Men's Room Kamitora

Men's Room Kamitora, a strange shop with a strange name.  "Men" means "noodle" in Japanese, so it's less strange than it sounds at first, but not really.  I had first gone to the Higobashi branch of Kamitora just days after arriving in Osaka last year.  It was solid but not amazing, and far out of the way, so I never had a reason to go back.  I found out there was a branch in Namba, which I figured I would hit up whenever I was too lazy to trek any farther.  A day with a ridiculous typhoon is that kind of day, so off to Kamitora I went.

Kamitora's specialty is Hakata-style tonkotsu ramen, and they have a few different varieties.  The recommended one was the "black tiger ramen", so I went with that one.

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麺’s room 神虎
Nanbanaka, ２丁目2−18

The Bowl
Look at that glimmering fat!  This bowl is called the "black tiger" because it's full of ma-yu, a combination of Chinese chili oil and roasted garlic.  And that flavor didn't let up.  I could taste the fatty pork, but even more strongly I could taste all the garlic.  The noodles were thin as is standard in Hakata-style; they weren't very hard, but the kaedama I ordered was better.  There were a couple of slices of chashu, one was thick, tender, and juicy, but the other was chewy and dry.  Overall the bowl was nothing special, and in particular was too overwhelmingly covered in garlic (like some others I've had before).

Would I Go Again?
Nah, I think I've had my fill of Kamitora.

Should You Go?
There are better tonkotsu places in Osaka.  You can skip this one.

Tokiya

Ever since I started my job in Osaka, my boss has been talking my ear off about Tokiya.  The lines, the fame, the thick porky goodness.  It's in a bit of an inconvenient location, and the last time I tried to go there I had read that they had changed their hours.  I used this as an excuse for a while, but then randomly a friend of mine who lived in the area invited me to grab a beer and have some tsukemen.  (Check out his post on Tokiya, too!)

Tokiya offers a rich pork tsukemen and a light chicken tsukemen.  They recommended both to us, based on what we like, and since I'm a thick-soup kinda guy I went with the pork.

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時屋
5-1-4 Nishinakajima

The Bowl
Man, they said it was rich and that was no joke.  After just a few noodle-fulls of the super-porky broth I could already feel myself start to get full and weighed down.  It was so flavorful and frothy though that I didn't mind at all.  The noodles were fat and chewy, the perfect kind for a soup like this.  The egg was melty and great, all the toppings were in fact, but the chashu really stood out.  There were fatty, tender chunks of pork waiting already in the soup, and one really thick, peppery piece sitting out with the noodles.  At the end, instead of getting wari-soup, they gave us a dish called dashi-kake gohan.  I've seen places that give you rice at the end, but I've never seen anything quite like this.  They told us to pour our soup onto the rice, and eat it.  It was light, and a refreshing way to end this amazing meal.

Would I Go Again?
I'm a convert.  This is now one of my favorite places in Osaka.

Should You Go?
Yes!

Mister Puppy

More curry ramen!  I had seen Mister Puppy in a magazine or two and online before, and was interested in checking it out, as I am with any curry ramen shop.  It's a bit out of the way, but I had some time and was hungry, and decided to head over there.

They offered a number of different kind of curry ramen bowls, from the basic pork curry ramen, to ones with ume and squid ink.  I was curious about some of the weird ones, but since it was my first visit they recommended I stick with the pork.

Also, shameless plug: Yahoo has started a ramen ambassadors project, and if you look closely at my picture there, you'll notice that it was taken here at Mister Puppy!

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ミスターPuppy
3-6-27 Nishitenma

The Bowl
The broth was a very solid curry, thick and slightly spicy.  The noodles were medium, curly, and springy.  There were tons of onion that added a bit of flavor, and the pork was in small slices that were pretty good.  Overall it was a solid bowl, but didn't stand out above the other curry bowls I've had before.

Would I Go Again?
Eh, maybe.  I'm curious about the wacky bowls, but probably not curious enough to go out of the way.

Should You Go?
It's solid, but it's out of the way.  You can skip it.

Mutekiya

Another day in Tokyo means another day of continuing to try places I loved when I lived there.  Next up is Mutekiya.  Back about two and a half years ago when I first arrived in Tokyo, I didn't know that much about ramen, and I had not eaten at that many shops.  I did a little bit of research, and one of the first "good" shops I went to was Mutekiya.  It was a huge step above the random places I had been to, and it instantly became my favorite.  Even after trying a number of other good shops, there has always been a special place in my heart for my gateway to ramen, Mutekiya.  Now how would it hold up for my first visit in almost two years?

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麺創房 無敵家
1-17-1 Minamiikebukuro

The Bowl
One of the more vivid memories I had of Mutekiya was the absurdly fatty broth.  And in this way, my memory did not disappoint.  It was a rich, tonkotsu with little globules of fat floating to the top.  The noodles were straight and thick, but a little too firm as they came apart without even needing to bite.  The chashu was very thick, but a bit too tender as it fell apart in the soup when I tried to grab it with chopsticks.  Overall the bowl was solid but not amazing; I understand why I liked it so much when I first had it, but since then I've had many better bowls.

Would I Go Again?
I always have a special place in my heart for Mutekiya.

Should You Go?
The line is long and there are better bowls in Ikebukuro, so you don't need to.

Kururi

A three day weekend means it's time for a trip, and this time, a trip to Tokyo.  A trip to Tokyo means Tokyo ramen.  Last year when I visited Tokyo, I used it as an opportunity to try ramen shops I hadn't had a chance to go to when I lived there.  This time so much time has passed that I've used it as a chance to revisit shops I thought were great, and see if they hold up.

Kururi is a famous miso ramen shop near Iidabashi.  I had been to the main shop and the Takadanobaba branch when I lived in Tokyo, and both were amazing.  Kururi stood tall as one of my favorite ramen shops in all of Tokyo.  How would it fare on another visit?

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くるり
4-13-10 Takadanobaba

The Bowl
Just as amazing as I remember!  The broth was a thick, hot, rich miso that is almost more like a sauce than a soup.  I remember when I first came here I was a little put off by the fact that the soup was so thick that it could barely be drank, but it's so good that it didn't matter in the end.  The noodles were fat, similar to the kind you would expect to see in a thick tsukemen.  The chashu slices were super tender and pretty tasty.

Would I Go Again?
My time in Tokyo is limited, but this place is so good that I hope I can go back.

Should You Go?
Yes.

THE EIGHT

Wow, I seem to have amassed a sizable collection of curry-themed restaurants and ramen shops in Kansai.  Nothing to complain about.  Add one more, with the recently opened bar-and-curry joint, THE EIGHT.  There menu was full of things ramen and non-ramen, and aside from the golden curry tsukemen I ordered, the main item that stood out to me was the super-spicy punch ramen.  I love spice...but I came for the curry.

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THE EIGHT
1-22-14 Shinmachi

The Bowl
The broth really stood out compared to the other curry noodle dishes I've had recently.  It was a hot, thin curry, but it was spicy and actually tasted a bit more like Indian curry than the standard Japanese stuff.  The noodles were medium and firm.  The menma and chashu were both very good, and matched the curry's taste well.

Would I Go Again?
Yeah, this place seemed like a cool place to get a drink, and also delicious curry tsukemen.

Should You Go?
Yeah, it's worth the short trek westward.

Ajidono

Osaka is the third most populous city in Japan.  The first is obviously Tokyo, but what is the second?  It's Yokohama, the port town that's close enough to Tokyo to absorb a chunk of the people who want to live near the big city.  Yokohama has to its name a Chinatown, a baseball team, and most importantly, a style of ramen.

Yokohama style ramen, called "iekei", has tonkotsu shoyu broth, seaweed as a topping, and the customer can choose a few things about the ramen, like the hardness of the noodles and how rich the broth is.  I've eaten iekei bowls in a few places in the Tokyo area, including the home of the style, Yoshimuraya.  Iekei is all but unheard of in Kansai, so I hadn't had a chance to try any in Osaka.  Until today, when I found that there is a new shop replacing the late Nipponbashi branch of Tsuboya.

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らーめん あじどの
1-4-11 Sennichimae

The Bowl
This was my first time in a while to get iekei ramen, so I decided to get all the options as standard.  The broth was an oily tonkotsu shoyu strongly reminiscent of the bowls I had in Tokyo, but this soup was a little bland.  The noodles were medium, and the chashu was standard but nothing special.  Overall the bowl didn't leave a large impression on me, but maybe the right answer was to ask for a richer broth.

Would I Go Again?
I'm not in a rush, but if I do, I'll customize the bowl more.

Should You Go?
If you're in Kansai, this may be one of the other places you can get iekei ramen, but you'd be better off trying it in Kanto.