Mendokoro Ishin

I've walked home through Shinsaibashi quite a few times now, and every once and a while, I see a restaurant that looks interesting and mark it down for later.  A while back I spotted Ishin, but wasn't hungry.  Tonight while walking home again, I decided to check it out.  I knew nothing about it, but the tsukemen looked good, so I went in and ordered the tsukemen with an egg.

Information
麺処 維新
Ōsaka-fu, Ōsaka-shi, Chūō-ku, Shinsaibashisuji, １丁目５−２
Ishin is just a block east of the Shinsaibashi shopping arcade, a few blocks south of Nagahori Dori.

The Bowl
If you look at the picture above, you may notice that in addition to the egg I ordered, there's a raw egg in the middle of the noodles.  That's because before you start dipping the noodles into the broth, you are supposed to mix the egg in, and try them on their own.  With the egg, the bowl of noodles becomes a bit like a carbonara, with thick, eggy, chewy noodles.  They were a little lacking in flavor, but then again, that's why there's soup on the side.  The soup was a thick soup that I think was a gyokai tonkotsu.  There were small cubes of chashu already inside the soup that were very tender, and the slices that came with the noodles tasted a little bit like barbecue sauce and reminded me of delicious American pulled pork.  To top it off, the wari-soup, instead of being the standard simple dashi, was a murky broth with green onions, some spicy sauce, bits of egg.

Would I Go Again?
Yeah, this place was great.  The raw egg made the noodles a lot creamier, and the extra delicious wari-soup at the end will ensure I'll be back.

Should You Go?
Yes.  It's really close to Shinsaibashi, so it's convenient, too.