Happy Congee

I was writing my post for Benitoraken and I got really hungry for some good tantanmen.  The next day at work I did some tabelog searched and found a Chinese restaurant with a supposedly good bowl of tantanmen on their menu.  On my way home, I stopped in.  There were a lot of delicious-looking things on the menu like pork buns and dumplings, but I was there for the tantanmen.

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幸福粥店
Ōsaka-fu, Ōsaka-shi, Chūō-ku, Bingomachi, ４丁目２−５

The Bowl
Similar to a bowl I had recently at Mensho, this dish smelled strongly of ra-yu.  It was a fairly standard bowl of tantanmen; the broth was thin,oily, and tasted a lot like ra-yu, too.  The noodles were thin and chewy.  There was a lot of ground pork mixed with peppers that had a bit of a barbecue taste to them.  There was some bonus tiny shrimp too, whose flavor came out a lot more than I expected since they were so small.

Would I Go Again?
I'm curious to try their other food, but their tantanmen was just decent, so I wouldn't come back just for it.

Should You Go?
There are better places to get tantanmen, so there's no need to go to Happy Congee.

Makenki Ramen

It was finally starting to get warm in Osaka, which encouraged me all the more to take random walks.  Today's was to Makenki Ramen, a shop I found in last year's Ramen Walker that has a number of different styles, but most notably shoyu tonkotsu.  I've really enjoyed some of the other shoyu tonkotsu shops I've been to before, so I was excited to give Makenki a try.

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まけんきラーメン
Ōsaka-fu, Ōsaka-shi, Nishi-ku, Itachibori, ３丁目７−１３
Makenki is south of Awaza Station, on the east side of Amida-ike Suji.

The Bowl
The broth was thin and very oily, reminding me a little bit of the broth at some chains I've been to.  It was salty and there was a roasty flavor, similar to roasted garlic or ma-yu.  The noodles were medium-thin and fairly firm.  There was an egg, menma, onions, and bean sprouts, but what really stood out was the chashu that was tender and tasted like Chinese barbecue pork.

Would I Go Again?
I wasn't blown away; I won't be back.

Should You Go?
The chashu was good and interesting, but everything else was mediocre.  Skip this one.

Menya Tenkei

It was a rainy Sunday and I needed some food.  I wandered around Namba for a while looking to see if anything struck my fancy when I remembered a tsukemen shop on Sennichimae that I had passed a few times.  Without anything else in mind, I headed over to Menya Tenkei.

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麺や 天啓
Ōsaka-fu, Ōsaka-shi, Chūō-ku, Kōzu, ２丁目７−３
Tenkei is just east of Nipponbashi Station on the north side of Sennichimae.

The Bowl
Tenkei offered up a pretty standard gyokai tonkotsu tsukemen; the broth was rich and fairly thick.  They offered a choice of different noodles, I went for the fattest kind which soaked up the soup and actually tasted pretty good on its own, too.  There were cubes of pork already in the broth that were fatty and tender, while the chashu with the noodles was in one thick slice that was very chewy.  There was some fruit-vinegar on the side that they recommended adding in at the end.  It was pretty good and changed up the flavor of the broth; very similar to what they had at Yokanise.

Would I Go Again?
It was pretty good but there are better gyokai tonkotsu places a little farther north.  I might go again and try one of the other menu items.

Should You Go?
It's not bad and is in a pretty convenient location; it's worth a stop by.

Takezawa

After accidentally getting my coworker obsessed with Teru, I figured I had to show him the other ramen shops in the area.  I had been to Takezawa before, months ago, but not since I started this blog.  We headed over there and found out that it was actually about to close.  According to one of the employees, the store was going to relocate to China!  There was only a week and a half or so left until it was gone for good, so we were pretty lucky.  Takezawa specialized in light shoyu ramen, so I went with that.

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閉店麺屋たけざわ
Ōsaka-fu, Ōsaka-shi, Kita-ku, Nakatsu, １丁目１０−１３

The Bowl
The broth was clear and much lighter than most shoyu ramen that I've had.  If I didn't know any better I would have thought it was shio just looking at it.  It wasn't too salty and was very refreshing.  The noodles were thin and light too, which  worked well.  The egg was creamy and quite good, while the kakuni was decent but nothing special.

Would I Go Again?
I went back one last time before it closed, to try one of their other special ramens, and I would have gone back on occasion if Takezawa hadn't closed.

Should You Go?
Takezawa is already closed at time of writing; maybe you can go find it in China?

Mensho

After a long day of work I didn't feel like walking far and just wanted something quick to eat.  I had passed the ramen shop right outside Umeda Station Mensho several times, but never gone in.  I was too tired to look up a place, so I decided to finally give Mensho a shot.

Mensho offered a variety of tonkotsu shoyu bowls, and I went for the one called "ra-men" (辣麺).  This is a pun, in that the normal "ra" in "ramen" has been replaced with a character used "ra-yu" (辣油), a Chinese chili oil.  Which is why I went with that one.

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麺匠 北野八番亭
Ōsaka-fu, Ōsaka-shi, Kita-ku, Chayamachi, １３−３
Mensho is just northeast of Hankyu Umeda.

The Bowl
Ra-yu was advertised, and ra-yu is what I got.  The broth smelled strongly of it, and tasted like the chili oil too.  The noodles were thin, and reminded me of Hakata-style noodles.  In addition to the kikurage, bean sprouts, onions and peppers, the bowl tasted strongly of garlic.  The chashu was tender and split into pieces in the broth; it was decent but not amazing.

Would I Go Again?
Mensho is in a convenient location but wasn't anything special, I don't think I'll be back.

Should You Go?
You can pass on this one.

Hanamichi

Some nice days call for a walk.  And the only thing that determines when that walk ends is when it gets dark.  On this random Saturday I intended to go to a famous shop called Saisai in Showacho.  They close at 3PM or whenever they run out of broth - I got there at 2:50 and they had already run out.  Not being one to give up, I headed farther south.  I ended up all the way past Nagai Station when I got to the shop led to me by Ramen Walker.

Hanamichi offers tonkotsu ramen in three styles: shoyu, miso, and red spicy miso.  Now on any other day I would have easily gone with the red miso version, but Ramen Walker specifically put Hanamichi in their shoyu ramen section, so I went with that one.

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麺匠はなみち
Ōsaka-fu, Ōsaka-shi, Sumiyoshi-ku, Karita, ７丁目１２−２８
Hanamichi is on the east side of Abiko-suji just south of Abiko Station.

The Bowl
The broth was oily and the tonkotsu flavor came through clearly.  The soy sauce taste was there too, but second to the primary tonkotsu.  The noodles were very soft and chewy.  The bowl was lined with sesame seeds, bean sprouts, and onions.  The chashu may have been the highlight, being especially thick, and tasting strongly of that distinct pork bone smell.

Would I Go Again?
The ramen was pretty good and I'm curious about the miso version, so I might.  But at the same time, if I'm all the way down in Nagai I might hit up a new place or Ramen 3738 too.

Should You Go?
I wouldn't say don't go, but there are better places closer.

Benitoraken

For a while I've held a bias against chains, perhaps unwarranted, and a love for tantanmen.  What happens when these two combine?  Well, I was walking home from work late having not eaten dinner, and passed by a chain I'd seen before and been curious about: Benitoraken.  I'd never seen a branch outside of the one in Shinsaibashi, so I was interested.

Like many tantanmen shops, this shop was Chinese-oriented.  A bunch of different tantanmen bowls available, and lots of other Chinese food.  There were some tasty-looking sesame bowls on the menu, but I had to go for the Muraikan Tantanmen, the spiciest one with a maroon-colored broth and a ton of hot peppers dumped right in.

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紅虎軒
Ōsaka-fu, Ōsaka-shi, Chūō-ku, Shinsaibashisuji, ２丁目８−１
Benitoraken is a couple blocks south of Daimaru just to the west of the Shinsaibashi shopping arcade.

The Bowl
This was the oiliest, spiciest thing I'd had in a long time.  Even before I took a sip I could smell the spice in the air.  Unlike a lot of other tantanmen I've had, there was sansho in this, the Chinese numbing spice usually found in mabo tofu.  The broth was surprisingly thick, and drinking it tasted almost like drinking mabo tofu.  The noodles were medium thickness and flat, and the bowl contained tons of ground meat.  The oil overtook me and though I have a little bit of shame in saying this, I couldn't drink all of the broth.  I'm not sure I would have lived to post this if I had, though.

Would I Go Again?
I would.  The oil was a bit much, but it was good and I'd like to try some of the other styles.

Should You Go?
If you like spicy food.  It's convenient right in the heart of Shinsaibashi, too.