Shinagawa is a neighborhood with next to nothing for tourists to see. But the Shinkansen stops here and there are quite a few big companies, so it’s grown into a secondary city center. My office is nearby, so I drop by a lot, and when I found out a while ago that a ramen theme park with a fun concept had opened, I went to check it out.
It’s called Shinatatsu Ramen.
Come out of the Takanawa exit of Shinagawa Station and walk about 200 meters to the left and you’re there. The description says it’s a one-minute walk, but it takes more than a minute. The concept of this theme park is really fun.
They’ve gathered the ramen shops that are said to be the hottest in Tokyo right now.
Every single one is a famous shop I’d only ever heard about. I could go on forever about each of them. Most are pretty hard to get to by public transport, so they’re not easy to visit, but here they are all in one place. Oh, and besides ramen there are donburi (rice bowl) places too, and those looked good as well. Unlike the ramen, though, word is that not all of those shops are good…
Of all of them, the one I went to is a shop called Setagaya.
It’s a legendary shop. The number one on Kan-nana (Loop 7), or so they say… It’s awkward to get to by JR, so I’d only ever heard the name, and I’m really glad they opened a branch somewhere easy to reach.
Plain ramen.
The broth, with a good strong infusion of katsuobushi, is clean and bracing to the point of being tough. I think this is the direction new-wave Japanese-style ramen should take. It uses ingredients familiar to the Japanese palate, like katsuobushi, seafood and soy sauce, and still nails the taste of ramen as something you enjoy casually. It’s not a refined flavor, so I don’t think everyone will like it, but I really liked it. Unusually for a branch, the noodles were cooked just right too, but I had a feeling this broth would really come into its own as tsukemen.
So the next day I go back for tsukemen.
The broth
Yep, this one’s better.
Nori
This is just… meh, meh.
300 grams of tsukemen!
Flat noodles. Personally I prefer this style of noodle. You’ve got to eat about 300 grams before you can say you’ve had a proper filling meal. The tough noodles go well with the tough broth. They were cooked fine, but if there’s a problem, it’s that I eat so much more these days that this amount doesn’t satisfy me anymore…
A look at the other shops.
Yes… every shop had lots of people. They’re all famous shops, after all. From now on I’m going to make the rounds one by one. There are seven of them (I’ve already done two), so I won’t be bored in the evenings for a while.