Instant Ramens

The following are instant-ramens I had on occasions when I was too lazy to go out but had that hankering for a good slurp (& clearly they are superior to the dehydrated nonsense we sell here in the States):

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Yasubee (Shimokitazawa branch) - Ramen Shop

Ramen Jiro (Shinjuku branch)

I had one classic High School fight, you know the kind- "meet me at so-and-so @ such-and-such a time" -- I picked this fight for being called a "poser" (at that age you really can't be called anything worse! And yes, I won.) But now I've actually come full-circle, by having gone to Ramen Jiro this late in the game and after having read an endless amount of other people's reviews - I am officially a poser. But you know what, I don't care anymore, and you know what also, I'm f'n glad I went!
If you "claim" to know anything about ramen in Tokyo, well then, you claim you've been to Jiro... successive times and multiple locations. And if your not claiming this... well then let me rap a little and fill you in on what your missing out of. Garlic. Oh I'm sorry, were you expecting something more? Maybe like "this ramen is influenced by French culinary arts... blah blah blah." Nope, this most popular ramen chain has built up its empire of devoted followers based on one taste - garlic, and lots of it!
This is simple stuff to comprehend here and you can pretty much make a decision right now if your gonna love it or hate it (there is no in-between with Jiro). Well, as for me, I'm a huge garlic fan, I use it in almost all my recipes, so let me just say right now that this is the best ramen I have had thus far in my life and I can pretty much state without a second thought that I won't find something more satisfying to me.
This is not fancy or delicatessen in any way; they don't make their own noodles, there is no balancing act to be found, the joints are for the most part greasy, ingredients aren't the freshest out there -- but they make an intensely garlic flavored ramen; and I can't ask for anything else. Ya'wanna'fight'about'it!?

Ivan Ramen - Ramen Shop

99.9% of my ramen knowledge was learnt in the past two-plus months; yes I had had it before, but aside from the fact that I knew I loved it, I actually knew nothing about it. So on this particular trip to Tokyo I took it upon myself to gain some insight on this meal-in-a-bowl. Talking about it proved to be one good source of information, as I have learned many times over- when you express your interest in something Japanese, most locals will go out of their way to help you in any way they can. This is how I originally learned about Ivan Raman - from a friend who wanted me to know about a hot noodle joint that was operating out of my hood - Setagaya-ku!
This picture speaks volumes. For real. This guy posing above is doing something that is huge; I'm not talking about his ramen (it's good) - but rather I'm talking about changing-the-game. Ramen in many ways defines what Tokyo is; and in a land where ramen chefs are national celebrities, opening up a successful shop has a much deeper impact than just filling up some bellies. It's refreshing to see and experience something different, something out-of-place, and something of good enough quality that it changes people's long standing views and opinions. This is what Ivan is doing.
But ultimately he's making ramen and goodies to compliment it. Take his rice side-dishes for example, something that you don't expect to see except for at a select few ramen joints. My friend and I ordered the roasted tomato construction - it was absolutely tasty and fresh! Yes, that's a point that came up time-and-time again, every ingredient was so fresh.
The main course was gratifying as well; from studying the menu while waiting in line I had decided on the salt-ramen with extra chashu. The presentation was pleasing, with a unique taller-than-usual bowl and metal soup-spoon taking the place of the common ceramic one. As already stated, the taste was up to par with other great ramen shops of Tokyo -- the home-made noodles were thin and firm, broth was deliciously heavily salted, chashu was tender, menma cut rough, and the negi topping was crisp and (yup) fresh.

I really enjoyed my visit to Ivan Raman; I've learned so much in so little time and with every joint I hit up I gain a little more insight - at Ivan's I learned allot, not just about ramen, but about courtesy, outside points-of-view, and following your dreams. Thanks dude!

Seisyomaru - Ramen shop

Being absent minded is not always a bad thing, sometimes good things can come from your "faults"; in my case- forgetting to take a certain path home led me to this particular ramen shop. I caught my mistake when I came across this strange aluminum-sided building advertising some tasty looking ramen - I instantly knew I had not walked by here before. And isn't it amazing what can be hiding just out of sight; for months I was passing by just one block away from this shop, always turning off it's street just prior to it coming into view... food for thought (no pun intended).
It wasn't long before I had a chance to see what fate had placed in my lap (or on the counter in-front of me). A friend and I did a little homework first and we found out the ramen served here is thick-soup based, a style that due to strong flavors- I have found to be particularly pleasing to my pallet. That was enough for me to go on, well that and that it's only a few minuets walk from my apartment- no excuses, must now eat.
Knowing that I enjoy this type of broth in the tsukemen fashion I ordered exactly this... but before you get distraught from the above picture - I know that egg isn't supposed to come with this dish... it's just that I was in the mood for tomango, asked nicely and they obliged... nontraditional yes, but I know your jealous just the same ;-P

Seisyomaru make their broth with pork & chicken bone, fish and vegetables. In the tsukemen soup- chashu is cut into course chunks that sink to the bottom, vegetables in general are cut smaller and blended-in to make this more stew-like than soup, topped off with [fish powder] which is seen here sitting on-top of a piece or nori, a slice of [fish paste] sits atop of it all adding some color to an otherwise unlively soup.
My friend wanted to see the range offered here and so went with [soup-based] ramen. Here the toppings are cut broad- completely hiding the noodles, and again portraying that this place is more about substance than style.

Seisyomaru is not the best ramen in Kyodo, but it plays an essential role in the limited offerings of this town- serving up a thick broth and satisfying tsukemen.

Menya Musashi (Shinjuku branch) - Ramen shop

Ask anyone (in Tokyo) to name their top five favorite ramen stops and your bound to get Menya Musashi in at least 95% of those lists; yeah this place is popular! Don't believe me- check out my pics, the line was about 40 minuets long, and this was on an ordinary day in the early evening. But there's reason for this madness- their ramen is tha bomb!
This was a joint that I had been meaning to hit up since I got here, but as I've learned- there's always another ramen shop on the radar and so it takes patience and persaverience to make it to the ones you want. I'm very glad I made it here; Fu-unji had been sitting high on my "best of ramen" list for far too long, it was getting lonely there all alone, but no longer. Menya Musashi, welcome, you just placed a very close 2nd - but ultimately your just a tad too expensive to overtake my reigning champ.
Musashi’s ramen is served in a light, shoyu (soy sauce) based broth and upon placing your order you'll have a choice to have your ramen either kotteri (heavier flavor) or assari (lighter flavor). This depends entirely on your preference and neither is "better" than the other - however I went kotteri-style, which is what is pictured here.

Think your man enough to handle this?!

I can't end this post without a shout-out to their chashu- cut rough and in large chunks the fat was fully intact and in-force! As large as these pieces were they literally melted in your mouth, an amazing sensation here ;-) The egg was half-boiled (nice!)- but for Y1000 I want a whole egg dammit! MM is a tad expensive- but worth every yen.

Ramen Hide (Kyodo branch)

Ramen Hide (pronounced he-day) is the perfect example of an excellent ramen shop that probably will never garner the recognition it deserves. The competition is too fierce in battleground: Tokyo; and Hide is nested in the small town of Kyodo- which is known for it's salons more than food offerings. This might actually be to Hide's benefit though as it's King-of-the-hill in this quaint town.
I came across Ramen Hide early on in my stay here- as I was walking down Suzuran Dori and noticed a small camera-crew in-front of the store preparing to shoot. I slowed down to see what all the hub-bub was, and afforded a look-in. Instantly I felt acquainted with its 1950's-diner look, and the chef was being interviewed; this was a joint I had to hit up! I've since had two enjoyable meals here and look forward to coming back at least once more before I jet town.
Their Kyushu-style tonkotsu ramen is very approachable, the broth is not very thick- rather it's more on the lite side, and has a great balanced taste. It's not so strong as to scare away those who prefer a traditional taste, but is potent enough to keep veterans coming back for more. The noodles are straight, thin and firm which is a great balance to the soup's consistency. Also notable is their chashu- which is a beautiful pink cut with minimal fat; and their egg while not semi-boiled the way I love- is at least nicely marinated.
On my second visit I was feeling adventurous and ordered a speciality dish- karai (spicy) ramen; I opted to try this in the tuskemen (dipping) style as well. The chef warned me this was hot, but I paid him no attention as I had yet to taste anything in Japan resemble the spices we play around with in the US. To my complete surprise- this shit was hot! I had my Japanese friend try it out just to confirm that this was indeed out of character, the twisted look on her face was all the confirmation I needed.

I think the nori is actually melting from the heat of the peppers!

All-in-all I did enjoy this dish; again the quality of ingredients was excellent with pork chunks as well as ground-up pork settling at the bottom of the thick fiery-red broth. My stomach might disagree with this last statement, but I still claim that I would order this dish again... just not next time ;-)

Taishoken (Ikebukuro branches) - Ramen shop

Ramen has traditionally always been served in hot broth (soup); however a relatively recent trend is tsukemen style, in which the noodles (served luke-warm) are dished separately on their own plate while the broth remains served in a bowl. The idea is simple yet fun, take some noodles and dip them into the hot broth, consume, repeat.

Tsukemen is now a mainstay and is offered at almost all Tokyo ramen shops; however its origins go back about 40 years when then inspiring Ramen chef Kazuo Yamagishi was "caught" (viewed by a customer) dipping his noodles into a separate cup of broth. Today Yamagishi-san is retired and considered a legend for the contributions he made to this once simple dish.
Tsukemen broth is usually a thicker and more hearty than its counterpart's. Taishoken's is made from pork, chicken and anchovies and is boiled down until additional ingredients are added, such as shoyu, miso, or spice.
I've been to the two Ikebukuro branches, unfortunately neither are the original shop- which was torn down a few years ago due to a city construction project. On my first visit I had to go with what made them famous, the tsukemen. The broth was almost sweet & sour in flavors, and was a little thinner than I was expecting. I consider it excellent tsukemen, but not the best I've had. On my visit to their other Ikebukuro store I tried out their traditional soup-based ramen; again the broth was on the light side (though broth can definitely get lighter). And again I very much enjoyed the quality and taste, but... I've had better.

Jangara Ramen (Harajuku branch)

[Above pic "borrowed" from here]

Jangara Kyushu Ramen is a well-known chain specializing in the Kyushu-style, and the shop in Harajuku is probably the most popular of them all- so of course I wanted to take my guests here for an authentic Tokyo-feel... although after having gone, I would say it's more like an authentic Harajuku-feel, meaning very lively, vibrant and colorful. There was a line (as expected) and we waited for about 15 minuets in it before we were ushered to the upstairs restaurant only to continue waiting in another line for another 15 minuets; waiting in lines is just part of the Tokyo ramen culture- it's best to just except it early on.
So what makes Kyushu ramen different from other styles? Well it's made with a lite but very oily shiro (white) tonkotsu (pork bone) broth which provides a very rich, buttery flavor. The noodles are on the thin side and are cooked to be firm rather than soft and chewy (don't worry- there's still a "chew" to them!). This dish's signature however is the pork! Unlike most ramen, where the focus is on the broth or noodles, here the pork garners most of the attention and with good cause, as there's allot of it, and it's fatty! In every bowl two styles of pork are dished- chashu and slow-stewed buta kakuni; as if the noodles weren't filling enough already- the pork is just simply overload!
Jangara is good ramen no doubt- but it's not the best, not by a long-shot. What it provides is a foreigner-friendly place to get your feet wet; they have an English menu, it's a crowded place, located in an entertaining area, and dishes are of good quality & quantity- so it's a good base on which to judge future ramen outings in Tokyo.

Ramen - Shimokitazawa