Address: 2-14-21 Shinyokohama, Kohoku-ku, Yokohama-City, 222-0033
Hours: Daily 11:00am - 23:00 (Please enter by 22:00)
Direction: http://www2.raumen.co.jp/home/access.html
When I found out there was a museum on ramen, there was no question in my mind that I had to visit. I mean for goodness sakes, A MUSEUM on RAMEN!! So on my second weekend during my month long visit to Japan in February 2006, I went and ate as many bowls of ramen as I could. As it turned out, my stomach was able to try only 4 of the 8 different ramen shops in the museum. I went back a week later and tried another bowl. I wanted to give a decent review on each of the ramen shops I tried, so here goes:
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Komurasaki Ramen (ranked #1)
First, and the best ramen I had in the museum was Komurasaki Ramen. The ramen I had was tonkotsu based. The milky soup is made from pork bones blended with chicken bones. From Kyushu Island, the special ingredient you don't see is the thin slices of garlic that is grilled for hours. Add cloud ear mushrooms, sungan, and spouts, it makes Komurasaki tonkotsu ramen the best in the museum (in my mind). The basic bowl has your regular charshu (roasted pork), but they have a special bowl for charshu lovers. It is roasted to perfection, and is probably the best I've had in the world. The noodle itself is very 'Q', and cooked just right. All in all, it was probably the best bowl of ramen I had in my four weeks in Japan. Now it might not be possible for you to make it down to Kyushu, so if you are lucky enough to catch it still in the museum, you definitely have to try it! |
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Fukuchan Ramen (ranked #2)
My second favorite ramen shop in the museum. Fukuchan Ramen would have been my favorite shop, but their roasted pork were far behind Komurasaki Ramen. This had one of the longest lines while we were in the museum, and there was good reason why. From what I understand, the soup based is made from "new" and "mature" soup. The "new" soup provides the sharpness and the "mature" soup provide richness, and the blend provides one of the more flavorful soups I've ever tasted. The bowl provides a lot of roasted pork, but the pork was far off from the charshu I was use to. The meat was too dry, and didn't have enough fatty meat in there. But with an excellent soup, well cooked noodles, and adding some fresh. crushed garlic, it was still one of the best ramen I had in Japan. |
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Shinasobaya Ramen (ranked #3)
By this time, it was time to try something light. I actually started out as a shouyu ramen fan, but since my days in Tokyo, I quickly became a tonkotsu ramen fan. Those of you who know me well, however, know that I love food period. If Shinasobaya deserves to be in the ramen museum, they must have a damn good shouyu ramen. I was not disappointed. The shouyu ramen was absolutely wonderful. You can really taste the chicken stock and pork bone from the soup, with just the right amount shouyu. All I can say it is light, crisp, and very flavorful. The bowl of ramen is simple, some chopped scallions, seaweed, bamboo shoots, and the roasted pork. Nothing fancy. I liked the noodles, but they could have been better. All in all, if you are a shouyu ramen fan, this is the place. |
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Ide Shoten Ramen (ranked #4)
On my second trip back to the ramen museum, Ide Shoten the only ramen shop I didn't get to try my first go around here. There were a few reasons why Ide Shoten didn't make it on the list of ramen shops I wanted to try the first time I was there. One, I could not eat anymore ramen. Two, my love for tonkotsu. By no means is Ide Shoten a slouch. The shouyu based ramen was very tasty. What's makes this shop so special is their soup based is a blend of shouyu and tonkotsu. Japanese ramen first started with your simple soup base, shouyu (soy sauce), shio (salt), tonkotsu (pork bone), and miso. Nowadays, it is very common for ramen chefs to try different blends, and Ide Shoten did a good job. The soup has a good flavor, very different than a basic shouyu or basic tonkotsu ramen, but it wasn't something I was use to. The soup was a bit thicker. Ide Shoten is famous for the pink flower fish cake it puts on the ramen, and makes this shop stand out from the rest. What I loved about this place was the amount of scallions they put on top. The noodles were on par. It came in fourth here only because the top 3 were just that good. |
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Hachiya Ramen (ranked #5)
This was the second ramen shop I tried in the museum. As with many ramen shops, they use pork-bone as their soup based. Since I already tried tonkotsu at my last stop, I decided to go with the miso ramen here. Hachiya also serves shouyu based ramen, for those of you who are fans of shouyu, you have that option here. As you can see with the color of the soup, this was made with very heavy miso. The soup came out very salty, almost overpowering the pork-bone based flavor from the soup. The noodles are cooked just right, with the right amount of 'Q'ness in them. Although I have to say, I was not very impressed with this bowl. I've had plenty of other ramen off the side streets in Akasaka that were better than this. The miso was just too strong, and really overshadowed the noodles and the toppings. I will have to try their other offerings next time I visit. |
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