Menya Itadori

My friends had one last night in Kyoto, and so we yet again went searching for ramen.  We failed to find a place we were looking for by the river, but luckily I had a backup prepared.  A backup with curry.

Itadori offered a variety of curry options: curry rice, curry tsukemen, curry tantanmen, and curry udon.  Curry alone is great, but an opportunity to get curry and tantanmen in one bowl?  I couldn't say no.  Plus, I added in some pork shabu shabu as a topping.

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麺屋虎杖 四条富小路上ル
17-3 Tachiurihigashichō

The Bowl
This was an interesting mix.  I could tell it was clearly tantanmen, but there was also a strong curry flavor.  It was weird but they mixed well.  The curry was a bit light and the broth wasn't that spicy, so I would have liked it to be even richer.  The noodles were the curly, chewy kind of noodles that are standard with tantanmen.  The thin slices of pork weren't very flavorful, which was very good because there was enough flavor in the broth to make the pork taste good.

Would I Go Again?
Curry all the time?  Yes.

Should You Go?
Yeah, this place is unique and great.

Ryukishin

I made another trip to visit Kyoto at night, which meant another chance to eat Kyoto ramen.  There are a handful of Ryukishin shops in Kansai.  I had been to the one in Namba before, but never to the Kyoto branch.  I went for the tori shio ramen.

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龍旗信
157 Takoyachō

The Bowl
Ryukishin provided a solid and refreshing if not-very-exciting chicken shio bowl.  The broth was light and thin, and the noodles were thin and soft.  The chashu was especially light on flavor, but my friend ordered some of the extra chashu which was very fatty and delicious.

Would I Go Again?
The bowl was pretty good; I don't think I'll go back to the Kyoto one but I might visit a different Osaka branch.

Should You Go?
If you're in Kyoto, it's worth trying.  If you're in Osaka, it's a pretty good shio available right near Namba Parks.

Gogyo

After spending a few days in Osaka, my friends visiting from America decided to stay a few nights in Kyoto.  That meant that I'd be making nightly visits to Kyoto to hang out with them, but more importantly, that all of us would be exploring a set of ramen shops I normally don't get to visit.

Gogyo is one I picked out from Ramen Walker.  The advertised charred miso ramen hit two things I love: miso, and weird ramen.  What I had not realized when I visited is that I'd actually been to Gogyo before.  I had visited the branch in Tokyo just after arriving there over two years ago.

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京都 五行
452 Jūmonjichō

The Bowl
Black miso broth!  I could stare at it for hours.  It was rich and as oily as it looks, which means that it was scalding.  The charred flavor really came through; charred miso is exactly what it tasted like.  The noodles were medium and broke apart easily, but they carried the flavor well.  The slices of chashu were standard, but the egg was creamy and delicious.  There was an assortment of other goodies in there: ginger, cabbage, onions, seaweed, and a fishcake.

Would I Go Again?
The ramen was interesting and good.  I would check it out again, but I have more exploring to do in Kyoto first.

Should You Go?
Yeah, definitely.  It's right in downtown Kyoto too.

Ramen Zundoya

Some friends of mine came into town from the US, and I decided it was my duty to give them a sampling of good ramen in Osaka.  They hadn't had Hakata style tonkotsu ramen before, so that's where I brought them first.  I veered away from Ippudo and Ichiran since they both have branches in America, but Zundoya is a local Kansai chain.

Of course, I've been to Zundoya before, so I decided to try something crazy.  Miso and tsukemen together at last?  It's not unheard of but it's not common either - especially not in Osaka.

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ラー麺 ずんどう屋
1-5-7 Shinsaibashisuji

The Bowl
This was not just any normal miso bowl.  The bowl had a candle under it keeping it nice and hot, and rice on the side meant be mixed in for some bonus zosui.  The broth was extremely rich and hot miso.  The thick noodles and thin, fatty chashu grabbed the broth well, for one long miso-soaked meal.  It was very good, but along with the spicy miso I ate with a separate order of gyoza on the side, I was a bit miso-ed out by the end.

Would I Go Again?
This was not my first trip to Zundoya, and I'm sure it will not be my last.  The real problem is deciding what to order.

Should You Go?
Yes!  Great food, great location.

Kokontei

I moved to Osaka last June, but I didn't start writing this blog until August.  In that time, I went to a number of ramen places that I have no notes or posts for.  Some of them were bad, some were good, and some I barely remember.  Kokontei is in the latter group, and since it's conveniently right in Umeda Station, I decided to stop in again for a review.

Kokontei offers a couple different kinds of tsukemen, with an option of fat noodles or super-fat noodles.  I didn't remember what I got the first time, so I went with the staff's recommendation of the chicken tonkotsu tsukesoba, with fat noodles.

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らーめん つけそば 古今亭
9 Kakudachō

The Bowl
The broth was thin but murky; it was very porky but I could only taste the slightest trace of chicken.  The noodles were thick as advertised.  The soup was thin enough that they didn't absorb much of it, which makes me wonder what the super-fat noodles would have been like.  The chashu was the best part.  It was tender and more similar to Chinese roast pork than the normal stuff you'd expect in ramen.

Would I Go Again?
The broth was a bit too light for me to love it.  I'm curious about the other kinds, but I'd just as soon go somewhere else.

Should You Go?
Kokontei is practically inside Umeda Station, so it's really easy to get to if you don't have a lot of time before getting on a train.  But if you do, there are better places around.

Bushido

I was walking around Nishi-ku after looking at some apartments, and decided to get something to eat.  What better way to relax on a Sunday after walking around all day than a huge amount of garlic, oil, salt, and pork?

Bushido is a Jiro-style ramen shop located near Awaza.  Bushido is paired with a similar ramen shop in Teradacho called Wasshoi.  Both offer soups that will kill your breath and your stomach in huge, or "men's" sizes.  Thankfully they offer reasonable sizes for those of us who can barely finish a small.

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麺屋 武士道
4-6-20 Itachibori

The Bowl
A classic bowl of Jiro-style ramen: oily, garlicy, and covered with chunks of fat.  The broth was scalding too, so my tongue hurt for a couple days after this meal.  The noodles were oily, firm and eggy.  There were some onions and cabbage in there so you can pretend the bowl is at all healthy.  The chashu were, unlike Maccho, not large chunks, but thinner strips, and not as good.

Would I Go Again?
It wasn't bad, but the best thing about this brand of Jiro-style ramen is that it came in a relatively small serving.  I won't go back to Bushido, but maybe I'll review Wasshoi some time.

Should You Go?
It's Jiro-style ramen you can eat without getting a huge size, but if you're aiming for the best, try a different place.

Kuruma

I was on my way to check out some apartments and I wanted something quick to eat.  I didn't think I would have time to fit in a full ramen meal, but luckily I stumbled upon a sign posted outside of the yakitori-based izakaya Kuruma.  According to the sign, on weekends during lunchtime they serve up chicken-based ramen.  Can you expect any less from a place that specializes in yakitori?

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車
3-4-13 Nanba

The Bowl
The broth was a thin, but rich and oily chicken broth.  It was slightly yellow-ish, and the thickness reminded me a lot of the broth at Totto Ramen.  The noodles were medium, curly egg noodles, and in place of normal pork-chashu, there were a couple large pieces of chicken.  Those were pretty fatty, and not bad.  Overall the bowl was good but not amazing, but it was very chicken-y and different enough from what I'm used to that I enjoyed it.

Would I Go Again?
It was good but with the restrictive hours I probably won't go back.

Should You Go?
It was pretty good, but if you're in the market for chicken broth, I would definitely hit up Taku or Men Life Taku first.