麺屋武蔵 虎嘯 - Musashi Koshou, Roppongi

味玉つけ麺 - Tsukemen with Egg


     If you think the name looks familiar then it probably does - This is the third shop from the Musashi family that I have visitied. Although these visits are more of a coincidence than a desire to search them out specifically. This one was just stumbled across when looking for something anything to eat for lunch. Despite carrying the same, in my experience each Musashi differs greatly from the others. The do each seem to have a theme though. This one is tigers.

     Being right in the heart of Roppongi you would expect Koshou to cater to the clubbing crowd, but since it closes up at 10pm you might have to stop by before you hit the tiles. (If that's what you're into.) It did seem to have a healthy stream of people coming through and the ticket machine ranks high for ease of use. It has pictures on the buttons!

    The tsukemen itself was pretty good. A shoyu soup that was quite refreshing in the warmer weather and noodles similar to the store in Ueno. Albeit a little more natural tasting... The soup wari was also very refreshing and a nice way to finish it off. Although it did cause another sighting of the tiger...

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Musashi Kosho Homepage

富山ブラック 麺家いろは - Iroha, Ikebukuro

ブラック味玉らーめん - Black Ramen with Egg, ￥880
 
    Lunch with Brian from Ramen Adventures turned out to be quite the adventure with Iroha located on the 12th floor of the Tobu department store in Ikebukuro which took about 20 minutes and four attempts to reach. Each time I ended up in a different building. Oh well, now I know...
    Iroha originated in Toyama and specialises in a black shoyu ramen and also a shrimp ramen dish, one of which they may have even won an award for...

    Ramen isn't your standard fare on the restaurant level of department stores which are usually filled with other 'classier' restaurants, but as the ramen world becomes more and more competitive and diverse, Iroha didn't seem at all out of place... 

   If I'm not mistaken this looks like it was the black style ramen. For all of their awards (One by my count) Iroha didn't quite live up to its reputation. A pretty solid bowl but seeming to lack something extra. I am usually a big fan of peppery ramens too... Is it worth the effort of navigating a massive department store?

I'll let you decide...

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Iroha Homepage

支那そば 天風 - Tenpu, Higashi Washinomiya

徳つけ - Toku Tsuke, ￥700

     It's unfortunate, but sometimes a trip out to a ramen shop can be met with disappointment. I don't mean whether you like it or not but whether you can actually eat or not. 

    Tenpuu, just a few minutes west of Higashiwashi Nomiya station, was the culprit this time, although closing for the purpose of trying to perfect their ramen was a perfectly acceptable reason.

    So it would have to wait for another time which isn't necessarily the worst thing in the world when you live in a city with 5,000 or so ramen shops. We eventually made it back almost 8 months later...

    Yet another of the ever popular tonkotsu-gyokai variety tsukemen. This one was probably more fishy than some of the others I've tried. But it was definitely worth the wait, although it's not as though I abstained from ramen for the duration so there wasn't in fact any waiting at all. 

    Now I know that a visit to these depths of Saitama is unlikely (2 stations before Ibaraki and 3 before Tochigi) but it's a great little place and you might also find one of the best onsen in Kanto out there...

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京めん 壱慶 - Kyomen Ikkei, Ueno

味玉ラーメン - Ramen w/ Egg, ￥800

    If you haven't stumbled upon this page or read about ramen before, you're probably aware that different areas of Japan have different styles of ramen. Some areas even have more than one! In saying that, today's ramen was Kyoto style, which differs from the image of Kyoto as the subtle, traditional home of Japan. This was a greasy tonkotsu-shoyu type ramen.

   Overall it was a pretty average bowl of ramen. This is reflected in the often empty counter while the masses queue outside Musashi Bukotsu which is located just across the road. This is probably made worse by the fact that it is quite a large ramen shop. 

    There was nothing particularly memorable about it, apart from being a little spicy, but it wasn't the worst in the world. I think the midnight closing time might attract the after drinks crowd when it doesn't really matter what your ramen tastes like.

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塩専門ひるがお - Hirugao, Tokyo Ramen Street

塩玉らーめん - Shio Ramen w/ Egg, ￥850

    Another visit to Tokyo Ramen Street and another failed attempt at lining up for the famous Rokurinsha which seems to always be an hour or so long. But since this is 4/8 I'll soon be able to get the whole set. This will certainly be fulfilling... Hirugao was chosen as the backup plan since it is famous for it's shio ramen.

    I don't remember a lot about it, but it was a little more complex and layered than your average shio ramen. So it could be guilty of having just a little too much going on at once. But there were no problems getting the job done.

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Hirugao Homepage

中村屋@West Park Cafe - Nakamuraya, Koshigaya Laketown

味玉塩ラーメン - Shio Ramen with Egg, ￥800

     What do you do when you have a national holiday on a Saturday? You go to the biggest shopping mall in the country, that's what! Actually, I am in the minority as I am one of the people who doesn't frown at the wastefulness of a holiday on the weekend since I'm usually at work. Anyway, amongst the hustle bustle of the bargain hunters and the salarymen dads spending the day with the family you can find a few ramen shops.

    Hmmmm. Not many people seemed to venture out to the outlet mall part of Laketown and we basically had the restaurant to ourselves. Much like the outlet stores themselves, Nakamura's prices were comparable with their counterparts in the mall proper. So you know you're not getting any factory seconds....

     The recommendation was a shio ramen, and since I was in the midst of a personal shio boom, I was happy to oblige. Again, I have a bit of a backlog of posts to write up so I can't remember this one too well, but I do remember liking it...

    Worth a visit if you're in the deepest depths of Saitama...

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Nakamuraya Homepage

熟成味噌タンメン 蔵味噌屋 - Kuromisoya, Kita Senju

味玉入り味噌タンメン- Miso Ramen with Egg.


     Being 2012 and all I have finally decided that I should try and come back inside from the ramen wilderness. As you have probably noticed from the masked chap in the photograph above this I went here during the much colder winter months which made miso ramen a good choice. The time I've taken to write the post about it was probably a bad choice since I don't remember much about it except for the heavy metal blaring from the kitchen.

     That probably could explain the lack of customers. Either that or the really tight seating in the booths... Anyway, was the ramen any good?

     I've already explained that I can't remember although considering this is the bowl that caused the 4 month lay-off, I would suggest no... Although this tells a different story...

    Or does it???

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