Tatsunoya

The first time I went to Tatsunoya, a Hakata-style ramen shop in Shinjuku, was in early 2010 soon after they opened their Tokyo location. I enjoyed the fare but never found it a priority to stop by regularly as it was good but not overly impressive. Later in 2010 I went to Tatsunoya on a whim and was very impressed! The interim allowed the restaurant to hone their craft and it went from a 6 to a 10! Since that visit, I've made a point of visiting Tatsunoya more often and it's yet to disappoint.

Tatsunoya isn't so large, it is mostly bar seating and there are two small tables at the back, one which can accomodate a couple and one which can accomodate a party of four. There's only been one or two times when I've stopped by, unable to get a seat at the restaurant. Most of the time, however, there have been two seats together open so that Micah and I can enjoy a tasty dinner (or lunch!)



Once you enter Tatsunoya, there's a vending machine where you can chose which ramen you want. Micah and I both bought the ramen kokuaji, which costs 850 yen per bowl and is one of their standard offerings. Once you purchase your ramen, you give your ticket to one of the staff and they will ask you how you want your noodles, we both ordered futsu (regular), but you can also order katame (firm) or yawarakame (soft.)



While you wait for your food you can snack on some spicy moyashi and read about the popular ramen choices in on a laminated pamphlet on the table.



Sitting at the bar, you have a clear view of the staff putting together bowls of ramen for you and the other patrons. Watching them make your food heightens the anticipation and when your bowl is finally delivered to your seat, you're definitely read to chow down!



A short wait later and here's my ramen! A bit hard to see, but there are fat globules floating in the broth. As a Hakata-style ramen, the noodles are thin and straight and the broth is tonkotsu. The fixings include chopped negi (spring onion), boiled egg, chashu, moyashi (bean sprouts) and kikurage (auricularia auricula-judae.) It's the perfect mix of noodles, fixings and broth!


Tabemasu!

Here's the thing about the eggs at Tatsunoya. They are cooked to perfection! The yolk is slightly runny though the albumen is fully cooked. However, despite being fully cooked, it is not rubbery, meaning it is not overcooked. In many cases I find that the quality of a ramen shop can be judged by its eggs. A perfectly cooked egg usually comes with top notch ramen. If an egg isn't perfectly cooked, I generally cannot stomach it. However, I eat the egg in Tatsunoya's ramen every time.


Micah enjoying the egg!

Tatsunoya ramen deserves to be finished, drink it all down because it is delicious! So make sure you go to the restaurant hungry because it's so worth it!





Tatsunoya
03-6304-0899
7-4-5 藤野ビル 1F
11:00 - 0:00
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Tokyo Ramen Show 2010

Sunday marked the last day of Tokyo Ramen Show, an annual gathering of ramen from around Japan.



Being bad ramen aficionados, we were unaware of the show until Thursday when a Japanese coworker and student told me about it! However, this gave us plenty of time to organize a small group to go Saturday evening! Micah organized for a group of about six of us to meet up at Komazawa Daigaku station on the Tokyu Den Entoshi line, less than 10 minutes from Shibuya.


Welcome to Tokyo Ramen Show!

We arrived in the evening around 7pm, giving us not much time to scout the booths and decide where to eat. The show stops selling tickets at 7:30 and last order is 8pm, so we weren't allowed a leisurely look around. At the ticket vending tent, you can buy one ticket for 750 yen. Each subsequent ticket is also 750 yen. One ticket will get you one bowl of ramen. While one ticket was enough for me, several group members opted for two tickets so they got to sample twice as much ramen goodness. Our group split up to get our respective ramen and we planned to meet back up at our table once we got our ramen. After a quick run through I decided on the Toyama Black Ramen. I was interested in this ramen after hearing about it for the first time while vacationing in Toyama prefecture in August. I got to try a little bit of the Toyama black at a kaitenzushi restaurant, where it was pleasant enough. I decided though for a real taste of Toyama Black Ramen, I needed to try it at Tokyo Ramen Show where the best versions of ramen were available for sampling.


Toyama Black Ramen

The Toyama Black Ramen was really interesting! Its soup is a thick shoyu (soy sauce) broth which makes it quite a salty ramen! I rarely eat shoyu ramen as it's not one of my favorites but in an attempt to break out of comfort zones, I made myself refrain from miso or tonkotsu based ramen. Sampling a new soup was a real treat though I don't think this soup is for everyone. It completely lacks the fatty globules that cover your tongue that you get in tonkotsu, miso and shio (salt) ramen. The taste is sharper than most other soups as well. The chashu (pork slices) were thick and hearty, allowing a good deal of chewing. The rough texture works well with the sharp salty taste of the soup. The chashu seemed like a perfect side on a cold winter's day. The eggs were cooked perfectly, the yolk was still runny while the albumen wasn't overcooked, avoiding that unpleasant rubbery texture. Overall, I was extremely satisfied with the ramen and happy with my choice.


Taishoken tonkotsu ramen

Micah chose the tonkotsu ramen from Taishoken. Taishoken is based in Ikebukuro, Tokyo and is best known for creating tsukemen. Micah, however, was unaware of this when he chose the ramen. As typical with tsukemen shops that serve ramen, the noodles were slightly thicker and the broth stronger than what you find with most ramen. The broth and noodles were both delicious though after eating my Toyama Black Ramen, the strength of the fat and pork was almost overwhelming. Micah said that it was easier to eat than most ramen from tsukemen-based shops. He also noted the strong presence of garlic in the soup. The chashu was also a little dry though still tasty. Micah generally is not the biggest fan of ramen from tsukemen shops, however the flavor of the broth leads me to think that Taishoken's tsukemen should be pretty good.


Nomming on our ramen

No matter what, good ramen on a cold night is always welcome! It's a little difficult to see in this image but my noodles are quite darker than Micah's. This is because of the black broth staining the noodles to a darker shade. Kinda wild looking up close!


Ume's hakata ramen

A friend got hakata ramen. I tried a sip of the broth and it was a much stronger pork taste than I'm used to! There was almost no trace of fish in the broth, it almost tasted like pork gravy in soupier form! The noodles were also a little curlier than most hakata ramen. An interesting soup!


The ramen booths at the end of the night

Overall, a good time was had and tasty ramen was eaten at Tokyo Ramen Show 2010! I'm definitely looking forward to Tokyo Ramen Show 2011!

Kyushu Jangara Ramen

Kyushu Jangara is a chain of ramen shops throughout Tokyo. At the end of December 2009 while our friend, Will, was staying with us, one night we decided to hit up the Kyushu Jangara shop in Harajuku. Apparently the shop takes up two floors in the Harajuku location, but the stores are not connected inside. Therefore there are ramen chefs on the first floor and the second floor, creating soups specifically for the floor they're working on. We climbed up to the second floor and were greeted by a small line, maybe three groups of people waiting to be seating. From what I've read, one should be prepared to wait in line before being seated due to the popularity of this shop. While we waited, we were given copies of the menu to figure out what we wanted to order. The menus were in Japanese and English as well as two other languages. About 10 minutes later we were seated, a round of beers and three bowls of ramen were ordered and the beers were promptly delivered to our table.


Kanpai!

As the name suggests, this ramen finds its roots in Kyushu, thus it is Hakata style (straight thin noodles instead of the wavy regular thickness.) I ordered a "Kyushu Jangara". It's ramen with tonkotsu broth that comes with everything! Most ramen comes with one or two slices of chashu (barbequed pork), menma (bamboo shoots), negi (spring onion), and maybe a soft boiled egg. A "Kyushu Jangara" bowl of ramen comes with all that as well as two additional large lengths of fatty pork, a scoop of mentaiko (spiced pollock roe), kikurage, and a generous sprinkling of sesame seeds.


A "Kyushu Jangara"

Will ordered the same as I but without the mentaiko. Unfortunately, he was served mentaiko nonetheless. The waiter realized the mistake when serving us our ramen and told Will that his bowl would be on the house, so good for Will, free ramen! The offending mentaiko was scooped out of Will's bowl and delivered to Micah's karabon ramen. Although the karabon ramen is listed as the spicy ramen at the shop, Micah found its spiciness to be tolerable, nothing to write home about. The karabon ramen comes with everything my Kyushu Jangara ramen came with.


The spicy karabon ramen!

Although the ramen is served in shallower bowls than most other shops stock, the bowls themselves are wider, so you are not being served any less ramen. The three of us went to town on our bowls and conversation hit a lull at this point. What I found most noticeable about the toppings were the two lengths of fatty pork. The fat seemed to melt in your mouth and the pork itself was very tender and had a great flavor. This pork is not for the faint of heart, I do not think I can really emphasize exactly how fatty it is! The flavor is great, but two lengths seemed to be one too many for this ramen loving girl! Kyushu Jangara was also the first time I've had mentaiko in ramen. It adds an interesting spicy kick but its flavor is not for everyone and strikes me more of an acquired taste. A tasty bowl of ramen, the tonkotsu broth does not seem to be the showcase but rather the mellowness that binds all the flavors together.


Gouchisousama deshita!

We let the ramen settle in our bellies as we finished off our beer. The steady stream of customers was drying up as the evening wore on so we felt no rush to leave immediately. When we did leave, we had to explain to the man working the register that Will's ramen was free and eventually our waiter came up to confirm this. We settled our tab, our hunger satisfied and made our way back to Harajuku Station for the train ride home.


Kyushu Jangara
03-3404-5572
Harajuku
1-13-21 Jingu-mae, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo
Mon-Thu 10:45am-2:00am; Fri 10:45am-3:30am; Sat 10:00am-3:30am; Sun/Holidays 10:00am-2:00am
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