無鉄砲 (Muteppo in Nakano)

無鉄砲



Muteppo is highly ranked. Sure, there are a dozen or so publications and websites with ramen rankings, but when your shop is on almost all of them, there's got to be something special about it.



Less than 6 months old, they already have a devout following. All I knew going in was that it is a tonkotsu shop. I was expecting creamy white soup with the standard toppings.



The staff asked how I wanted my noodles cooked. A usual question. But then, they asked if seiabura, back fat, was ok. That is definitely not a standard tonkotsu question. Of course, I accepted.



Wow. Intense hardly describes what is going on here.

The shop uses over 300kg of roasted pork bones a day. You can bet the impact is there. This is the definition of kotteri, thick and rich.



Top it with some soy marinated garlic slices.



My apologies to anyone sitting next to me on the train.



Another bonus, you can order a free side of light soup to add. Choose from either a fish broth or a light tonkotsu broth.



For certain one of the most intense tonkotsu ramens out there.

By the way, according to their website, they have a branch in Sydney. Any ramen adventurers down under? I'd love to here about it.

Check out my video review here!





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百日紅 (Sarusuberi in Shinjuku)

麺や百日紅

Within the labyrinth of Shinjuku station, you can find anything. From $300 watermelons to bicycles. High-end cameras to hotels. Movie theaters to ramen shops. Saru-Suberi (Salisbury?) is one of those shops that you have to either stumble across or have someone who has previously stumbled there show you. For those adventurous folks out there, it's somewhere near the Toei-Shinjuku line in Shinjuku Sanchome station, exit C2.

I really don't understand the name of this shop. Hearing "saru", I though of 猿, monkey. At least our primate friend makes an appearance on the menu. Order your tsukemen "monkey size" and you get it topped with extra pork, an egg, and some fried chicken.

The miso tsukemen with... double strange taste? 二段味変? My kanji is getting a workout on this one. You should order it though. It's their excellent miso/pork/fish soup with the adition of a spicy miso dollop and a saucer of burnt garlic oil.

Eat it 3 ways. Start off normal, dipping noodles into the soup.

Then drizzle the burnt garlic oil in the soup. The new taste is rough and smoky.

Finally mix in the spicy miso paste for an extra kick.

With every good tsukemen shop, there is some sort of point worth mentioning. There's the sweetness of King Kong or the roasted fish taste of Fuunji. Sarusuberi brings the onions. 5 kinds of onions. Roasted, carmelized, raw, and different kinds of green meld together in every bowl.

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Le Parc in Ebisu

Le Parc

Met up with a fellow foodie a couple days after he ran the Tokyo marathon. Ramen without a plan was the... plan. Using one of my many ramen magazines, we found ourselves at Le Parc, near Ebisu station.

With all the French writing, and mentions of Hong Kong, we weren't sure if we were at a ramen shop.

Still not sure. The tuxedoed waitresses, table cloths, and fancy air of the place would indicate otherwise. But sure enough, like most places serving Chinese food, Le Parc has some noodles on the menu.

Simple. The broth is one you know if you've ever had won ton soup. In fact, everything in this bowl, except for the noodles, had that common Chinese soup taste. Very decent bowl, and at only 900 yen with sides and desert, it was much less than expected. It looks like they have a shrimp won ton ramen at dinner time. Might be worth a trip back.

By the way, this shop is fairly well known for their dim sum. We didn't have a chance to try any of that.

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