Of course, I have been to Itto before. They are considered one of the best tsukemen shops in Japan, commanding a near perfect 97.94 ranking on the infamous Ramen Database. How does that rank overall? Best in the country, actually!
Why did I brave the long lines this time?
Mr. Ramen Culture, a fellow ramen nerd who came out to Japan to work at Japan's #1 ramen shop.
https://www.theramenculture.com/
And this limited bowl of niboshi-heavy ramen. To be honest, though this was a rad bowl, their original tsukemen is always the way to go at Itto. This particular one was made with specialty Japanese chickens from Nagoya. The soup was so thick that they hit it with some soup wari at the end, something usually reserved for tsukemen.
Soup wari (スープ割り) is essentially a light broth added to thick soup to make it drinkable. Many shops add in extras. This bowl added shredded chicken, salt-cured konbu seaweed, and rice. Now that I think about it, this might not really be a soup wari situation, but an entirely 2nd meal.
A random aside. Some years ago I hosted the Ramen Shaman at my home through the Couch Surfing website. At that time, I introduced him to another Couch Surfing friend and they created a Tokyo Dodgeball club. Years later, Mr. Ramen Culture joined a game of dodgeball and met a nice local girl. Six years or so after all of this, and she became the new Mrs. Ramen Culture. How cool is that!
Congrats to all!
(photo stolen without permission from The Ramen Culture blog).
Official site here.
東京都葛飾区東新小岩1-4-17
Tokyo, Katsushika-ku, Higashishinkoiwa 1-4-17
Closest station: Shinkoiwa
Open 11:00-15:00, 18:00-22:00
