Underneath the bullet train, just minutes from the ticket gates, you can find some of the hottest ramen shops in Tokyo.
The aptly named Tokyo Ramen Street is a concept in efficiency. Thousands of people come through busy Tokyo station every day. Thousands of people want to eat good ramen. And the best shops in town wouldn't mind more customers. Is this a true win-win scenario?
Well, as long as you don't mind waiting an hour for your lunch.
Rokurinsha is the star of the Tokyo Ramen Street. This might be the aftermath of last year's tsukemen boom. Or it might just be that their noodles and soup are awesome. On a warm March morning, on my spring break holiday, I joined Daniel from howtojaponese.com for the adventure.
Makes sense that you can pay with your train fare debit card.
There you go, the gold medalist of tsukemen in Tokyo. The honor, though, is shared with TETSU. I'd love to place those two bowl next to each other for a true test. Either way, though, you're coming out a happy eater.
Thick, meaty soup. It's cooked for over 13 hours, until all the ingredients are unrecognizable. Pork, fish, vegetables, and secrets blend into liquid gold.
I fully recommend the original shop out in Osaki, but it's not convenient to anyone but those with time to spare and a good sense of direction.
This was the first shop in the Tokyo Ramen Street that we tried. In the near future, we'll be checking out all of these shops, and then hopefully doing the same at some other ramen streets located in or very near stations. There's one at Shinagawa station, and a new one at Koenji station. Until then, enjoy another episode of Collaboramen!
Official Ramen Street Site Here
More Shop Info Here
View Larger Map
6 comments:
Whoa - a whole row of restaurants dedicated to fantastic ramen? !!! Can't wait to check it out!
I've been bred to believe that food in malls and train stations is sub-par, but Tokyo is teaching me to relearn all of that. Thanks for lending to tasty education. :)
I'll have writeups of the other 3 shops in the next couple weeks, stay tuned!
This shop is good, but not wait-in-the queue-for-45mins good. I felt disappointed after eating the tsukemen, not that is tasted bad, it just didn't live up to to the hype surrounding this shop. Totally overrated and a lot better to be found elsewhere without the queues.
I agree with Anon. Fuunji is now the best, hands down. But you will still wait. Rokurinsha is open at something like 7am though, so that might work if you are out there in the morning.
I am no expert in tsukmen - had them just a few times - and Rokurinsha left me a bit baffled. The soup - although creamy and delicious - wasn't hot, but just slightly warm and when I dipped the noodles they emerged still unpleasantly cold. Is that normal? Did I miss something? OR did they make a mistake because the shop was so full at the time?
I just want to learn a bit
thank you!
Sorry to hear that Patrick. This post is quite old, and Rokurinsha has become a food-court-only shop. Actually, a few of the old, popular tsukemen shops sold their business and became franchises. It's really too bad, especially since this shop received a lot of attention overseas on television.
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