Kumagoro

Often I do a lot of research before picking a ramen shop, making sure I'll eat something good or at least interesting. This time, I found myself by Tennoji Station with about an hour to kill, and I needed dinner. I looked around the restaurant areas in a couple of the malls and decided on Kumagoro.

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らーめん熊五郎ステーション店
10-48 Hideninchō

The Bowl
The broth was a light, fishy, shoyu. It was simple and passable, but there was nothing special about it. The noodles were medium, and OK, and the thin slices of chashu were a little bland. I wish there was more to say about this bowl, but it was neither very bad nor very good.

Would I Go Again?
Nope.

Should You Go?
Nope.

Maramen Yanyan

Just the other day I went for a stroll around Tenma and Tenjinbashi, and while I was there I noticed Maramen Yanyan. Yanyan advertises its soupless tantanmen, full of both standard-spiciness and the numbing spiciness you get from Sichuan peppers. I love both, and so as soon as I could I headed over there.

I went for the soupless tantanmen and threw in an egg for fun. For both normal and numbing spiciness, you can choose from 1-4. The owner suggested I get 1 on each, but I balked at the idea of getting the lowest and went 3 for both.

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麻拉麺 揚揚
6-7-24 Tenjinbashi

The Bowl
That doesn't look so spicy, right? The whole bowl smelled like Sichuan pepper. I've had my experiences with more spice than I can handle, but I had never had too much Sichuan pepper before. A few slurps into the bowl and my tongue tingled. A few more and my lips too. Two thirds of my way through and it was like I had eaten miracle fruit; everything I put in my mouth tasted different from what I thought it should. Water had a very tangy taste. Isn't water not supposed to taste like anything? My mouth continued buzzing for thirty minutes or an hour after the meal.

Self-prescribed over-spice aside, the bowl was good. The noodles were thin, curly, and firm, and though the taste of the sauce was pretty light, it did the job.

Would I Go Again?
Yeah, it's not quite as good as the best soupless tantanmen or abura soba bowls I've had, but it's definitely solid.

Should You Go?
Check it out! But watch what level of spice you get.

Mengenso

For a place that's really not that far from Umeda, I don't make it to Tenma very often. There's not a lot there, and it's not the most modern place in osaka, but that's what gives it its charm. One giant shopping arcade that stretches several station lengths, filled with cafes, old clothing, and pachinko parlors. And ramen shops.

There are not that many in the arcade itself, but a keen observer will realize that they dot the alleyways around it. On this lazy afternoon I picked a place from Ramen Walker whose bowl looked eerily like classic-favorite Yashichi. Mengenso's notable bowl is called "naka naka". "Naka" means middle, and the "naka naka" places itself strangely in between other bowls by being half of each. The soup is chicken and fish, and the tare is shio and shoyu.

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麺元素
5-2-16 Tenjinbashi

The Bowl
The broth was very well-balanced; it was peppery and kind of like a light shoyu, but a bit richer. The noodles were soft and not too flavorful, but they matched the soup well. The menma were soft and the egg was creamy. The strangest part was the chashu, which came in flat, sweet pieces that were a little tough. It was more like ham than the normal pork in ramen, but it was delicious.

Would I Go Again?
This place was great. I'd have been back already if it wasn't so far.

Should You Go?
Yes. It's very similar to Yashichi, but you don't have to wait on the massive lines.

Miyata Menji

All the time the world is blessed with the birth of a new ramen shop.  Other times we must bow our heads in sadness as a ramen shop disappears.  Miyata Menji, one of the first shops I ever visited in Osaka, has had its time come.

Miyata Menji was founded by a Japanese comedian, Miyata Tetsuji.  He wanted to show the world how delicious wheat flour in noodles could be, so he had them made for Miyata Menji.  After about two years of operation, Miyata felt that his duty was complete, and had the place shut down.  And what spookier day to say goodbye to a ramen shop than Halloween?  I came straight from work so sadly I was not in costume.

Miyata Menji typically has three different kinds of noodles available, but for the final night they had only one type of noodle available: the T2G Final.

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宮田麺児
1-13-5 Higashishinsaibashi

The Bowl
Miyata Menji is all about the noodles, but they offered a pretty solid broth too.  It was a sweet gyokai tonkotsu, with a strange-but-fitting tomato taste.  The noodles were good on their own and in the broth; they were very chewy and covered in little bits of wheat flour.  There was an extra-chewy large noodle sheet, too.  In addition to the pork, menma, and egg, which were all good, there were some vegetable chips with the noodles.  I've never had anything like that in ramen before, but they went pretty well.

Would I Go Again?
I would.  But alas, it is no more.

Should You Go?
Yes, but you can't.

R.I.P. Miyata Menji.

Mannen

Another rare second-time visit!  Avid fans of this blog may remember that about a year ago I visited a branch of Mannen in Umeda, checking out their curry tsukemen.  This time, a friend invited me to grab a bowl in the Shinsaibashi area, and she took me to Mannen.

They didn't have curry tsukemen at this branch, and I was tempted to get something wacky, but my friend advised that I try the standard tonkotsu ramen.  So tonkotsu it was.

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らーめん餃子専門店 まんねん
3-6-4 Minamisenba

The Bowl
Creamy, rich, classic tonkotsu broth.  I've been having a lot of these recently.  The noodles were thin as you'd expect, though fairly soft even though I asked for them hard.  The chashu was pretty decent as well.

Would I Go Again?
A solid bowl of tonkotsu.  Nothing to complain about, but also no reason to go back.

Should You Go?
Not when you could go to Zundoya instead.

Masutani

A while back, a friend told me about a new campaign Yahoo started running called the Ramen Ambassadors.  They were recruiting foreigners in Japan who have a passion for ramen.  Well, I applied and I got in!  I've advertised on facebook already, but check it out if you haven't already!

One of my duties as Osaka's ambassador was to make a video as a promotion.  As Osaka's ambassador (most of the others are up in Tokyo), I decided to go around Osaka and Kyoto and show off different landmarks and nearby ramen shops.  Of course this meant that I had to stop somewhere to eat ramen too.

It had been a long time since I ate in Kyoto Station's Ramen Koji.  Since this was for the video, I decided the best place to go was Kyoto's famous chain Masutani.  They are famous for their shoyu broth with a chicken soup base.

I'll post details below, but check out my promotional video here!

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ますたに
901 Higashishiokōjichō

The Bowl
The soup was a fatty, oily shoyu.  It was a little garlicky, and generally reminiscent of the Jiro-style.  The thing about Jiro-style bowls, is that they are usually more about quality than about quantity.  Without the quantity, Masutani felt like a fairly generic chain-y bowl.  The noodles were thin, straight, and springy, and the chashu was pretty mediocre.

Would I Go Again?
No way.  There are better places in Kyoto Station and better representatives of Kyoto.

Should You Go?
Nah.

Jinrui Mina Menrui

As many of these posts begin, I decided to meet with a friend of mine for ramen.  This is the same friend of mine I went to Tokiya with, which meant we were heading over to Nishinakajimaminamigata (yes, its as annoying to say in Japanese as it is in English).  It's a bit out of the way so I don't get around there much, but there are actually quite a few ramen shops in the area.  A famous shio shop called Shiogensui is there, but on this night we decided to hit up popular, new Jinrui Mina Menrui.

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人類みな麺類
1-12-15 Nishinakajima

The Bowl
Jinrui Mina Menrui offers a shoyu broth, and is known for their ridiculously thick pieces of chashu.  Just look at that photo above.  That's thicker than a slice of bread!  If ramen wasn't already grossly unhealthy I might feel about about eating it.  The broth was pretty standard but decent, and the noodles were short, fat, and straight.  The menma and chashu were both thick, and pretty good.

Would I Go Again?
Everything about this place was solid, but nothing was better than that.  The chashu was good, but not so good to make me want to come back.  Besides, I still need to go to Shiogensui.

Should You Go?
There are better shoyu bowls closer to town, and better other kinds of bowls over there.  Only go if you're really into giant pieces of chashu.