Shinpuku Saikan

It was a Friday night and I had plans in Kyoto. They were pretty late, and near Kyoto Station, which meant that that I could hit up a ramen shop I'd been meaning to visit for a long time. Kyoto is known for its two types of shoyu ramen, an assari kind and a kotteri kind. The kotteri ramen is perhaps most associated with chain Tenkaippin, whose flagship shop I visited last year. Finally I had a chance to visit the flagship shop of the most famous shop of the assari kind: Shinpuku Saikan.

An old school shop with a line, the only bowl offered was the chuka soba. This kind of traditionalism reminded me favorable of other classic shops, like Shukaen or Ganso Nagahamaya.

金曜日の夜で今日に予定がありました。時間があったので、京都駅の近くにあるラーメン屋さんに行けるかなと思っていました。京都は二つのラーメンの種類で有名です。こってりの醤油だったらひょっとしたら天下一品のチェーン店が一番有名かもしれなくて、去年本店に行きました。ようやくあっさり系が有名な新福菜館に行く機会が出てきました。

「中華そばや」って感じの新福菜館は中華そばぐらいしか提供していません。前行った朱華園と元祖長浜屋に似ていたかな。

The Bowl
Medium yellow noodles, dark shoyu broth, and thin slices of chashu fit the bill of a classic chuka soba shop in my eyes. The broth's hoisin-sauce style flavor and saltiness was too strong to drink in large quantities, but just strong enough to provide a powerful flavor to the soft, tender noodles. The chashu was pretty tough, but the fatty slices were salty and brimming with flavor. This kind of simple, salty ramen is where a lot of mediocre shops go wrong, but good, classic shops nail it.

中太い黄色い麺、暗い醤油スープ、細いチャーシューがあるとやっぱり中華そばですね。海鮮醤っぽいなスープは濃くていっぱい飲む感じがなかったですけど、柔らかい麺に味つけることができました。チャーシューはちょっとかみにくかったですけど、うまかったです。こんなシンプル塩辛いラーメンだったら普通の店はよくミスますけど、クラシック的な店がよく行けます。

Would I Go Again?
Yes.

はい。

Should You Go?
Yes, it's a Kyoto classic.

京都の定番で行った方がいいです。

Information
新福菜館

Ryukishin RIZE

It was a weekday night and I was walking home form work. I wanted to stop to get something to eat, so I decided to try recently opened miso shop Men no Kuni. However, it happened to be Men no Kuni's set day off, so I couldn't go in. Looking for a backup, I turned to Namba Parks's branch of Ryukishin. I had been there once before I started writing this blog, but the restaurant has since been renovated and given the RIZE subtitle so I was curious to see what was different.

They had a variety of clear and thick shio bowls, and I went with the spicy meat and chicken taitan shio soba. That's a mouth full.

平日の夜で会社から歩いて帰りました。どっかで何かを食べたかったので新しい店のラーメン屋さん「麺乃國」に行こうと思っていました。水曜日は定休日でしたから入れませんでした。ほかの近い店を探して、難波パークスの龍旗信支店にいくことにしました。大阪に来たばかりなときに一回いきましたけど、ブログにアップしていないし、それから店を改善してRIZEを店名に追加しました。

いろいろな透明も白湯野スープもありましたけど一番気になったのは「辛肉鶏炊いたん塩そば」でそれにしました。

The Bowl
Shio is not normally a style you associate with a thick and meaty broth, but RIZE's bowl was just that. The rich umami of the soup was more like a sauce for the medium, square noodles. It was like a cream sauce pasta, and traces of my bowl at Bokkoshi flashed by. There were bits of friend onions and long strips of menma to go along with the two slices of chashu, that weren't so exciting, but were made delicious by being covered in the saucy soup.

塩のラーメンは普通にドロドロでうまみのイメージがしませんけど、RIZEのラーメンはそんな感じでした。あのこってりなスープはスープよりソースって感じがして、中太麺と食べるとラーメンよりクリームソースパスタのイメージがしました。ぼっこ志の思い出がちょっと浮きました。フライドオニオンとメンマも乗っていて、チャーシューはそんなに強い味がしていませんけどスープにあったのでおいしくなりました。

Would I Go Again?
Yeah, I've been a fan of Ryukishin in the past, and this may even be the best branch.

龍旗信が好きで、これは一番おいしかったかもしれません。

Should You Go?
Yeah, check it out.

行ってみてください。

Information
NAMBA 龍旗信RIZE

Mondorian

A little while back I went to new shop Mondorian for a special limited bowl of ramen. They gave me a coupon for a free egg the next time I visited, so I decided I needed to come back again to try their standard fare. Mondorian offered three bowls: a red tonkotsu, black sardine shoyu, and a white chicken paitan. The red was the recommended, so I decided to go with that one.

この前にイベント限定ラーメンを食べに「もんどり庵」という最近できた店に行きました。たまごの無料券をもらったのでまた普通のメニューを食べに行こうと思っていました。メニューが三つあって：豚骨の赤、醤油煮干の黒、鶏白湯の白でした。おすすめはあかでしたからそれにしました。

The Bowl
Like some of the tonkotsu bowls I had first tried when I came to Japan, Mondorian's broth was covered in layers of oil and filled with chunks of jelly-like lard. It was thick and fatty, kind of like a light if salty version of Kansai classic Muteppo. The noodles were surprisingly thick; thin noodles are normally associated with tonkotsu, but the broth was thick enough that these worked quite well. The dark chashu was tender and flavorful, and like the broth, covered in fat.

最初日本に来たときに食べたラーメンみたいにもんどり庵のスープはこってりで背脂だらけでした。ドロドロで無鉄砲のような感じがちょっとしましたけど、それより塩分がすごかったです。普通の豚骨ラーメンは細い麺を使いますけどこんなとろみがあるスープならやっぱり太麺が合いました。柔らかいチャーシューはおいしかったですけどスープみたいにめっちゃ油っぽかったです。

Would I Go Again?
For a place that made me feel completely dead after eating it, I would hope for it to have a little higher quality and a little less straight fat. I probably won't be back.

食べてから死にそうだったのでまたいかないかもしれません。

Should You Go?
This one is for people who love super thick, salty ramen. Others can skip.

ドロドロな塩辛いラーメンが好きな人にはいいと思います。

Information
もんどり庵

Men Ippai

Tsukamoto Station - a place I had heard of but never visited. I had heard of it only in passing; a couple times from people, and once as the location of a branch of Suzume. I assumed that that meant there would be a bustling area surrounded by the station, so on a lazy Sunday I walked over there. I arrived and there was...nothing. Not wanting to leave completely empty-handed, I took a photo of the station name.

塚本駅。聞いたことはありましたけど行ったことはありませんでした。人で聞いたことがあって雀の支店があることも知っていました。それでにぎやかな場所かなともっていたのでのんびりの日曜日に歩いて行きました。やっぱり何もありませんでした。ちょっと寂しかったので駅名の記念写真を撮ってしまいました。

And let's not forget that while I was there I stopped at Men Ippai. A couple of shoyu bowls: one assari and one kotteri. A long walk on a hot day meant that I wanted to try the lighter one and I went for the assari.

わざわざ歩いて行って麺一盃にもよりました。醤油が二つありました。あっさりかこってりの中にどっちにしようか迷っていて結局暑い日なのであっさりにしました。

The Bowl
A classic looking shoyu, the broth glimmered with oil and gobs of pig fat. There was salt, and maybe a little fish, along with the straight, noodles that looked uneven as if they were handmade. The grease extended to the piece of chashu stretched across the top of the bowl, and like the broth, the chashu was passable but left something to be desired.

中華そば見えた醤油には背脂がいっぱい入りました。スープは塩辛くてちょっと魚っぽかったです。麺は平たくてちょっとごちゃごちゃな形なので手作りかなと思っていました。でかいチャーシューが上に乗っていましたけど、味が普通でした。

Would I Go Again?
Nah, it was far and disappointing.

遠くてまあまあでしたからまた行かないと思います。

Should You Go?
Nah.

行かなくていいと思います。

Information
麺一盃

Sekai Ichi Himana Ramenya

A few weeks a new ramen shop opened up in Nakanoshima. After several attempts to visit it, I finally found a day I knew it would be open, and went by. Run by the same people of Kuso Oyaji Saigo no Hitofuri and Jinrui Mina Menrui, this shop was sure to have a strange name as well. In English means "The World's Most Idle Ramen Shop". The menu items all had weird names and their "personalities" were based on the different owners of the aforementioned shops. I asked for a recommendation and went with the CAPTAIN GOLD shoyu.

何週間前に中之島に新しい店ができました。何回か行ってみたんですけど、ようやく空いている日を調べて行きました。「くそおやじ最後のひとふり」と「人類みな麺類」を作った人に作られたのでやっぱり変な名前がありました。全てのメニュー名も変で味は店主の性格に基づいているらしいです。おすすめの「CAPTAIN GOLD」醤油にしました。

"The most desarted Rámen-Bar in the world..."

Can I just order that?

そのままそれを頼めますか？

The Bowl
If you look at that picture of the bowl and think you see a giant circular piece of chashu floating at the top, that's because that is what you see. Not to be defated by their sister shop, Sekai Ichi made sure the chashu was so big I couldn't see the bottom of the bowl. The golden soy sauce soup was smooth and easy to drink; light but tasty enough that I couldn't stop. The square noodles were light too, but chewy. Of course the chashu was huge and juicy, but it kept with the assari feel of the rest of the bowl, and made for a winning combination.

写真を見るとめっちゃでかいチャーシューが見れますね。姉妹店に負けずにこの店もいっぱいチャーシューをのせました。黄金なスープは飲みやすくてあっさりでした。四角な面もあっさりで食感が良かったです。チャーシューがほんまに大きくてジューシーでしたけどラーメンのテーマに合わせてあっさりでした。

Would I Go Again?
Yes.

はい。

Should You Go?
Yes

はい。

Information
世界一暇なラーメン屋