Ramen Jiro: Shinjuku

Ah, Ramen Jiro, a staple amongst the ramen chains in Tokyo. What ramen blog would be complete without the inclusion of at least one Ramen Jiro, which boasts over 30 locations in Tokyo? When I first became interested in ramen in Tokyo I learned of Ramen Jiro, specifically the Takadanobaba branch. I was told it was a favorite amongst young men, not the cleanest place, but certainly filling.

My previous two posts were on Nantsuttei Misoya Hachiro Shoten and Tatsunoya, both of which are in the same neighborhood as this Shinjuku branch of Ramen Jiro. I've frequented both Nantsuttei Misoya Hachiro Shoten and Tatsunoya but had never tried Ramen Jiro, often due to the fact it was full or there was a line of people waiting for seats, which seems par for the course for many Ramen Jiro throughout Tokyo. Micah and I met in Shinjuku a little before noon and headed to Ramen Jiro, hoping we'd be able to get seats despite it being lunch time, usually a very busy time for ramen shops in Tokyo! As soon as we entered we spotted two empty seats, but not together. However, once we had our jackets hung up and our ramen tickets bought from the vending machine, another man was leaving, opening up two empty adjacent seats, which the two of us quickly swooped upon.


The view from our counter seats

Unsure as to what to order, Micah asked the chef for his recommendation. The chef called out "Butairi!" and a nice customer at the counter pointed it out on the vending machine with a smile. So Micah and I both ordered the butairi and took our seats. Upon giving our tickets to the chef we were asked if we wanted garlic with our ramen and we answered in affirmative. Ramen Jiro has a reputation for its use of garlic and I was soon to find out exactly why. Something unexpected: the amount of time it took for us to receive our ramen! In the back of the restaurant there are two tables, one cleared out while we were waiting and we were allowed to change from the counter seats to the table, which was a bit more spacious. I suppose we waited about fifteen minutes in total before we were served. I was a bit taken aback by the amount of food in the bowl, the sizable amount of diced garlic on the side of the bowl and especially by the slabs of chashu piled atop it all!


That's a lot of food!

The broth at Ramen Jiro is mostly tonkotsu (pork) with shoyu (soy sauce.) It's a bit thicker and stronger than regular ramen and the salt is palpable. The noodles are thicker than regular noodles, but pretty innocuous as they don't seem to have a very noticeable or unique flavor to them. The toppings of the butairi at Ramen Jiro consist of a generous heaping of chopped cabbage and moyashi (bean sprouts) in addition to about five slices of chashu. The chashu at Ramen Jiro tends not to be as thick or rough as the chashu at many other ramen shops. My chashu had only small amounts of fat in it and reminded me more of the slabs of turkey I'd use to make a sandwich than of chashu. Their texture was a bit dry, like turkey, and without the melty fatty goodness I've come to associate with chashu.


Micah trying the broth

Upon first tasting the broth, Micah let out a laugh and said "It tastes like gravy!" and indeed it definitely had a gravy taste to it, albeit much less thick than your regular gravy. However, in addition to the chashu, I was certainly in mind of a nice gravy turkey sandwich! This image faded as I moved the chashu to the bottom of the bowl and mixed up the garlic, cabbage, moyashi and noodles. I would not recommend Ramen Jiro before a date, as you will consume enough garlic to keep Lestat at bay for a fortnight. As a subscriber to the cooking philosophy "Everything is better with garlic!" I had no problem with this, but I fear my students tonight will not appreciate it as much as I!


Trying to make a dent in the massive pile of noodles and veggies!

Although it had been nearly 12 hours since my last meal, the amount of food in your average bowl of ramen was just too much for me! I marveled at the salarymen sitting at the counter ordering "Oomori!" (extra noodles) and finishing it all down. Ultimately, the offerings of Ramen Jiro were probably only a little over average. It was definitely a unique flavor I haven't experienced at other shops in Tokyo, and an interesting environment as nearly the entire restaurant was filled completely with businessmen on their lunch breaks.


Though I had given up on finishing, Micah persevered!

If you have a big hunger you need to fill, Ramen Jiro is the spot for you. If you have the drunk munchies, I'm certain Ramen Jiro will satisfy. It's not a refined or sophisticated taste, the flavors are not subtle, but it will certainly satisfy those looking especially for quantity over quality. Will I eat there again? Probably, but I doubt it will be often. With the spicy Nantsuttei directly next door and Tatsunoya's Hakata ramen down the street, there are plenty of delicious options in the neighborhood, both of which never have a line as frequently as Ramen Jiro does. Overall, I'm glad I finally experienced a Ramen Jiro, but if you're looking for the ultimate bowl of ramen in Tokyo you're not going to find it in Ramen Jiro.



Cascade Bridge, Shinjuku-dori
7-5-5 Nishi-Shinjuku, Shinjuku Ward
Tokyo, JAPAN
TEL 03-3371-5010

HOURS
Monday through Friday - 11:00AM to 1:00AM
Sunday and holidays - 11:00AM to 10:00PM

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
Click here for map

Kohmen Ramen

If you picked up the latest issue of Ramen Walker magazine, you'll see Ikebukuro has quite a few ramen shops. Living nearby Ikebukuro, this is very advantageous for my taste buds (but quite detrimental to my weight!) Like a moth to a lamp, I can never resist the siren call of the many ramen shops dotting Ikebukuro. One ramen institution will be celebrating its 10 year anniversary come December this year. That ramen chain is Kohmen Ramen, though it is often spelled Komen as well. Kohmen's first shop opened on the south side of Ikebukuro though I haven't tried this shop yet, I have eaten at the Kohmen on the west side of Ikebukuro Station, which opened shop in 2002.

Kohmen's menu is in Japanese, Chinese, Korean and English, making it a convenient place to eat at for those who find Japanese isn't their strongest suit. A copy of their menu can be found here. The English used is interesting as it seems it was put through a computerized translater or a native English speaker did not do the translation. My favorite is the translation of tantanmen: "painful ramen of sesame flavor." I ordered the tonkotsu ramen (or as the menu puts it "pig's bone broth ramen") and Micah ordered the tantanmen.


Kohmen's tonkotsu ramen

When we ordered our food, the waiter informed us that the shop was giving costumers a free gift of food. He showed us a laminated strip of paper with pictures of the three gifts you could choose from: an extra helping of noodles, an extra egg, or a purin (dessert pudding.) Micah chose the extra egg and I opted for extra noodles. The extra noodles certainly made a difference! By the time I finished everything, I felt that my stomach was about to burst!


About halfway done and there's still so many noodles left!

I find the tonkotsu broth to be a cut about most places. It's less creamy than Ippudo's tonkotsu broth, but still quite delicious. The taste isn't too heavy, but it's heavier than cheaper chain ramen shops. The toppings included are negi (spring onions), chashu (barbequed pork), menma (bamboo shoots), and spinach. The spinach is an interesting touch. Kohmen is a Tokyo-based chain which may explain the spinach which is more commonly found in Tokyo-style ramen than the ramen of other regions of Japan. Most notable of the toppings was the menma. Typical ramen menma is rather firm and thin but Kohmen's menma was quite thick and less firm providing a new interesting texture to the ramen.


Micah tastes his first sip of the tantanmen broth.

An interesting thing about the two story ramen restaurant is its setup. All booths come equipped with a TV screen displaying movie advertisements, book reviews, and blurbs on the various other locations of Kohmen in Harajuku, Shinjuku, Roppongi, Ebisu, Ueno, Akihabara, and Takadanobaba. The ramen chefs all work on the first floor. A tiny elevator system is installed in the middle of the restaurant to send steaming hot bowls of ramen to the hungry customers on the second floor.


Micah enjoys his tantanmen as the TV plays in the background.

At Kohmen, you can probably get away with spending less than 1000 yen (around $10 USD) for a bowl of ramen. This is about average for the quality you're getting. There are many good shops in Ikebukuro, with its multilingual menu Kohmen is a good starting place for someone new to ramen. Micah and I both left Kohmen happy with full warm bellies, ready to face the cold for the 20 minute walk back to our apartment.


Kohmen
03-5911-7688
West Ikebukuro
Nishi-Ikebukuro 1-22-6 1,2F
Open 11-5am, Sun through Thurs
Open 11-6am, Fri and Sat, nat'l hoidays

Ippudo Ramen

At the beginning of December, Micah and I were near Ebisu so in the evening we headed to Ippudo, a ramen shop about five minutes on foot from Ebisu Station. Ippudo ramen is Hakata style, which means it originated in Hakata city, northwest on the southern island Kyushu. Hakata ramen usually has a creamy broth and the noodles are whiter, thinner and straighter than typical ramen noodles. Ippudo specializes in tonkotsu ramen. Tonkotsu ramen is ramen with broth made from pork bones. The tonkotsu broth here was very creamy and a bit fatty, though I've seen fattier!


From left to right: spicy moyashi, karashi takana and gari. In the back you can see the fresh garlic

Ippudo ramen has a small tabehoudai (all you can eat) selection on their tables. There's spicy moyashi (bean sprouts), karashi takana (spicy greens) and gari (pickled ginger) that you can eat on top of your rice or ramen, though I must admit, the spicy moyashi is delicious on its own! Also on the table are flesh cloves of garlic and garlic crushers so you can add fresh garlic to your ramen if you so desire. When ordering at Ippudo, you will be asked how firm you want your noodles. You can get them harigane (the firmest, it means "steel beam", barikata (very firm), katame (firm), futsuu (regular) or yawarakame (soft.) Micah and I both ordered the shiromaru (white bowl), but Micah ordered his noodles to be harigane and I ordered futsuu for mine. Unfortunately, Micah and I were very hungry when we arrived so I didn't even think of taking a picture of the ramen before we itadakimasu'ed! However, you can see plenty of pictures of Ippudo's shiromaru ramen here!


When I finally remembered, it was too late!

This was my first time eating Hakata style ramen and I was very impressed by Ippudo's shiromaru. The tonkotsu broth's flavor lingered on the tongue long after swallowing. The thinner noodles were novel to me but their texture perfectly complimented the broth's flavor. The chashu (barbequed pork) was also quite delicious. Ippudo in Ebisu knows how to make a bowl of soup that will leave you completely contented.


As Micah can tell you, it's good to the very last drop!

If you're in Ebisu and find yourself with a hankering for ramen, be sure to check out Ippudo! I've read that it's not entirely uncommon to encounter lines during peak lunch hours, but around 6pm on a Monday night, the shop was practically deserted, so don't let fear of lines deter you from experiencing an amazing bowl of ramen!

Ippudo

5420-2225

Ebisu

Hiroo 1-3-13
[along Meiji-dori towards Hiroo, just past the post office]
Open 11-4am daily