Menya Sou/Takadanobaba麺屋 宗/高田馬場

 

Menya Sou (Sou 宗 = "religion", "sect" or "denomination") is located about 10 minutes walk west from JR Takadanobaba station. One of the ramen trends from last year was "ramen dining", the idea that ramen can be presented in a nicer "restaurant" setting than the traditional ramen shop, and that there can be other dishes on the menu such as salads, other appetizers, fish, etc., not just noodles and various liquid and solid forms of farm animals. In addition to Menya Sou, another well-known ramen shop subscribing to this ramen dining theory is GoGyo. Menya Sou was on the cover of the June 2007 Torasan monthly ramen guidebook, which is a big deal.

In any case the wait inside the dimly-lit shop was quite pleasant as they had several chairs and a large number of ramen-related magazines to read while I waited. There was a single table the size of an ottoman that four people were somehow sitting at and eating. The service was a bit on the slow side, it took 5 minutes just to get the guy to come over and take my order. I ordered the aburi yaki toro soba (炙り焼トロそば), which was two pieces of well-grilled but thin, fairly fatty chashu over a bed of thinner noodles and chicken-type shio broth that had a fair amount of pepper in it. For the broth they also had an yuzu shio option that I did not choose. I also had the plum flavored gyoza which were good too. You will be asked whether you want thicker or thinner noodles to go in your bowl. It was all tasty but the portion was a bit small for the price. Good overall. Closed every second Sunday.

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ShinKouYou/NishiShinjuku新高揚/西新宿

ShinKouYou is a small, crowded, very chummy and "after-work" type of place located in a office building basement right around the corner from Yodobashi Multimedia Kan in Nishi Shinjuku, west of the station. I went there with my coworker Machida-san after picking up some computer parts we needed for work at Yodobashi. Many visitors like to go to Akihabara to see the electronics district but you can also have a lot of fun in the Yodobashi Camera area just west of Shinjuku station, there's a number of places to eat and drink there too and it has a loud street market type of atmosphere. There are various Yodobashi specialty shops there including one shop dedicated to electronic dictionaries, that's where I bought mine and I got a pretty good deal. In any case, ShinKouYou has very nice tables and benches made out of polished wood. A square counter is in the middle of the room and there are two or three tables for four around it. Very loud with the various cooks and employees shouting all sorts of things to each other. We had the paiku (ぱいく) tsukemen and ramen respectively, the paiku idea was new to us, it is sort of like tonkatsu but with much more thinly-sliced pork, and very finely breaded and salted. Sort of like weinerschnitzel except with pork. The broth is a Tokyo-style shoyu broth, except slightly stronger than usual, it contains green beans and chopped negis. The noodles were served on an interesting bento-like noodle tray, however the amount was a bit small, and they were fairly thin. The hand-made gyoza were good and larger than you usually see. There are other options that I might consider in this area but this would be a respectable choice for sure.

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Himawari/Takadanobabaつけ麺屋 ひまわり/高田馬場

 

Himawari is near the end of the little street that sticks out going directly northwest from JR Takadanobaba station. If you cross the river then you've gone too far. You'll pass a Sunkus on the left as you go down the street. There's a counter for 8 and 3 tables for 4 or 6 people inside. The stereo was playing American 50's oldies the entire time I was there, including Elvis and Nat King Cole. I got the 300 gram shoyu tsukemen. The gentleman next to me got the 400 gram version and they delivered his noodles all laid flat on a plate that must have been the size of a bus steering wheel. The dipping sauce was very good, standard pork and fish blend, however they had the powdered pork bits (what's the name of that stuff?) piled high on a sheet of nori floating on the broth. Additional powdered pig was available in a container on the counter, for the taking. Also a nice touch was a giant container of freshly chopped tama negi on the counter, a few of those in the dipping sauce gives it a nice kick, if it's not too sweet already. The chashu was the round rolled type that I normally prefer not to have since it frequently comes apart and gets all stringy in your mouth, however the interesting there here is that the chef grills it before serving it, this seems to sear it together and it actually tasted pretty good, this is rare for places that serve that style of chashu.

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Ajichi/Takadanobaba味一/高田馬場

 

Ajichi is a recent addition to the Takadanobaba ramen scene, having opened in April of 2007 along with a branch of Menya-Sou. It's on the Waseda Gushi side (west) of Takadanobaba station, just a couple minutes walk west from the station on the main drag, on the left side of the street. The shop was not crowded at about 6 PM on a Thursday night, but that's probably a lull before the party crowd starts making the rounds. The west side of Takadanobaba station is a bit quieter than the east side also. In any case since the weather is cool now in Tokyo I decided to start moving back into ramen mode from summer tsukemen mode. The shoyu ramen here was quite good and differed from the standard bowl in a number of ways: the noodles were very thin and looked homemade, almost as thin as instant-ramen noodles, but much better quality, although what looked like a fair amount of kansui, and they were served al dente by default. The broth had a slightly smoky-sweet flavor, not as salty as regular shoyu, this was surprising but was probably the best part of the dish. The pork was cut into thin strips about 1" by 2" and was grilled, it was easy to get a hunk of pork and noodles into one bite. Definitely give it a whirl. The omori portion was 1000 yen, a bit steep but worth it in my opinion.

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Taishi/NishiShinjuku大志/西新宿

 

Taishi means "lofty ambitions" in Japanese. This shop, which only does tsukemen, is a relatively large place with tables and a spacious counter. It's a few doors down to the west after you come out of the D4 exit of Shinjuku Station on the nishi-guchi side (actually the nishi-guchi is more north than west I guess). It wasn't crowded at all, just a few other people, however again this was one of the O-Bon/summer holiday weeks so a lot of people are out of town of course. Tsukemen broth here was pretty standard. The chashu was a standout, moderately thick slices with a fair amount of fat and taste. I recommend getting the extra slices for 300 yen. However the regular portion of noodles was quite small actually so I recommend you get the omori or the extra omori. The sizes are 300g, 400g and 500g, all for the same price. Broth comes in wa-fu, spicy taste and spicy miso taste, the wa-fu (和風) is the one that will be closest to a shoyu taste. They have some interesting Chinese-looking side dishes on the reverse side of the menu which I did not have time to try this visit. So overall decent.

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Ronya/Shinjuku Gyoenmae龍家/新宿御苑前

 

This tiny unassuming little place admittedly doesn't look like much from the outside. When you walk in, you suddenly get the feeling that you have accidentally stumbled into someone's cramped living room/kitchen. There's paneling on the walls, a bunch of strange artwork, a Disney poster and a manga magazine collection shelf. "Cozy" would be an appropriate word. The oyaji was very attentive and helpful, walking around to fill my water glass no less than four times even though there was a picture right next to me. So I had the futsu (regular) tsukemen. The noodles and veggies were decent but average. It included some spinach-like greens that are uncommon for tsukemen. The only other place that I know of that includes them is Kookai. The tsukemen set comes with nori sheets and a flavored mostly-hard-boiled-egg. However the chef did do a nice job with the tsukemen broth, a rich taste, very flavorful and heavy on the negi. The meal was reasonably priced too at 750 yen. Beer and sake are also available. If you want to eat in an offbeat little place and you are in the Gyoenmae area you might want to give it a try.

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Hirugao/Shinjuku Gyoenmaeひるがお/新宿御苑前

 

In the world of Tokyo tsukemen, there aren't many shio-chashu tsukemen places. Not sure why that is, perhaps the shio broth/shiru is too salty for tsukemen when condensed down (tsukemen broths tend to run a little thicker than ramen broths). Normally with chashu tsukemen, chashu (pork) is teamed up with either shoyu, miso or a pork/fish blended broth for the dipping sauce part. Miso broths, especially when they are spicy, can frequently dull the taste of the chashu IMO. You may also, in some cases, receive the pork separately on the noodle plate so that you can eat it as-is or put it into the soup as you desire. So Hirugao as a shio-tsukemen place is really good, a bit out of the ordinary, tucked away on a back street a couple of blocks south from Yasukuni Dori. My favorite thing to do with dead pig is grill it, and that's exactly what they do here for the chashu tsukemen. Grilled slices of Japanese pork at least as good as Yotekko-ya, with just the right amount of fat, cut into small cubes and generously dumped into the dipping sauce. The noodles were well cooked and very slippery, which is good because then it's easier for me to do the tsukemen slurping thing. Japanese ramen aficionados sometimes claim that slurping noodles enhances the flavor a bit, I haven't decided yet whether that applies to me too. Clean and neat inside, not a huge amount of atmosphere but that doesn't matter. Counter for 10 and one table for 2.

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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.

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Kohmen/Kabukicho光麺/歌舞伎町

My Kohmen stamp card hadn't received any attention in a while and I was in Shinjuku station so I decided to stop into the Kabukicho branch there today. Kohmen has been one of my long time favorites, for the quality of its pork, broth and noodles. There is also a branch on the 8th floor of Yodobashi Akiba in Akihabara if you go there. I see it as a direct competitor (in the tsukemen area) to Kookai, also another exellent chain. The Shinjuku Kabukicho branch of Kohmen is smaller than most but for some reason I was the only one in there today save for a couple who was on their way out. I actually didn't have ramen today, it was too hot. I had the 炭火あぶり梅塩豚トロ丼 (charcoal-grilled pork (cheek meat) flavored with plum taste on rice) and the excellent hand-made gyoza, which come out scaldingly hot so be careful. At least this place gives you a decent-size glass of water. Toro-niku or pig cheek meat (the cheek on the face :-) is probably one of the fattiest and richest parts of a pig, but you can't get much meat out of a pig's cheek so the slices were thin. I don't believe this is the same cut of pork used in the ramen or tsukemen. The meat was really tasty and reminded me of Santoka that used to be in Ebisu where I work. Definitely recommended that you stop into some Kohmen branch.

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Keika Ramen/Shinjuku桂花ラーメン/新宿

   

Keika is one of the older ramen chains in Japan. They have 11 branches (5 in Kumamoto prefecture, 6 in Tokyo and 1 in Yokohama). It serves up a good Kumamoto-style tonkotsu ramen with a strong rich broth and good sesame/garlic flavor. Kumamoto is the one of the prefectures in the Kyushu region and it is constantly compared with the Hakata tonkotsu ramen that the region is also well-known for. In keeping with my usual summer style I had the shio tsukemen, which was recently added to the menu at Keika. It has a broth that is creamier/fattier than most shio broths and a bit stronger taste IMO. Unlike the Ramen Road reviewer linked below, I found the noodles to be on the thin side and not "firm" at all, just average. However you could ask for them to be katame. There was some cabbage in the broth, and there's a large jar of pickled cabbage + other veggies at each table/counter so you can snack on that before the ramen comes. No spoons though. I've eaten at both the Shibuya and Shinjuku Keika branches, they are basically the same, the Shinjuku one was a bit more cramped if that matters. Very tasty.

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Ramen Jiro/Shinjukuラーメン二郎/小滝橋通り

The Shinjuku Ramen Jiro is my second pick (after Ikebukero) for a Ramen Jiro that is a good choice for a first timer. It's also consistent and tasty enough that I find myself here every couple months or so when I am in the area. The line is rarely longer than 15-20 mins long.

The Shinjuku Ramen Jiro has an expanded menu, including different sizes of tsukemen, good for hot summers. The noodles here are fairly firm by default, and they are a bit thicker than average Ramen Jiro noodles. Yasai are mostly moyashi. The broth is relatively fat-free compared to other Jiros, which enhances its strong shoyu taste. I can also taste a bit of pepper in it but maybe that's just me. The pork is not the rough fatty cuts you see in most other Jiros but rather relatively thin slices, not too different in size and shape from what you might see at a yakiniku place. The store is a little cramped but it also has two tables, each seating two people. It appears to be OK to wait for the two tables if you want. The staff are friendly and quick. Feel free to grab some manga from the shelf near the ticket machine if you want something to read while you wait.

Don't get this Ramen Jiro confused with the one on the other side of the Yamanote-sen in Kabukicho (歌舞伎町).

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