Tanron / Wakamatsu (Hyogo-ken, Nishinomiya-shi)

ラーメン たんろん
らーめん たんろん
Ramen Tanron

麺処若松
めんどころわかまつ
Mendokoro Wakamatsu

Noko toritonkotsu niboshi ramen: 15 / 20

Every Sunday (if I understood correctly), Nishinomiya's ramen-star Tanron becomes Mendokoro Wakamatsu and changes its menu to only once choice: a noko toritonkotsu niboshi (thick chicken-pork-sardine ramen). I was quite glad to see that there were only six people queuing when I arrived there; twenty minutes of waiting under a leaking roof later, I was seating in front of my bowl.

Broth: A thick broth that was neither too fat, nor too salty, and covered well the noodles. Curiously, it seemed to have retained only the pungency of the niboshi, but not the rest of the characteristic taste;  quite an addictive pugency, I must say. An interesting mix for sure.

Noodles: Square, mochi mochi, eggy, delicious noodles. I ordered the nami (regular) size - a good idea, as it was already quite copious.

Meat: A thin, large cold slice of chashu, fat and average. The bowl would be better without it.

Toppings: A few menma, sweet'n salty, with the classical menma taste; some were crunchy and some not so much.

Wari soup: You can order either tori paitan (thick chicken) or gyokai (fish) broth. I ordered the latest, and got some pungent dashi, that again did not really taste like niboshi. It was not enough though and the soup remained too thick too drink though (but you can certainly order more if you want to).

An original and good soup, a bit spoiled by the very average meat, but definitely recommended. As I left at 12:20, there was no queue anymore: Sunday seems to be a good day to go to Tanron, if you don't mind having it changed to Wakamatsu.

More info on ramendb: Tanron, Wakamatsu

Pahha (Hyogo-ken, Nishinomiya-shi)

麺処 ばっは
めんどころ ばっは

Assari shoyu ramen: 15 / 20

Conveniently located near the Hankyu Nishinomiya station, it is easy to reach this ramen shop on your way between Kobe and Osaka. It is less easy to enter in, though: I arrived at 13:40 on a hot summer’s Saturday, and had to wait half an hour to get a seat (fortunately, the queue was in the shadows). This restaurant features two shoyu ramen (assari or kotteri) and a tsukemen. I had the assari shoyu ramen, with ontama.
 

Broth: An intense and very fishy broth – possibly due to the use of niboshi, although the taste was also reminiscent of the fishy notes that you can find in a tonkotsu gyokai broth. Very pleasant.

Noodles: Some thin, yellow noodles, a bit too much on the soft side to my taste, but still good.

Meat: That was the weak point here: two large slices of average chashu. Why on earth put so much low-quality meat in a dish? I would definitely have preferred a smaller-but-better chashu (or no chashu at all).

Egg: Two halves of an OK egg, a bit overcooked.

Toppings: Some thin excellent seaweed, a really good idea. A few menma shot with a strong and salty taste.

This was a very contrasted ramen, with excellent broth and seaweed toppings (and very friendly service, I must say), but very average chashu and ontama (I don’t recommend to order the later). Was it worth the wait? I would say no, but that’s up to you.

More info on ramendb.
(contrarily to what is said on ramendb, the shop is open till 4 pm)

Sou (Hyogo-ken, Nishinomiya-shi)

ラーメン荘 これが好きだから
らーめんそう これがすきだから

Jiro ramen (yasai mashi, ninniku mashi): 16 / 20

5 minutes away from JR Nishinomiya station, this restaurant specializes in jiro ramen. This evening again, I was not meeting anyone, so I figured out it was a good occasion for a jiro ramen and its traditional garlic pile. I don’t know so much about jiro ramen, although I loved the few I have tried, so what I can say about it must be taken with a grain of salt. I ordered the ramen with a small portion of meat (that was already a lot), and a small portion of noodles (given all the toppings, 200g noodles were far enough); but in case you haven't eaten in a week, you can get for the same price the regular portion (300g noodles), or the big one (400g) - just attach a color peg to your plastic ticket to indicate the desired size. I ordered my ramen with all toppings: yasai (vegetables), ninniku (garlic), abura (fat), karame (‘spicyness’), with an extra order of vegetables (yasai mashi) and garlic (ninniku mashi), making the whole thing a tiny little bit less unhealthy.

 

Broth: The usual fat tonkotsu-shoyu broth that you get in jiro ramen shops. It was good, but it is definitely not advisable to finish it (and no one does, as far as I can see), given all the suspended fat inside it.

Noodles: Firm, large noodles characteristic of jiro, slightly curly. Very good.

Meat: A few tasty, roughly cut slices of pork, some quite lean, some fatter.

Toppings: A huge pile of soy sprouts and cabbage (‘mashi’, remember?), sprinkled by a generous amount of garlic (I could have gone ‘mashi mashi’ here...)

I think this was only the fifth jiro ramen I ever had, but I found it quite good, although I was slightly more impressed by Dokamori Maccho in Sannomiya one week earlier - especially by its noodles and  broth. But both are very recommended if you enjoy or want to discover jiro ramen. The waiter was extremely watchful and friendly, congratulating me at the end for finishing everything in my bowl but the remaining fatty juice.

More information on ramendb.