麺場 ハマトラ

You might be thinking (if you have read the blog so far), didn't Natalie already go to a  ハマトラ (Hamatora)? The answer is yes, but most Japanese people will tell you that food, even basic foods like gyoza or onigiri are different in every location! Which is quite true. This location is in Hiyoshi, the place of my future apartment. Hiyoshi is a cute area near Keio University with a ton of ramen shops and other restaurants. Expect a grand tour of Hiyoshi ramen shops in the future! On to the noodles and shop. When we came across the location after studying our map we thought, is this place still under construction??

There is a lot of exposed concrete and what look to be large bags of concrete which (we think) is actually flour for the noodles. I think that they make their noodles at this location, and it is partially the reason I insisted on going here instead of one of the other myriad of shops in Hiyoshi. Because this particular location of ハマトラ serves ramen noodles that are black!

As you can see from the left picture, my ramen was topped with natto. For those of you unfamiliar with Japan, natto is a fermented soy bean product that many people like to eat with rice or alone or topped on various things. I don't really like natto, but it is because of the slimy texture that natto has, not the taste. At least it got mixed into the soup and the texture was masked so I wasn't too unhappy. My friend, who accompanied me on my visit to their Yokohama shop, discussed the flavor of the broth itself. We both agreed that this broth was not as delicious. Perhaps they focus more on noodle production here, but we remain unsure. I did like the novelty of the black noodles though and their business cards!

For some reason my friend and I are unsure of, Hiyoshi is obsessed with tigers. The real kicker is that this shop has a cotton candy machine! So if you feel like getting a diabetic head rush you can help yourself to free cotton candy. Overall this shop was quite nice. I liked the atmosphere (free tea and cotton candy, spacious interior, and FREE WIFI!). Their ramen was also good, but because we had been to the other location we were expecting a little bit more. So this place gets 4/5 bowls.

Here is a link to their tabelog, thier own site and as always a map: