Menya Akatsuki/Komagome麺や あかつき/駒込

    

It's good to see shops with female employees in a predominantly male-dominated field of employment. It's even better to see them with women owners. Menya Akatsuki in Komagome opened in December of 2009 and it has a single woman as the owner and employee. It's a bit out of the way at the top of the loop but worth it, it's in the first floor of an apartment/office-like building. They make a very Jiro-like bowl, including both ramen and abura-soba versions. Very simple menu. They claim that their extra-thick noodles (and they are very thick actually) are house-made with kansui (Google it) from Inner Mongolia. The pork was very good as were the noodles. The soup was very clear with very little suspended fat. No line but very crowded. Self service water. Standard Jiro-like set of toppings.

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Menya Musashi Niten/Minami Ikebukero麺屋武蔵 二天/南池袋

 

Every Menya Musashi branch seems to have a different type of pork that is their signature dish and a different way of preparing it. This branch, the Niten branch in Minami Ikebukero, is no different - their special way of doing it is to fry up the pork sort of pork- or veal-cutlet style with some egg and breading and herbs. The dish is called the buta-ten or ton-ten tsukemen (豚天つけ麺). I came in at about 1 PM on a Sunday and while there were 5-6 people waiting on line inside the shop, there was no one waiting outside. The broth was full-flavored and rich with several stand-alone pieces of pork in it. You can order regular, medium or large portions for the same price. Unfortunately they "forgot" my fried pork, while bringing it to everyone else for some reason, and I unfortunately had to ask for it. Based on that I can not give them a Recommended rating but the food was still good.

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Mutekiya/Ikebukero無敵家/南池袋

   

Mutekiya (literally "no-enemies shop" or "shop without rivals") is located in Ikebukero on Meiji Dori south of the east entrance(s) to JR Ikebukero Station, and further south of some of the Seibu stores and Muji. It had fairly long lines for a Friday afternoon - tourists might have an advantage here since if they come during the week they will avoid the unbelievably long lines that are supposed to be present on the weekends. Also watch all of the bicycles that zoom down Meiji-dori, both on the street and on the sidewalks. There are no seats (for waiting) inside, you will be motioned to come in by the staff when seats are available, either at the counter or one of the small tables. Watch the first step when you go in, it's right next to the register and someone managed to trip over it when I was there. Note the interesting woks hanging outside, painted with the store's name in kanji. I had the chashu-men, which is not on the English web site but was on the Japanese menu that the staff had when they came out to take my orders ahead of time - be ready with what you want to order ahead of time - you could print out the English menu from the link below and circle what you want and bring it with you. The chashu was of medium thickness and well cooked - the soup was a really really creamy tonkotsu that must have been strained multiple times. The noodles were just plain. All in all it was good but not sure it's was worth waiting on line 40 mins for.

Shop home page (note the helpful "Foreign Langurage" link in upper right)
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Ju-Roku/Ikebukuro十六/池袋

 

At Ju-Roku there was a short line, about 5 people outside. It's located a bit of a walk from the station, about 15 mins, you pass a new Ramen Dai on the right side as you walk west from Ikebukuro Station. The shop has a nice wooden store front. The noodles at Ju-Roku come in 5 sizes from 200 to 700 grams. They have shio tsukemen, regular ramen, atsumori and regular tsukemen, and a special dish called B-men, which is basically abura soba, with shredded pork, noodles, shoyu and oil, cabbage and a few carrots. The B-men has a good taste, but not as salty or strong on the sauce side as other places, for example Miharu. Extra chopped negi onions are free regardless of what you order. There is no ticket machine - be ready with your order when you get on line - the woman will come out to take your order while you are waiting on line. It's a small shop, only 9 seats, a bit cramped. No tissues other than the ones over the coat rack on the window.

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Ajisen/Nishi Ikebukero味千/西池袋

Ajisen is a famous shop with 300 branches in 10 or 11 countries including Japan, China, the US (California), and Canada. They also have an online shopping site but I have not used it. The shop that I have tried in Tokyo (believe it or not but there are only two branches in Tokyo) is in Nishi Ikebukero, at the end of a long path, off the beaten path, going dirctly west from the station. This very informal shop closed at 8 PM on a Thursday, a bit suprising but maybe not really, given the fact that there was virtually no one in there at 7 PM, which is also a bit odd. I had the special paiku ramen, this is a special cut of pork similar to kakuni buta. The broth was good but a little "thin" in taste. The paiku meat was the best part. The taste was Kumamoto ramen style, with garlic oil, similar to Ramen Tai or Keika Ramen. Slightly different from Keika, for example, was the large amount of sliced negi onions in the bowl.

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Taishoken/Higashi Ikebukero大勝軒/東池袋

 

This is the new Taishoken in Higashi Ikebukero that opened in February to much acclaim, and to some, rather unexpectedly. The original Higashi Ikebukero Taishoken was finally knocked down last year (after one stay of execution if memory serves) to make way for one of the usual glass and concrete monstrosities. The founder of Taishoken and the supposed inventor of tsukemen, Yamagishi-san, sits outside this restaurant on days both cold and not-so-cold, chatting with customers and greeting them with a "domo, ki o tsukete" when they exit. Someone behind me on line who presumably didn't know who he was asked him to make change for a 10000 yen note. You can see Yamagishi-san on the left of one of the pictures above. Occasionally while I was waiting a customer or two asked to have his or her picture taken with him. I've walked past this place two or three times since the opening but didn't have the time to stop and try it until today, the line has been 20-30 people long each time. Well I am glad to say that the line moves quite quickly actually, an average of one person every 1-2 minutes I think. Be sure to get your ticket *before* you get on line, I had the mori chashu (もりちゃーしゅう, middle ticket on top row) which is a quite sweet tsukemen broth (from yuzu I believe) with a medium-sized helping of glassy light-colored noodles that sort of look like spaghetti but are much softer after cooking. All Taishoken's broths taste like this. Probably one of the sweeter broths around. A few menmas and negis and half of a boiled egg also, but that's it. There were only two pieces of chashu in the bowl and they were decent, but for the price (1000 yen) I think there could have been a bigger portion, I guess that explains why people were coming in and out so fast. The interior of the place is nice, newly constructed, 11-12 seats at the counter and 4 or 5 tables for 2, with photographs and hand-drawn pictures of Yamagishi-san and the old original Taishoken on the walls. If the line here is too long you could always walk down the back street to Kuro Nabe. The Taishoken on the other side of Ikebukero Station and the one next to Ikebukero Jiro serve roughly the exact same dish with crowds but no serious line, people are coming here for the novelty factor. I think Taishoken is good food and I give it a recommended rating based on this, however I can't say that it is the best tsukemen in Tokyo.

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Kuro Nabe/Minami Ikebukero黒ナベ/南池袋

 

Well my efforts to dine at the new Ikebukero Taishoken were thwarted today (again) as the line was about 30 people long at 1 PM on a Saturday. (However I was lucky enough to snap a picture of the famous Yamagishi-san sitting outside the entrance to the restaurant). About 3 minutes past Taishoken, on the same side of the road, going east, near the stop for the Toden Arakawa line, was Kuro Nabe. Very small and cramped shop, looked like 8 seats max and no tables. Very "cozy". Bilingual English/Japanese radio was playing in the background. The broth was very dark and rich, a slight thickness to it, shoyu with maybe a bit of tonkotsu, and had a "grilled sweet" taste, like AjiichiI would say that the onions were a good addition for this dish and help distinguish it. Just the right amount of ground pepper was placed on top of them. I got the dai (大) for 1000 yen, while the bowl and the broth were generously portioned, my opinion is that while the taste is excellent, there should be a little more pork for the price. Tissues are under the counter.

ramen.livedoor.biz page
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Benten/Takadanobabaべんてん/高田馬場

 

Benten is located on a corner location right next to the Kanda River in Takadanobaba. It was always ranked as one of the most popular shops in the area, including still being ranked within the top 10 tsukemen places in Tokyo in magazines within the last few month, and I can remember the lines being extremely long at one point. This trip (my first) was actually on a cold evening so perhaps that had something to do with the fact that there was a line of only one or two people. Note that the line sometimes starts in front of the store but then continues across the street. Inside the store is quite cramped and informal. There is no ticket machine, you order directly from the cooking staff when you sit down. Benten's claim to fame appears to be the large volume. The default noodle size is 350g, but you can get 650g or even 1000g (2.2 lbs of noodles) if you want. Perhaps these large volumes are because the shop is so close to Waseda University and all of the hungry college students. It's also not too far from a good Chinese/Singaporean restaurant that my wife and I have been to: Big Land's Tree. The noodles are Taishoken-style, the lighter-color kind that goes well with a lighter dipping sauce. The dipping sauce was a decent pork/fish mixture but the big story is that it was crammed full of chopped pork slices, however the menma was already sold out by the time we got there. Normally the chashu menma tsukemen is 1000 yen. I give this store a Recommended rating based on the large volume.

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JyuTon/Ikebukero十豚/東池袋

 

Jyuton is a small ramen/tsukemen shop located on a corner right across the street from one of Bic Camera's several locations in Ikebukero. There was nothing really special about this place to make me want to recommend it, it was decent but nothing special. In Ikebukero you have to be a really good ramen shop to stand out from the crowd, it is one of the main areas in Tokyo to get a good bowl. For a place that was in Ikebukero, close to the station, on a street corner no less, it was kind of suprising that there was practically no one in the place. Shoyu chashu tsukemen was pretty standard, no suprises, noodles were very thin. Strong onion flavor in the broth. Very roomy shop though, not like some of these places where you have people practically sitting in your lap. I'll have to research this place a bit more to see if there is something else special about it that I missed, many ramen shops in Ikebukero advertise their "Tokyo tonkotsu taste", perhaps that was it and I will have to return for a hot bowl of ramen at a later date.

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Bankara Ramen/Ikebukeroばんから ら～めん/南池袋

 

Starting to get mid-October cool in Tokyo. Certainly took long enough. The line at Mutekiya was too long as usual so I headed around the corner to Bankara. Bankara is a small chain, the Ikebukero branch is located in an area of Ikebukero where there are several other shops including Mutekiya, Kohmen and Ramen Jiro. Kaku ni (角煮) boiled pork is still not common at Tokyo ramen shops, but Bankara makes a decent kaku ni tsukemen. The dipping sauce here is reminiscent of one of the specials at Ramen Kazuki, a spicy shoyu with a lot of sesame in it. The kaku ni was decently sized and not too fatty, the noodles were well-done but there wasn't enough of them - get the omori, and if you do, don't worry when the noodles show up and don't look like an omori-sized portion - they will deliver the rest of them later. Special garlic presses on the counter allow you to crush your own fresh garlic into your soup. The only thing about this place is that it's very cramped at the counter and there will typically be someone standing right over you while you eat. They also had Chinese-speaking counter staff. Note that there appear to be several ramen shops/chains with the same Bankara name and similar logos.

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Story about Bankara's founder in Japan Times
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Elvis Ramen/Higashi Ikebukeroえるびす/東池袋

 

Elvis (Erubisu) Ramen in Higashi Ikebukero is just north of the busiest part of Higashi Ikebukero, the part right outside the station exit. This area of Ikebukero is well-known for a number of good ramen shops including Ramen Jiro and Tonchin. Elvis has two locations in Ikebukero, the other one is on the other side of the station near Marui department store. Although the shop shares it's name with The King, there's no Elvis memorabilia or an Elvis impersonator outside the shop. At this shop the chashu tsukemen is 1000 yen, a bit on the expensive side. The broth was pretty standard and while it had a decent taste and lot of onions in it, it was on the thin side (not thick). The noodles were also decent and well done, although not a particularly large portion, could not have been more than 200g. However the chashu was the rolled and thinly sliced kind that tends to fall apart once you dunk it in the broth. Overall not bad but if you are in the area you might want to look at some of the other shops too.

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Ramen Jiro/Ikebukeroラーメン二郎/池袋東口店

 

Of all the Ramen Jiro locations on or inside the loop (Yamanote-sen) Ramen Jiro Ikebukero Higashi Guchi (== East Exit) is one of the best overall experiences. It has a high degree of cleanliness, the store is reasonably spacious, it's relatively close to the station, and the volume and quality of the product is high. The Ikebukero Jiro is also a very true and "standard" Ramen Jiro taste. The Ikebukero Jiro and the Shinjuku Nishi Guchi (== West Exit) Jiro are the two Jiros that I recommend to first-time Jiro customers, be they locals or visitors who perhaps don't want to travel a long distance. Only after sampling one of those two shops do I recommend that you then try some of the other "rougher" Jiros, these other stores differ widely in taste and "ambiance". Another blogger wrote that there seem to be more women in the Ikebukero shop than in others, and I would tend to agree with that. This shop is one of the Ramen Jiros also that has a large wall of expired train passes and meishi (business cards) tacked on there by customers. Some of them are 10-20 years old and are so faded that you can hardly read them.

So the Ikebukero Jiro has a fairly good volume for the price, if you get the shou (小). The soup does have a high degree of fattiness in it, even for a Jiro. The veggies seem to be more on the moyashi side. The noodles are not that katame although you can ask for that if you want. The staff is very attentive and busy here (there have been 3 or 4 of them every time I have gone), and there's a larger number of seats than the average Jiro. The line snakes around in the store so you (usually) have to eat while people are standing over you watching, if that bothers you. That's the case in a number of Ramen Jiro shops though.

06/28/07 Update - The Ikebukero Jiro now has tsukemen and omori tsukemen for the summer.

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