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

ら～めん鈴 (Ramen Suzu Motosumiyoshi)

Ramen is so popular that there are publications devoted to it. Some time ago I purchased the Ramen Walker for the Kanagawa area and since then have been itching to use it. I plan to visit more shops contained within its pages to farther reaches of Kanagawa, however this past Saturday was quite rainy and miserable. So, a local shop was more desirable and my trusty Ramen Walker did not disappoint:

Who can resist such an enthusiastic crane pose? I invited a friend so that I could write twice the review, for you see, not only does one of their chefs have an awesome crane pose, but Ramen Suzu also offers a fish base stock as well as a deep fatty tonkotsu. Why choose when I can have a good friend help? So here we have, that’s right, a double review! Fish first:

My friend is a pescatarian so we get excited to find fish based ramen. He also always gives me his pork. Ahhh, friendship! We both really enjoyed the flavor of this bowl and extra fish powder helped deliver an extra punch. We both agreed that it could use a little garlic, but there was none to be found. Garlic aside, the flavor was an absolutely divine bonito and I want to return to get my very own bowl. Now onto the deep fatty tonkotsu, their signature featured in Ramen Walker:

How rich and fatty it was! Wow. There were tiny bits of pork populating a deep, viscous broth. It was absolutely delicious. The chashu itself was also a highlight, being slow cooked, thick, fatty and practically falling apart in my mouth. With so many subpar pork encounters in my ramen saga, I was very pleased with Ramen Suzu. Also just look at this egg!

So perfect. This is also one of the many shops in the Yokohama area that offers complimentary rice, which though I don’t need, I love. I agreed with my friend that there should be more condiments available (garlic and sesame), but this may be one shop that really doesn’t need any extra flavor. Condiments are just nice to have. At least there was pepper!  Because of this one minor detail Ramen Suzu gets a 4.5/5. When we were leaving a staff member asked us how we knew about the shop (which is quite new) and we told her about the Ramen Walker. I think they may be open to suggestions, and I do plan on returning. Perhaps I can drop a hint their way.

Here is a map, links to tabelog, and strangely enough a google plus page.