line bridge in Gotanda, right near the large Tokyu Store south of the station, but you don't really hear anything from the trains once you are inside the shop. However the heater/AC blows right onto the seats near the door, so you are alternately cold and hot. All the other seats look OK though. There's a good selection of magazines and manga inside to the left. I had the "strong tsukemen" (強つけ麺) as advertised on the outside of the shop - the noodles were *very* chewy with a rich light brown color, and quite thick, even for tsukemen noodles. Thickness similar to Tetsu. The broth was a lot like Kookai's, very rich, almost creamy tonkotsu taste with a lot of that powdered pork stuff, very coarsely ground so it affected the texture of the broth a lot. The amount of noodles was a bit small so I would probably get the chou size (中) instead of the futsu (普) next time, there are ticket buttons on the machine outside for all three sizes. The chashu was very good too with very little fat. Containers of free zasai + red shoga were on the counter. They have a ramen and rice/shumai set for 750 for lunch that most of the customers were getting. The ramen and tsukemen dishes come with 1/2 boiled egg by default.

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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.

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Kayu Santin/Meguro謝朋殿 粥/目黒

 

Kayu Santin is a nice place to go in Meguro Atre for a quick and inexpensive Chinese noodle fix. In addition to noodles, this place has a few Chinese congee (= rice porridge) dishes on the menu, including ones with kaku ni pork or shrimp wontons. The Japanese word for porridge is "kayu" 粥. They also have several nice side dishes including a spicy onion and cucumber dish that we both enjoyed. The kaku ni noodle soup and porridge were both good, and omori portions are available. My wife especially enjoyed the cup of hot jasmine tea, which was freshly-brewed in front of us in a clear glass mug via some hot water and jasmine tea leaves. This chain is run by the same company that runs the Shahoden restaurants, another one of our favorites, of which there is also one in Atre 1 (5F).

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Gyoza No Ohsho/Togoshi Ginza餃子の王将/戸越銀座

 

Salarymen are almost invariably a good indication of where the best and cheapest places are to eat, especially for lunch. Along the Togoshi Ginza shopping street, just as you go past Tokyu Togoshi Ginza station going west, there is a medium sized shop called Gyoza No Ohsho (= "King of Gyoza"), that had a fair number of salarymen waiting outside around lunchtime yesterday. Gyoza No Ohsho is a large nationwide chain of inexpensive Chinese restaurants (including at least 30 branches just in Tokyo and a couple in mainland China). The restaurant chain operates on a principle of providing better food at lower cost than its competitors, and they have a large kitchen and a fairly wide-ranging menu. I would say that the lunch-time set specials are an excellent value. I ordered the Tokyo Ramen lunch set, including a smaller bowl of shoyu ramen with chashu, 6 decent-sized gyoza and some fried rice (chahan). The pork-and-veggie gyoza were amazingly good for 200 yen (what they cost a la carte), and they are hand made by a guy behind the counter in-between his grill cooking duties. The pork in the ramen was not a bad cut but quite thin, the noodles were premade of course but decent. The chahan had no meat in it and was the size of a large ice cream scoop but for a total of about 860 yen this was a very filling lunch for the price.

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Bannai Ramen/Gotanda喜多方ラーメン 坂内/五反田駅前

 

The Bannai chain is a good and reasonably-priced chain of Kitakata-style ramen shops that I have already written about here. I won't repeat all of that information for this shop listing (this is the second of the two shops in Gotanda), other than to say that this is the larger of the two Gotanda shops, and that this one is closed on Sundays. It's tucked into a little corner just north of the West Exit of the station (don't cross the railroad tracks). Side note - one of Tokyo's few "large size" shoe stores is right around the corner from this branch of Bannai, you will see signs for it when you exit the station and walk north. In any case they had a couple special items on their menu until September 30 - one of them was a special summer tsukemen with goma dare (sesame dipping sauce). The weather was starting to cool down a bit this week in the metropolis so I wanted to go there and try this one out and also see what this store was like. Well while the pork and noodles were up to Bannai's high standards (for a chain in this price range), the goma dare tasted off to me for some reason. Now this has nothing to do with this shop specifically, as I'm sure most or all of the Bannai branches carry the same dish and probably make it in pretty much the same way. It was a bit bitter and rough-tasting and didn't go well with the noodles. Not quite to my liking. Also they sprinkled ground goma on top which doesn't go well (to me) for a tsukemen dipping sauce as it affects the texture of the noodles that you taste. To dip noodles in a thick sauce like that, it really has to have a good taste and harmonize well with the noodles, and this didn't quite do it for me. Definitely go to this shop, but I can't recommend this dish. Some of their other cold dishes such as hiyashi chuuka soba might be better choices and are actually available all year round.

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Manbaken/KamiOsakiらーめん 蓮/中目黒

 

Manbaken is on the southern half of Meguro-dori, slightly east of JR Meguro station going torwards Shirokanedai. They have a few interesting things on the menu that most ramen shops don't have, including chahan sets. The chashu tsukemen was decent. The pork slices were the thin rolled-layers type - you can tell them whether you want slices with more or less fat on them. I asked for the noodles to be katame but they weren't very. The broth had a very strong shoyu taste and there was a good portion of moyashis in the bowl. The seats are the ones that are screwed to the floor, a bit of an annoyance for a wide gaijin like myself. The buta meshi bowls looked good, they are a new addition to the menu as part of some sets, but I haven't had them yet.

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Kake Ramen Ichiban/KamiOsakiかけらーめん一番/上大崎

 

Kake Ramen Ichiban is a small chain of about 6 or 7 ramen shops in Tokyo and a couple outside of it. Actually Kake Ramen is more like a Chinese restaurant that also has ramen on the menu. The Kami Osaki branch, just north of Meguro station on the opposite side of the street, has ample seating inside at both counters and tables. The food here is good, and it's *very* reasonably priced. They have several Chinese set menus such as pork + vegetables, chicken karage, many other items, sort of like Chinese Cafe Eight. They also recently started carrying a summer cold noodle menu and they now have several chahans (fried rice dishes) on the menu (these items do not appear on the web site, they may not be at all branches). An omori (large size) pork and egg chahan with a bowl of chicken broth on the side was 490 yen, that is an excellent price for a generous portion of food for this area of the city. I could have added a plate of 6 small gyozas for another 160 yen. If you want some cheap decent Chinese eats and you are in the neigborhood, this is the place for you.

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Kagetsu/Hiratsuka花月/平塚

 

Kagetsu is one of the largest ramen chains in Japan, if not the largest, with over 210 stores throughout 30 prefectures, including almost 50 in Tokyo alone. They have a varied reasonably-priced menu with all major ramen styles represented, including miso, shoyu, tonkotsu, chuuka soba, tsukemen, some fried rice dishes, sides etc. On this visit I went to the Kagetsu in Hiratsuka, walking from the 戸越銀座 station.

The reason for my visit was that this chain had recently started advertising a Ramen Jiro competitive dish called Shin Taro. Well to say the least, it was a respectable effort but it wasn't the same thing. I realistically didn't think it would be the same thing as Ramen Jiro, but I was curious how far a large chain could come. First of all it was a respectable volume. They should have served it in a white bowl, that would have helped with the illusion a bit. The noodles were really not the same as Ramen Jiro noodles, they were darker and much thinner, almost like yakisoba color. The pork was paper thin and the veggies were OK in quality but not much of a portion. The soup did have some of the Ramen Jiro taste, but much more on the shoyu side. No garlic on the counter, just a little bit in the soup, and they didn't even ask me whether I wanted it or not. So while this is a decent place to go in general, I wouldn't make a special trip for the Shin Taro.

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Bannai Ramen/NishiGotanda喜多方ラーメン 坂内/西五反田

  

"Kitakata Ramen Bannai" or more simply Bannai Ramen is one of the largest ramen chains in the Kanto area, and they also have stores outside of it. It's a safe reliable choice when you want some basic good-tasting ramen quickly but don't want to go to one of the 390 yen stand-and-slurp places on the train platforms. The broth is a relatively clear pork and (slightly) fish-based broth, clearer and lighter to my taste than others but still salty, and the noodles themselves are a touch thicker, springier and wavier. For 150 yen extra you can get a large (o-mori) portion of noodles. The pork is good, cut into squares about the size of a matchbook, but the pieces generally have a large strip of clear delicate fat running through them. If this is not to your liking then it will melt into the soup if you leave it long enough.

The NishiGotanda Bannai Ramen is right next to a Tenkaippin branch as you can see from the picture above (this is kind of like having a McDonalds next to a Burger King) and neither store was particularly crowded at about 3 PM on a Saturday afternoon. There are actually two branches of Bannai in Gotanda, the other branch is called the Gotanda Eki Mae branch. "Eki Mae" = in front of the train station. The Eki Mae branch is larger but is also closed on Sundays. Overall I definitely like Bannai. On this trip I also purchased (1260 yen) a take home box with soup base, pork pieces, menma and noodles (the noodles come from the store's stock, the rest is prepackaged). I got three more meals out of this (OK actually two). Few large ramen chains have this, Tenkaippin does too actually now that I think about it. The original store on which Bannai's ramen is based is located in Fukushima Prefecture and apparently is so popular that they have tour buses that go to it.

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Oimachi Ramen/Oimachi大井町らーめん/大井町

Very salty tsukemen broth, really almost too salty to eat, not having any sweet taste at all, and a small portion of noodles sums this place up. The broth did have a lot of little bits of pork and negi in it, that was good. The noodles also had scallion-type small negi slices scattered all over them. That's better than nori strips any day. If you go definitely get the omori, the regular portion was a bit small for me. Overall it was OK but don't make a special trip, also consider the other ramen/tsukemen options in the Oimachi station area.

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