Monday, July 16, 2012

九月堂 (Kugatsudo in Shibuya)

らーめんと甘味処 九月堂

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The recent search for charming little ramen shops took me to the upscale shopping district north of Shibuya station. Within a minute of this ramen shop, you will find a Ships, a Beams, a G Star Raw, and a Comme de concept shop. I don't expect the average ramen slurper to know what those are (except the guys at Ken Ken in SF), but patterned shirts with bow ties sums it up fairly well.

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What I am getting at is that this is not your typical ramen neighborhood. It is more of a craft beer bar followed by fancy crepes. It takes a special kind of ramen to work here.

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Is the white leather couch too much? Probably. Anyways, ramen comes kotteri or asari. Heavy or light.

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The light was quite nice. Cafe style in every way, the light fish broth was accented by grated yuzu citrus. A standard recipe for success.

Too bad I got the kotteri. It was a big miss. Salty and pungent, I could only finish about half. There were some temperature issues as well, the soup and some toppings felt cold. Maybe it was a timing mistake with the ordering of both styles. Regardless, do not order the kotteri!

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Nice place to relax though. And thanks to the aforementioned bad ramen, I saved room for desert.

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Yuzu sorbet in a yuzu jelly. Fantastic. There are also some enormous parfaits that make this a proper date spot for someone looking to impress a lovely lady with something sweet . . . or a cool dude with some hot noodles (asari!)

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東京都渋谷区神南1-15-12
Tokyo, Shibuya-ku, Jinnan 1-15-22
Closest station: Shibuya

Open 11:30-22:00
Weekends 12:00-21:00
Closed Mondays

4 comments:

thegypsie said...

The dessert looks amazing! That would be a good date night spot for me to either take someone to or be taken. Looks fairly roomy too.

Steve D. said...

I will have to give it a try the next time I visit Craftheads. (He is the person who bootlegs Three Floyds beers from Chicago to Tokyo.)
This was the ramen restaurant I ate at in Shibuya. It is a busy shop. Have you been there?

Steve D. said...

Doh!
Of course you have.
I was pressed for time when I responded then. My foursquare link was the swiftest one I had.

Ramen Adventures said...

Of course I went to Craftheads after! Had a nice Stone IPA to wash down the ramen.