Men-ya Takakura Nijo — Restaurant in Kyoto

I loved this place oh so much. I was a little intimidated, as I don't know a lot of Japanese and I was traveling solo from the United States, but I was able to learn enough online to know what to do here. There is no sign, you enter through an unmarked door. But you wait outside in a line until the person in front of you has placed their order inside on a kiosk (just keep peeking inside the door). The kiosk has the menu in English, but I still looked a lot of stuff up online first. My tactic was to get there when they opened... however I was seventh in line, and there are only six seats inside. Oops. So I waited a tiny bit, but… It was so worth it. I discovered here my favorite Ramen dish ever, Tsukemen. It was, in a word, heavenly. Perfectly cooked cold noodles with a dreamy pork-based Ramen broth (I'm mostly vegetarian, but I make concessions, 100% worth it), a beautiful hard-boiled egg, and little bits of roasted pork. Again, I was out of my element being the only foreigner in the place the whole time I was there, but everyone was so kind in showing me the ropes. You need chopsticks here? They are in the tiny drawer below the counter. Want to put some interesting spices on top? They are also in the tiny drawer. As for a beverage, they served a delicious chilled jasmine tea. I believe there was also a beer available. But honestly, this was one of my best meals in Japan. Can't wait...

It wasn't easy to find this quaint ramen shop. Only 6 seats at the counter. Self ordering from the machine (which has an English menu!) at the start and you wait for a seat if the counter is full. I had the tsukemen (dry ramen with dipping broth) with yuzu noodles. The yuzu noodles had a faint yuzu aroma without overpowering the taste of the dipping sauce. The dipping sauce was kept warm in Staub mini pot! I enjoyed the taste of the Al dente noodles with dipping broth. Once you are done with your noodles, you can ask for hot water (I believe) to be added to the thick broth. This allows you to enjoy the broth just like their soup version. Or, as some locals did, they ordered a portion of rice and mixed it with the broth. No waste of the precious broth!

Ambience wise, this restaurant is really tiny, and the interior is modern/minimalist. The cutlery and spices are all nicely arranged and kept in the drawer at every seat.

I enjoyed the experience and the noodles. It is one place that I will revisit when I am back in Kyoto since it's near my favourite...

I was near the area and felt like eating ramen where I found this men-ya on Google Maps that looked tempting to my eyes.

I accidentally went inside the kitchen, haha, as there is no sign outside the shop. The shop has a very practical JP/EN ordering machine with tsukemen and ramen options, and then different types of meat. I ordered chicken+fish broth ramen with Japanese beef and yuzu noodles, but you can choose other types of those.

The place is a kitchen and a counter, and every utensil, piece of furniture and machine inside of the place seem clean, elegant and perfect for their purpose. Simple, not pretentious and beautiful.

There are two boys cooking and serving, and they are chill but hard working. The atmosphere is nice and the music was some type of rap/hip-hop that made me feel cool just by listening to it.

The ramen itself was amazing!! The serving was just the right size, the texture of the noodles neither too soft nor hard, and the broth, omg, just go and try it.

Hope I can go back to try other...