Hirugao

My brother had just left the land of the rising sun for New York, and just a day or two after I set out to follow him. As often happens, my flight was out of Narita Airport, so I used it as an opportunity to hit up yet another Tokyo Ramen Street shop.

Hirugao is Tokyo Ramen Street's premier shio joint. Shio is not my favorite kind of broth, and I didn't know anything extra about Hirugao, so I had been saving it for last. But finally it was time.

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塩専門 ひるがお
Tōkyō-to, Chiyoda-ku, Marunouchi, １丁目９−１

The Bowl
The Hirugao-named bowl came with a whole smorgasbord of toppings. An egg, chashu, a wonton, yuzu peel, some kind of fish paste, menma, and onions. Even the noodles were covered in fishy specks! They were all solid, but the weird variety and extra good wonton pushed the bowl ahead of a generic good shio competitor.

Would I Go Again?
If I go all the way back to Tokyo, I'll probably try somewhere new.

Should You Go?
It was quite good; check it out if you're in Tokyo Ramen Street and want something light.

Kanisenmon Keisuke

Continuing on my trip to Tokyo, I introduced my brother to Tokyo Ramen Street. A wonderful place with different branches of famous ramen shops, one of my goals of living in Japan was to go to all eight shops. I had been to Keisuke before, but it's great and I had never reviewed it before, so I was willing to give it another go.

Keisuke is a chain of mostly seafood themed ramen shops. They have a light shrimp shio ramen in Takadanobaba, thick shrimp tsukemen with noodles that have been fried near Tokyo University, in addition to a handful of other shops. "Kanisenmon" means "dedicated to crab", which is the theme of this branch. The tare is miso, and in a true tribute to the birthplace of miso ramen, the bowl is in the shape of Hokkaido.

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蟹専門 けいすけ 北の章
Tōkyō-to, Chiyoda-ku, Marunouchi, １丁目９−１

The Bowl
Drinking the last bits of broth from this bowl was quite a challenge. You pretty much have to use the extreme north or south end of the island. The broth was a great miso, with more than a dash of crab. The noodles and most of the toppings were good, and the thick chashu was great. To top it off, we ordered some extra crab balls; unusual but delicious.

Would I Go Again?
Yes I would.

Should You Go?
It's a tough call between this shop and a few of the others in Tokyo Ramen Street, but this is a very good choice.

Shinbusakiya

I had been traveling a lot recently, but the real journey was just about to begin. My younger brother visited me from New York, and since he came all the way from Japan, I needed to show him around more than than just Osaka. I made a trip to Tokyo already in December, but one more couldn't hurt, right?

There's not a lot of miso ramen in Osaka, which is a shame, but a trip to Tokyo gave me as good an excuse as any to force some on my brother. We hit up a place I liked a lot in Shibuya, hoping that a second tasting would be as good as the first.

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真武咲弥
Tōkyō-to, Shibuya-ku, Dōgenzaka, ２丁目１０−３

The Bowl
Delicious miso. The hot soup was a little thin, but was still plenty rich. It tasted a little gingery, which is something I don't get in most bowls. The noodles were thick, curly, and firm. The toppings: sprouts, onions, menma, chashu, and my extra-ordered egg were all solid but nothing special.

Would I Go Again?
It's a pretty classic but very good miso soup, so probably.

Should You Go?
Shibuya is lacking in ramen shops and Shinbusakiya is great, so yes.

Tomako

Sometimes you have to eat some crazy ramen. I was walking to a shop in Uehonmachi that recently opened by an ex-chef of Tamagoro. Although their site guaranteed they would be open for lunch, the sign in front of their shop disagreed. Luckily, I had a backup nearby.

Another recently opened shop, Tomako is a tomato ramen shop located in the not-so-fashionable Uehonmachi Hihi Town mall. I've had my share of tomato ramen before and enjoyed it, so I wanted to try something interesting. I asked the employee there what she recommended, and she mentioned that they had a hot pepper bowl, but it would be too spicy for most people. Well, you can't say that and expect me to not get it.

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とまこ
Ōsaka-fu, Ōsaka-shi, Tennōji-ku, Uehonmachi, ６丁目３−３１

The Bowl
I was promised a bowl of hot peppers and a bowl of hot peppers is exactly what I got. The broth was fatty, oily, hot and spicy. Oh yeah, and there was lots of tomato in there too. There were chunks of onions and tomato floating around as well. The soup was pretty spicy and reminded me of rayu a bit; the noodles were thin and oily, but their spice was a bit more digestible. To top it off, there was some basil in the ramen - this was great and I wish there had been more of it.

The employee gawked at me as I not only drank the soup, but ate most of the hot peppers. Probably not a great idea for my stomach, but I don't regret it.

Would I Go Again?
It was interesting, but I still have some other tomato ramen places to try, so I won't be back.

Should You Go?
If you're crazy enough to eat hot pepper tomato ramen, then give it a go, but otherwise you're probably better off sticking with one of the other tomato shops in town.

Kyosuke

There were still a number of places in the new issue of Ramen Walker I hadn't tried yet, and one was just a little bit of a detour off the way home from work. Kyosuke specialized in fishy ramen, in particular, a fishy chicken paitan. I hadn't had such a wacky combination since my last visit to Menya Taku almost a year before, so I was interested.

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麺屋 きょうすけ
Ōsaka-fu, Ōsaka-shi, Chūō-ku, Azuchimachi, １丁目４−５

The Bowl
The broth was rich and cloudy. It tasted strongly of fish, and it did remind me a lot of Menya Taku. The noodles were medium and firm, and like the creamy egg and thin menma, were quite tasty. There was on thick piece of barbecued chashu; it tasted almost like yakiniku. A rich memory of a rich bowl.

Would I Go Again?
Yeah, this place was good.

Should You Go?
If you're near Sakaisuji Honmachi, check it out.

Kikanbo

I was in Tokyo visiting some friends, and like my previous visits, I decided to make this a trip where I reevaluated one of my classic beloved ramen shops. Kikanbo in Kanda is known for their super-spicy miso ramen. Unlike a lot of shops that will take some normal ramen and throw a few hot peppers in, Kikanbo builds their whole soup around the spice.

You can choose your level of hot pepper spice and Sichuan pepper spice ranging anyone from none to "oni-mashi", or the demon-extra level. I had some level of sanity and just went with the normal extra-spicy in both.

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カラシビ味噌らー麺 鬼金棒
Tōkyō-to, Chiyoda-ku, Kajichō, ２丁目１０−１０

The Bowl
What a bowl. As promised, the broth was a super-spicy and tingly miso. It was hot, and the more I drank, the weirder my tongue and lips felt, not dissimilar to my other recent run-in with Sichuan pepper. The noodles were medium, firm, and straight, and the egg, and chashu were both tender and very good. Spicy, juicy, and delicious, Kikanbo is everything I remembered it.

Would I Go Again?
Definitely.

Should You Go?
Absolutely.