Tsushima/Asakusa中華そば つし馬/浅草

 

Tsushima is a fairly-highly-ranked niboshi tsukemen and ramen shop in Asakusa, inside the Shin-Naka-Mise covered shopping complex near the Metro station. A very thin broth, true classic tsukemen type, with a fair fish flavor, slightly sweet. A bit skimpy on the chashu for the price though. Full of non-Japanese tourists, as you would expect and can see from the picture, given where it is. Nothing wrong with that, just be aware. They do have an English menu that they will bring out if asked, and then you point to what you want and they put your money in the machine for you and do the needful, etc. Would this be my first choice for the area though? Maybe not - Asakusa actually has a fairly large number of shops (approx. 20) that are ranked 40 or better, including 7 that are ranked 50 or better. In the area you can also go to Ganso Ebisu Ramen, which isn't on my favorites list but is something that many foreign ramen-interested visitors come across due to its presence on the worldramen.net page. Interesting and probably worth it if you are in Asakusa, or need to take some visitors to an authentic ramen shop after a day sightseeing, but I personally wouldn't make a special trip, even though it is good.

Supleks page
Google Map

Ganso Ebisu Ramen/Asakusa元祖恵比寿ラーメン/浅草

For good pictures of Ganso Ebisu Ramen click here.

Ganso Ebisu Ramen is actually not in Ebisu, it is in Sensoku in Taito-ku, about 5-10 mins walk directly north from Asakusa Station on the Tsukuba Express line from Akihabara. I managed to forget my keitai this time so that's why there are no pictures. A distinctive red wall and door make up the front of this ramen shop on Asakusa-dori. Inside, this place appears to have been visited by a number of popular world soccer stars including Pele - the walls have a large number of soccer pennants, shirts, autographed pictures and calendars hanging from them. They have a menu in both English and Japanese, I wonder if they get a lot of foreigners due to the mention on worldramen.net. The soup for my chashumen was a clear shoyu broth, satisfying on a cold rainy day. They will ask you also if you want free rice with it ("gohan sahbisu?") Just a slight layer of oil on top. A very generous amount of longer-than-average menmas were on top. The chashu itself and the noodles were plain. The staff was fairly friendly. At the link below you can read the story of this shop and the owner. The worldramen page that appears to have been written in 2001 is obviously a bit dated - they no longer have a ticket machine. You can get here quite easily from Kaminarimon Shrine, just walk west from the shrine until you get to Asakusa-dori, then walk north.

Shop Worldramen.net page (old)
Tableog page (good pics)
Diddlefinger Map (English labels)
Google Map

Gyoranzaka/Taito魚らん坂/台東

 

Very few places were open on this end of year holiday. This place was basically average but was doing a brisk business due to this. The negi chashu ramen was decent, with a Tokyo tonkotsu shoyu broth that was actually a bit weak - they also had shio and tsukemen broth. It's right outside Exit 1 of the Naka-Okachimachi Hibiya line station. They rate 27 on Supleks. There are much better options within < 5 mins walk from here. Very cramped - there wrere people waiting right behind me as I was eating. Only two tables for 4.

Livedoor review
Diddlefinger Map (English labels)
Google Map

Aoba/Okachimachi青葉/御徒町

  

Aoba is a chain of approximately 15 shops in Tokyo. It specializes in tsukemen and chuka soba similar to Taishoken. The Okachimachi branch is technically in Ueno but I list it under Okachimachi since it is almost right next to the JR Okachimachi Station. It's located in the Ramen Yokocho (横丁), which is a group of three shops in one building under the Yamanote line tracks. It's a very open and airy shop with a somewhat California look and new furniture and fixtures. Very simple ticket machine with four choices. The store was almost full but very quiet, most of the people were waiting and not eating yet. The counter stretches all the way around the shop to the back. Spoons but no tissues. I had the regular tsukemen, the broth was more like regular shoyu than Taishoken-style shoyu, and the noodles were quite a bit thinner, almost like somen thickness but not quite. The regular (futsu) size was quite a large amount, and was still a bit scary when the woman brought it over to my until I realized that there was one of those bamboo support things in the bottom of the bowl making it look bigger. I sat right next to the work room in the back and I saw what must have been the largest pot of cooking menma I have ever seen, it was like a 55-gallon drum almost. This place is decent but there are better options within 10 mins walk.

Supleks review page
Shop home page
Diddlefinger Map (English labels)
Google Map

Ikinaisshou/Taito粋な一生/台東

  

Ramen Shokudo Ikinaisshou is located in from Showa dori, a couple blocks south of Menya Inaba. Their shio broth had a decent, rich taste with some negis floating about. There were not many people in the store, but it was during a typhoon. The noodles were the standard pre-made yellow type, same as many ramen packages in supermarkets, with some nori on top - the single pork slice was the rolled type and was fairly thin and pink. I also had the chashu don as it looked good on one other customer's plate - I'm glad I chose that since three slices of chashu that pink ordered with my ramen might not have been the right thing to do. The chashu in the chashu-don was finely cut up and covered with a sweet sauce, not bad, but just a little lighter on the sauce would have been good. They also have shoyu and miso broths. It's decent if you are in the area, but if you are walking from Akihabara, there are probably some others that I would stop at, again such as Menya Inaba. The above sign at each counter seat proclaims their way of making the various shio, miso and shoyu broths that they have. Limited hours in the evening, 5:30 to 9:00.

Livedoor page
Diddlefinger Map (English labels)
Google Map

Menya Inaba/Taito麺屋 いなば/

 

Menya Inaba, in just a minute or two from Showa Dori, going north on the opposide side from Yodobashi Akiba in Akihabara. They serve an excellent tonkotsu gyoukai, with generous portions of broth and noodles. The broth is very full and firm and rich, with extra powdered pork floating on top of a strip of nori. The noodles - the futsu mori starts at 270 grams - see the Ikemen link below for better pictures of the ticket machine and the menus that indicate the different sizes for noodles for ramen vs. tsukemen. They state that their noodle amounts are bigger than other shops and I can believe it. They can also serve the noodles warm, or provide a smaller portion if you request it. Menmas are also served with the dish. I believe this is a good Tetsu and Rokurinsha competitor in this genre, within 10 minutess walk north from Yodobashi akiba and across Showa dori. It's a fairly roomy shop. The pork was excellent, a somewhat fatty dark and light cut, each piece a decent size. 2 more slices is 300 yen. The shop proprietor and the person I assume was his wife were joking around. When he had a free minute, he told me that the pork soup cooks for about 10 hours each day. The powdered pig and fried garlic chips were excellent. Use the "niku mashi" (肉 増し) button on the machine to order more meat.

Ikemen page
Raumen Nengo page
Diddlefinger Map (English labels)
Google Map

Menya Musashi Bukotsu/Okachimachi麺屋武蔵武骨/御徒町

  

Above the always-interesting shopping district on the east side of the Yamanote-sen near JR Okachimachi Station is Menya Musashi Bukotsu. There always seems to be a line, the store is right on the corner. Now Okachimachi doesn't have a large number of famous ramen shops, so this place is a standout. The place is divided into two sections by a building column, and you have to buy your ticket and wait inside on the right-hand side, and then when a seat frees up you might be asked to walk over to the other side and sit down there. There are 11-12 seats total. There are spoons but the tissues are on the left next to the column. There are classy little paper bibs on the left-hand side of the ticket machine in a hanging box. The black chashu men (sans egg) is what I had. The seating area is rather narrow so I really had to squeeze in. Black tonkotsu chashu-men (the black comes from squid ink) - what's that all about? I really tasted garlic more than anything else. There were medium thickness noodles, which were very soft - the noodles themselves did not have a lot of texture or taste on top of the regular tonkotsu broth, which I thought was a bit less flavorful than normal, with the layer of black squid ink floating to the top. However the star of the show is the kakuni boiled pork - three huge slices, each an inch thick and three inches long, like Sunday pork roast, the guy in the middle of the store was chopping them up furiously with a huge cleaver and throwing them into bowls along with a large number of chopped scallions. I recommend that you cut off the fatty parts and let them melt into the soup to increase the flavor but this place was pretty good just like it's sister shops, one of which in Takadanobaba we have already reviewed.

Amasan.jp review with a link to the machine menu
Diddlefinger Map (English labels)
Google Map

Motomaru/Ueno元丸/上野

 

After a trip to see the new Ueno Yodobashi Camera a couple of weeks ago I stopped by Ueno Motomaru, a tonkotsu ramen place near Shin-Okachimachi station and the Ameyoko market area. The area immediately surrounding the Ameyoko Market area does not have a lot of good ramen shops according to my checks so I didn't get my hopes up. In a departure from my usual practice I didn't actually have the ramen in this shop - I had a small plate of small wontons and a small buta don meshi. There is a long counter and several tables for 4 in the place, and it was moderately crowded at about 2 PM on a Saturday. Most people were getting the tonkotsu ramen, which has a moderately favorable rating on Supleks. They also had a huge collection of condiments on the counter including onions, various oils, garlic, etc. The tonkotsu ramen certainly looked good so I will have to come back here in the future.

Tabelog page
Supleks page
Diddlefinger Map (English labels)
Google Map

Tareso/Uenoたれ蔵/上野

 

Well there weren't many ramen shops open on the day after New Year's (1月 1日), so I took a ride up to Akihabara and then walked further to Okachimachi. The shop Tareso (it's actually in Ueno according to the map + address) was the only one that I could easily find near JR Okachimachi or Ueno-Hirokoji station (Ginza line) that was open. Because it was very cold I had the regular chashu ramen/chashumen. It was served very hot and the broth had the right shoyu flavor but it tasted a bit weak, not a very strong taste. The noodles were thicker than spaghetti, like fat spaghetti, and the regular size was < 200g, I would get the large size if possible. The chashu was very good and generously portioned, it was the long slice style which was slightly richer/fattier on the top half and darker and leaner on the bottom. A boiled egg and menma completed the picture. The shop is laid out with a very long counter stretching all the way to the back of the shop and for a big gaijin like me it was difficult to get all the way into the back without bumping into anyone or knocking their coats off the wall. However the seats were reasonably widely-spaced though.

MenWorld blog entry (more pictures + hours)
Diddlefinger Map (English labels)
Google Map