Shiki (Osaka-fu, Moriguchi-shi)

麺ゃ しき
めんや しき
Menya Shiki

Shiki-men (shoyu-niboshi ramen): 16 / 20
(しき麺)

It was time to hurry up a little bit with the Ra-Sai ramen festival - I still had quite a few bowls to try to finish the stamp rally! On this day I went to Menya Shiki, a relatively isolated ramen shop, fifteen minutes away by subway north-est from Tenroku. Their menu features the Shiki Men (a shoyu-niboshi), a shio-niboshi, a mazemen, as well as a tori paitan tsukemen with tataki chicken. The choice was difficult but my love for niboshi was the strongest and I ordered the shoyu-niboshi, with curly noodles (you can also order straight ones if you prefer).

Broth: As my bowl was getting closer, I knew I had found a winner: the niboshi fragrances were making me hope for something seriously good here. And indeed, it was, a real niboshi bomb, the way I love them - what a delicious pungency! And it wasn't as fat as it looked like. It seems that shijimi is also used in the broth (as in Kuso Oyaji Saigo no Hitofuri).

Noodles: Good curly noodles, very easy to slurp. A lot of it!

Meat: The letdown of this bowl. You get two small, thin slices of overfatty kata-rosu, and one slice of bara that tasted like liver. Which is not my favorite thing in the world...

Toppings: A serious asset of this bowl: a few thin strands of kombu, which brought some crunchiness, as well as a great idea - a few bits of solid niboshi, crunchy under the tooth as they disaggregate, just wonderful! Also, a long, juicy menma branch with a relatively fresh taste. And a sheet of nori which - as usual - fits well with the niboshi broth.

This broth was great – it kind of reminded me the now defunct Hachi in Tokyo for the niboshi broth and the variety of chashu. Too bad the meat was not so convincing, otherwise it could have deserved a 17 / 20.

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Shiogensui (Osaka-shi, Yodogawa-ku)

本店 塩元帥
ほんてん しおげんすい
Honten Shiogensui

Shio ramen: 16 / 20
(天然塩ラーメ)

Negi shio ramen: 15 / 20
(ねぎ塩ラーメン)

Plum shio ramen: 17 / 20
(梅塩ラーメン)

For the last day of my mother’s and sister’s visit in Osaka, I wanted to make them discover what is generally known as one of the best shio ramen in the area, Shiogensui. I had been to the Amagasaki branch a few months ago to try their shio tsukemen and had found it very convincing. Now it was time for some serious ramen comparison at their Minamikata branch. My mother ordered the regular shio ramen with ajitama, my sister the negi shio ramen with ajitama, and I ordered the plum shio ramen. Let’s review all of them together.

 

Broth: Shio ramen rarely have a very strong taste, but this one was intense enough – with some dried onions, as well as a little bit of yuzu (too little in my broth, IMO). The negi broth had a distinctive negi taste, and the plum one was infused by the umeboshi, which gave to it a delightful sourness. It is impressive how the taste could change with just one item more. The plum broth had my preference, but that might be a matter of personal taste.

Noodles: Thicker than most shio ramen’s noodles, with a very good texture, they don’t get soft too fast.

Egg: Excellent, slightly on the hard side - but that’s what you need in a shio ramen.

Meat: An excellent slice of chasu, very soft, with some melting fat.

Toppings: Some thin menma, mild and sweet. The plum in my broth had a very strong, salty taste and seemed to be of a quite high quality.

This is definitely one of the great shio ramen you will find around – on a par with Mendokoro Ginzasa or Shunmen Shirohachi in Tokyo. Do not miss it. Difficult also not to compare with Ganko in Osaka, as you can get a few twists in each (shrimp or dry onion in Ganko, plum or fresh onion in Shiogensui) - but I prefered the noodles, and especially the meat here at Shiogensui; overall, I found it more perfectly crafted. Note that they also have a branch next to Kyoto station, and another one close to Kansai airport (alas, not at the airport itself but in Izumisano).

More info on ramendb.

Other reviews: Friends in Ramen, The Japan Times, Philoramen (for the shio tsukemen)

Shunmen Shirohachi (Tokyo, Shinjuku-ku)

旬麺しろ八
しゅんめんしろはち

Shio ramen: 17 / 20

I continued in my shio-ramen hunt. Supleks brought me to this pleasant restaurant with a very large counter.

Broth: A stronger taste than for most shio, with maybe some herbal notes?

Noodles: Paler and with a lighter taste than the usual one.

Meat: A good, thin slice of chashu, very tender, with again some herbal taste.

Egg: Two halves of a wonderful egg - a yummy, powerful yolk, while the white had a very distinctive salty taste. Divine!

Toppings: Quite interesting and unusual toppings: a couple of pieces of daikon, some thin seaweed threads with an interesting taste and consistency, and some green leafs (komatsuna I think, and maybe something else).

So many delicious shio-ramen during this Tokyo-stay! This one is wonderful too. Compared to Hyottoko and Ginzasa, it had the most interesting toppings - and its egg is hands down the winner. The broth was good, but it was maybe slightly tastier in Hyottoko. Finally, the noodles and especially the chashu were better at Ginzasa. Make your own choice.

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Ginza Oborozuki (Tokyo, Chiyoda-ku)

銀座 朧月
ぎんざ おぼろづき

Shio-tsukemen (with ajitama): 17 / 20

This restaurant is famous for their tonkotsu gyokai tsukemen, and I had decided to order it - until I noticed that they were advertising a new recipe of shio tsukemen. Having tried the shio-tsukemen at Shiogensui in Osaka recently, I thought it would be a good idea to compare with another shio-tsukemen, this being quite rare.

Broth: Quite liquid, did not attach so much to the noodles, but enjoyable. The most interesting part was adding the wari-soup at the end - it then got a much fishier and herbal taste, a whole new dimension.

Noodles: Chewy and thick, beautifully presented.

Meat: Some tasty parts of melting chashu. Surprisingly, there were also some tako bits; as well as some clams (maybe cockles?), which may have been included in the wari-soup.

Egg: A very good aji-tama with a very liquid yolk.

Toppings: Classical menma, slightly crunchy. A small side-dish with some yuzukosho and spice that you can add to the soup - a great idea, I'm partial to yuzukosho. And finally, the hugest sheet of nori I’ve ever seen on a ramen!

Shio tsukemen is a tricky business: a shio broth is naturally very liquid, so how do you make it stick to the noodles? Shiogensui in Kansai decided to make it fat, and indeed it sticks well, but on the downside it is, well, a bit fat. Ginza oborozuki makes the opposite choice, letting it quite liquid; although it does not stick as well, it was still quite pleasant. And the soup wari really brought a whole new dimension to this bowl, pushing it to a 17/20 rating.

UPDATE: read my test of their (also excellent) tonkotsu gyokai tsukemen

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Sugari (Kyoto, Nakagyō-ku)

和醸良麺 すがり
わじょうりょうめん すがり

19/20

Tucked in a small alley with no obvious sign, this ramen restaurant is difficult to find. You should persist, though, as this is the best ramen restaurant in the old capital I’ve tried so far (and I've lived one year there). They serve ramen and tsukemen, that you can both order with motsu. I ordered the motsu tsukemen with yuzu noodles (they have another variety of noodles too, not sure what it was).

Broth: A good tonkotsu gyokai broth; a bit on the liquid side, but it sticked enough to the noodles.

Noodles: Excellent home-made, firm yuzu noodles.

Meat: The motsu bits in the broth were just the best I have ever eaten. Juicy and grilled, they will explode in your mouth in a firework of sensations that will leave memories on your tastebuds long time after you’ve left the restaurant.

Egg: That was, to some extent, the let-down of this otherwise awesome bowl. The ajitama was good, but slightly overcooked.

Toppings: Some soft tasty cabbage in the soup, which was obviously cooked longer than the usual crunchy japanese cabbage; it was more the kind of cabbage you would find in a French countryside-ish soup. A piece of large white negi, delicately flavored, slightly sweet; two small pieces of firmer, green negi, with the same delicious flavor. And some thin, delicate, more classical negi, mixed with red chili threads.

This ramen restaurant is not only the best one I’ve tried in Kyoto, it is also the most beautiful: a long counter in a beautifully decorated machiya, a mix of modernity and tradition, an atmosphere halfway between the contemporary lounge and the classical, exclusive Kyoto restaurant. This place is awesome. If you like motsu, it would be a crime to miss it; same if you like yuzu (I love both). With a better egg, I would have rated this place 20/20. Don’t lose a second, if you’re in Kansai, run there NOW. You don’t know what tomorrow will be made of.

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Other review: Ramen adventures