There was a ramen shop in Toyokawa worth going out of my way for, so I paid it a visit. These days I suppose you’d call it new-wave ramen.. shops that step away from classic shoyu, tonkotsu and miso feel completely mainstream by now. It has already been a few decades since the new wave first showed up, after all. What started at a handful of Tokyo shops has now settled in all over the country. So there’s no need to head into the big city just to eat something a bit different, and it’s great that the regions have plenty of genuinely good ramen shops of their own.

The place

Tori paitan is their base, and they serve shoyu and miso alongside it.

Side dishes like these

Lots of aburi items. As expected, these days it isn’t just about making the ramen taste good; putting effort into the sides to raise the average check seems to be standard.

Cola

The bottle was pretty.

Miso ramen

An orthodox miso ramen with a rich flavor that really works. Even though this isn’t a miso specialist, they’ve pulled it off as elegantly as most specialist shops do.

The noodles

Miso ramen calls for thick noodles.

Tori paitan ramen

Good tori paitan seems to give off something almost French. The low-temperature chashu was tasty too.

The noodles

Nice and springy. It really is good.

Shoyu ramen

A very clean-tasting bowl.

All three bowls are in completely different styles, and yet every one of them tastes good. Remarkable.

Inside

Hard at work back there.

When ramen is made this well, I started to think it belongs to the realm of entertainment. It does mean the prices aren’t cheap, but there’s satisfaction to match.

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