中華ソバ 櫻坂 (Sakura Zaka in Shibuya)

中華ソバ 櫻坂



After the excellent bowl of nontraditional tomato ramen, Keizo and I did what we almost always do, eat another bowl. The adventure led us 2 stations away to Shibuya.



Choosing from a list of highly ranked shops online, we came across Sakura Zaka. 櫻坂, the perfect kanji for the day, as we walked up a slope of blooming cherry trees to this shop.



I went with the sakura salt ramen. Keizo went with the shoyu. Did I make the right choice?



Nope!



The shio was not so hot. A thick souped shio is my least favorite of the shios. It always seems to taste like the sauce at a cheap Chinese restaurant to me.

But Keizo's shoyu was pretty good! A little sweet, the thickness matched nicely. Actually, most people order the tsukemen here, but I wasn't feeling in the mood for heavy noodles. Probably won't feel it in the future, either. , as Shibuya has much much more to seek out.



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トマトラーメン (Buono Buono in Naka Meguro)

トマトラーメン Buono Buono



Leading the pack of trendy, Italian fusion ramen; in trendy Naka Meguro; is the trendy Buono Buono. So trendy, in fact, that it's only serving ramen for a few hours a day at lunch time. Keizo and I made it on a fine spring day, sat down amongst the 90% female clientele, and dipped in.



Only top quality ingredients go into this one.



Looks good!

... closer!



Closer!



Too close!

You can choose from 8 different tomato ramen bowls. I went with the staff's recommendation, which also happened to be the most expensive, at 1100 yen. 3 different cheeses that I could distinguish, with the highlight being the sliced mozzarella.



The noodles are of the angel hair variety. All in all it's a similar concept to the Taiyo chain.



Look at that gooey mess of deliciousness.

Every single person who arrived after us ordered a side of garlic risotto rice on the side. It looked great, but stank like you wouldn't believe. As usual, I had an English lesson to get to later, so the extreme garlic breath was not in the cards.

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らあめん花月嵐 (Vegetarian Ramen at Kagetsu)

らあめん花月嵐



Kagetsu Arashi is literally EVERYWHERE in Tokyo. I'm not sure, but it might be the most extensive ramen chain in Japan. Their "thing" is the constant influx of almost monthly special bowls. The variety of these bowls is vast, ranging from "junk" style to tomato to this month's special, vegetarian ramen. We're adventuring into new territories here.



The vegetarian ramen is actually their 69th special bowl. You can see photos of all of them, all the way back to 2001, on their site.



I love this idea, and would try every one, if it wasn't for the fact that this chain isn't all that great. They serve up a palatable bowl of noodles, but never anything worth writing about. This was actually my 3rd or 4th time eating here, but I never had a camera with me.



There it is. It was... palatable. I was with some real vegetarians, and they were not impressed either. The attempt was there, with some unique ingredients like a shiso leaf, yuzu rind, and slivers of radish. The only thing they left out... was the meat.



I get a lot of emails from people who are coming to Japan and want to eat ramen. And a few of these are inevitably from vegetarians. "Where can I get some awesome ramen with no meat in it?"



You really can't. You could possibly find good noodles in broth, but its not going to be amazing ramen.



But don't worry, if it's out there, I'll find it!

Bonus! Apparently, if your name is Nana or Nanako, you can eat this for free on April 4th. Because Nanako is another way of pronouncing the kanji for vegetable ramen or something. I don't know the details.

Official Site Here