Ramen Tomita — Restaurant in Matsudo

After watching the 'Ramen Heads' movie on a Delta flight like 3 times and twice at home on YouTube TV, I made it a point to go there in person for the full experience. Well worth the 1/2 day spent from the time of the early morning line for a reservation (I got there at 7:30am) to my reserved seat time of 12:20pm. It's quite a bit different than in the movie, in a good way. They seemed to have renovated and upscaled it to be an "eating experience."

(FYI, this is going to be a long review...)

Classical music was being played and everything from the seats, counter and even kitchen area looked brand new. The reservation is a group seating of 8 people at a time and it is a performance to be seen. Tomita San is the main attraction as he is right there "on stage" preparing everything for each person while his staff helps to prepare the smaller things & deliver each item to us. I couldn't understand all that the server was telling me, but think I got it, basically by following what everyone else did. First thing I think I understood was to taste the noodles and broth separately to understand the taste of each. Noodles were firm and chewy, broth was a bit fishy tasting. But when you eat the noodles with the broth, the fishiness taste went away and it was a nice flavor together. If you watch the movie, he is very meticulous with his menma(bamboo shoots) and the soft boiled egg, that is why I ordered side orders of both. Menma was perfectly cooked and seasoned but I found out that there were two pieces of it in the soup already that you can't see when they bring it to you. The side order of it came with like 6 large pieces, but I like menma and ate it all anyway. The egg was perfectly cooked, see my picture. Yum! The pork bowl looked good in other people's posts, so I ordered it and it was great! It didn't have the egg yolk in the middle like in their picture, but for 500yen, what a deal! The portion of noodles are larger than what you think, so that is why I got the smaller portion and that was enough since I added on the side dishes. I forced myself to eat everything I ordered down to the last grain of rice as that is proper manners in Japanese culture as my mom taught me. It took me like 40+ minutes to get there from Shinagawa station and had to kill like 4 hours before I ate, but the actual HIGH CLASS experience was worth it! I would do it again if someone was with me, but if I'm by myself again, I would go to his satellite shop a block or two away for a quick eat. I will not forget this experience, thank you Tomita san and your...

This experience was everything that I had imagined and more. Some background info: I watched Ramen Heads (watch before going if possible) on the plane as I was heading to Tokyo. I LOVE ramen and Moreso rich broth, so I HAD to try this place out.

I arrived at 9AM on a Saturday morning and the next available spot was at 5:20P. The guy helping to guide us told us about the other shop two blocks that sell all of the same ramen and tsukemen (what TOMITA is known for), but I insisted on leaving Chiba for the day then returning at 5:20P. I also wanted to be served by TOMITA himself and receive the full experience :)

The helper instructed us to arrive 10 minutes prior to our reservation or we won’t be seated, so we arrived at 5:00P and waited patiently outside on the bench. As our reservation time came around, one of the helpers instructed us to take a seat in the restaurant. For everyone that has a reservation at 5:20P, they seat everyone at once.

When we walked in, TOMITA and his helpers greeted us very kindly with a smile as we took our seat and they served us water with a bib (for those of us who ordered tsukemen as it can get pretty dirty). Since we placed our orders when we made our reservation, TOMITA and his helpers knew our order. They began serving everyone from left to right (whoever entered first to last), and we began to eat. Let me tell you...just as the movie said...those noodles were THE BEST IVE EVER HAD: chewy and thick. The broth was also a great compliment to the noodles: great mix of various flavors and VERY RICH :).

Overall if you can, I would highly recommend that you attend the original TOMITA shop in person as it was an amazing dining experience. However if you cannot, feel free to check out his other locations. I’m heading to the Narita Airport and plan on stopping by once more before I...

🍜 つけめん TOKYO-X豚骨魚介 / tsukemen tokyo-x tonkotsu gyokai 🗓️ 01/2025

My 神推し 🙂‍↕️ I always try to fit this in every trip. Not only because it’s simply peak, but it was also why I got so into this ramen rabbit hole in the first place.

Tomita’s noods are one of my favorites, so it would be a disservice if I didn’t talk about them first. The chewiness of these strands is unmatched, while each bite filled the roof of my mouth with fantastic aroma and sweetness. Sooo good I’d love to bathe in them. After reading the TRY mag this year, I was dying to try the newly added whole wheat flour option. I believe substituting the entire noodle portion was possible, but I chose to have it as a refill. This variant had a heightened whole wheat taste but didn't compromise smoothness like many other whole wheat noodles out there. They carried a slightly different texture identity on the surface, as biting into them felt more like a ‘pop’ than the bouncy sensation of Tomita's regular noods 🤔 Being hand-kneaded also introduced some crinkles that give a different mouthfeel when slurping. In hindsight, getting the refill served hot is probably the play because my dipping bowl had already cooled significantly.

As for the soup, nothing less than top-tier. Sasuga the umami bombs that Tomita detonated in my mouth. Crazy work. The pungent yet highly refined pork and niboshi flavors kept my salivary glands in full production mode 💦 Soup wari was also delicious with a generous amount of yuzu grated into the dashi to round out this amazing feast.

The only thing I’m still hesitant about is the Tokyo-X chashu plate. They are great but not exceptional to the point that I crave them, but I find myself weak in front of the ticket machine every time and end up getting it anyway. I guess gluttony is a sin, after all.

(@wei.oframen for more...