📍 Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan
Just like Sushi, Ramen is an essential part of the Japanese cuisine that has opened ramen stores worldwide.
One of the first few ramen places that I went to was Men-shou Taketora, as it was close-by in the area. As you walk in, it seemed like they only had tables by the bar, but after being shown in, they had booths – private or non-private is up to you with the sliding doors. The booths only seated up to a maximum of 4 people.
The waitress gave us an English menu without her asking us to, very attentive.
I ordered the Toradore Miso Ramen Noodles which came with seaweed, char siew, and bamboo shoots along with some type of oil on the side… which I assumed was sesame oil though it was quite orange-y for sesame oil.
One bowl of noodles was ¥820 for a regular size, if you want the larger size it would cost ¥100 extra.
My noodles were more of the chewy type than the firm type. Personally, I like firm noodles but the chewy noodles weren’t too bad. I really liked the bamboo shoots and how crunchy it was despite being in soup. Miso soup base was typical and nothing special.
At Men-shou Taketora, you can also add and personalize toppings in your ramen for extra ¥, of course 🙂
For more Men-shou Taketora – Yelp
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Another day, this was one of our other stumbled upon/food drop in(s).
This place was 24 hours and had no English menu or sign whatsoever. But we were hungry, so what the hell~
With an ordering machine, we ordered looking at pictures and seeing ingredients and sat at the bar booths. A waitress came along to pick up our tickets but she started asking questions in Japanese and with no knowledge of English… and me being vice versa. After difficulty communicating, she circled a middle option for all of us and served us our ramen within 10 – 15 minutes.
It looked like a lot of toppings, and definitely a lot of char siew was given. Seaweed, an egg and a quail egg were included too. The additional vegetable shown, gave the ramen a more of a Chinese feel instead of Japanese – so I had some mixed feelings there. The noodles were also chewy at this ramen house. But there was something about the broth that kept me wanting to drink it… It was good.
Comparing these two, I prefer the ramen at Men-shou Taketora whereas some of the others prefer the ramen at this place. It’s more of a personal preference but then again, you can never go wrong with ramen in Japan.
Till next time, ♥
