節骨麺たいぞう 池袋東口店 (Bushikotsumen Taizo Ikebukuro)

Ikebukuro is a strange, but interesting place within the metropolitan Tokyo area. It has been hailed as the female otaku alternative to Akihabara because there are several shops that specialize in Yaoi manga. If you are unfamiliar, click the link. I like Ikebukuro for its strange charms and the lesser visited "other side of the tracks" west exit. Usually I try to avoid chains, but Bushikotsumen Taizo is a relatively small one, with only 3 shops, one of them being near the west exit.

Japanese ramen bloggers also seem to really enjoy this shop. Right away I enjoyed the busy and excited atmosphere. The shop staff at Taizo is super genki. I went with a friend so I could have a chance to do a double review. He chose the pork and chicken base and I chose the seafood because I can't seem to get enough of that deep salty fish flavor.

The noodles and toppings are basically the same for both bowls: negi, chashu, nori, bamboo shoots, and egg. Standard and classic. However the pork/chicken bowl had minced garlic and a complex meaty flavor. The seafood bowl was an excellent strong bonito. True standouts here for me are their noodles and chashu.

The noodles come from Hokkaido and are a perfect texture between soft and firm. I can not stress how much I liked Taizo's noodles. Some of the best to date! Their fatty chashu basically melts in your mouth and made me wish that I had selected the chashu ramen. How about condiments? I am happy to report that Taizo fresh garlic that you can press yourself, hot sesame oil, pepper, and condiments for the gyoza that you can order. The gyoza was fairly standard and I recommend going for their ramen alone. I can't seem to find anything bad about Taizo so it's going to get a 5/5 for a genki staff and delicious chashu.

Map and links: official site, tabelog

太陽のトマト麺Next サンシャインシティ (Taiyo Tomatomen Sunshine City)

Along with Japan's myriad of ramen shops are its malls. Yes, I said malls. It seems as if every station of substance has a mall attached to it or near it and the larger the station the more malls it has to offer. Ikebukuro is no exception. Many people say that Ikebukuro is kind of like an undervitsited area of Tokyo, but it is also known as female otaku hotspot, and hosts one of my all-time favorite malls, Sunshine City, which houses two sections of mazelike shopping adventures. Recently a friend of mine wanted to check out Taiyo Tomatomen in Sunshine City. Tomato...men? I had no idea what that meant because most traditional ramen is made with meat stock. My curiosity piqued, I went with my friend to Taiyo Tomatomen before shopping at some of my favorite places in Sunshine city. Taiyo Tomatomen is a boutique ramen chain. There aren't many if any salarymen hunched over on stools to slurp ramen here:

Despite the decoration cans of tomatoes and wine bottles in a wooden crate, the prices remained standard. With a set you can choose one out of six kinds of ramen (one of them being pesto), and if you so desire you may also add gyoza and rice. I decided on the cheese tomatomen with a full set of gyoza and rice. We ordered from the laminated menu outside of a fairly busy lunch rush. Once seated in a comfortable diner like booth I noticed that this was indeed, no ordinary ramen shop. There were families and teenage girls along with people on dates. Boutique for sure! The perks of such a place are excellent customer service, and a whole pitcher of delicious jasmine tea.



I think part of the appeal of this kind of shop is also that the stock and ingredients are considered healthier. The stock is a tomato and chicken stock, and it is also served with chicken instead of pork. I think the clientele also reflect Sunshine City's normal patrons.

We didn't have to wait long for our ramen to be served and I was excited to have a new flavor of ramen:

The closest thing I can compare this to is chicken cacciatore with wavy capellini noodles (if there are such a thing). That's not bad, but the flavor profile screams Italian. The cheese also melted really quickly, so it wasn't easy to evenly distribute it. I kind of wished there had been some oregano and red pepper flakes on the table. Overall I think that this was very tasty, but very strange. I am still not sure what to make of it. Taiyo Tomatomen is really good for a date before or after shopping at Sunshine City, but it might make you crave Italian food! Overall a 3.5/5 because of my confused taste buds and the sticky cheese.

This is a chain and all of their shops can be found on their official site! Here's the map!!