RyotanTei/Honanchoりょうたん亭/方南町

 

RyotanTei in Honancho is just a couple minutes west from Honancho station, the last stop going west on the Marunouchi subway line from Shinjuku. It's an interesting little shop that unfortunately had no aircon going, just open windows and electric fans, on a not-so-cool mid-September Saturday. The very nice woman behind the counter spoke decent English even though it wasn't necessary. Many of the customers who came in after me ordered the wonton men, a hot soup dish, which was interesting since it was a hot day. There must be something special about that dish, I will have to try that next time. The tsukesoba with a chashu plate combination was good - very thin but tasty noodles, the portion was a bit small though. They also put a lot of nori and a slice of lemon on them. The chashu slices were sliced against the grain, giving them a rough texture, and the pork had the reddish outside color as though it had been seasoned or marinated or whatever, and then cooked Chinese-style. It was delivered with a tasty brown sauce and freshly chopped onions on top. Not bad overall.

Jiro Tan page (more pictures)
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Rinki/Eifuku臨機/永福

 

Vacation day continues. My next stop on the Keio Inokashira line (京王井の頭線) today was another tsukemen place in Eifuku that has just recently opened. Rinki (りんき, 臨機) is literally right across the street from the only (south side) exit of NishiEifuku (西永福) station. It has a counter that seats 5 or 6 and also it has 3 tables for four. They looked like they were just getting over the usual "new store" problems as the temperature at the counter next to the kitchen was quite hot, the manager apologized to me profusely about it, and they had some sort of temporary machine that looked like a giant vacuum cleaner rigged up to suck the heat away. I usually don't mind sitting at the counter as it affords you a better view of the kitchen and the cook. There was plenty of attentive and enthusiastic staff dressed in colorful knit rasta caps who all pretty much looked like this was their first day on the job.

The pork here was excellent, that's the main story, an aburi chashu similar to Yotekko-ya's. It was available in both small pieces to be mixed into the soup, as came with the default tsukemen, and also as a topping in slices, which were also grilled on a real grill prior to serving. The noodles were the regular flatter thin-linguine egg type and the only (small) complaint on that is that they use those fancier disposable chopsticks with the pointy ends that make thin noodles harder to pick up, instead of the normal square-ended ones. The broth was a strong flavor, pork with fish overtones like I had earlier in the day at Kai. A richer taste here. The menma was good and crunchy too, the bigger thicker slices that go well with a strong broth. Definitely recommended, especially if the quality of the pork stays this good or improves.

saito1972329 Ramen Diary (more pictures + menu)
Diddlefinger Map (English labels)
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Kai/Kugayama甲斐/久我山

 

Vacation day. Today I decided to take the Keio Inokashira line (京王井の頭線) west a bit from the center of Tokyo and check out two tsukemen places along that line between Meidaimae and Kichijoji. The first one was in Kugayama, less than 50 meters from the station right near the railroad crossing. The name of the shop is Kai (fruitful, effective) and it specializes in chukka soba/tsukemen as you can see from the pictures of the outside of the store.

This store is a very small place situated on one of those sharp-angled corner plots of land that the Japanese hate to waste. It has no tables, only 8 small stools at a counter (of course me the big gaijin always gets wedged in a corner somehow) and one person behind a small counter who was working extremely hard and was covered in sweat. The broth was good, shoyu with fish overtones - and it didn't have that slight hint of sweetness that you get with the Taishoken-type tsukemen shops. Not to say that is good or bad, just different. Generous portion of onions in there. No tissues or spoons. The noodles were quite close to the Taishoken tsukemen type, spaghetti-thickness. These were a shade darker in color and had some firmness to them. The "regular" pork chashu was grilled on the outside then sliced thinly, this is one of the layered cuts similar to Bannai's pork. Definitely good overall.

Ramen.LiveDoor.Biz review (more pictures)
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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
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