Chūkasoba Kotetsu — Restaurant in Tokyo

This is a famous Ramen place in Shimokita, but still not famous enough for you to stand in line for half a day. There are only 7 seats available on the counter . It’s a long shop and the counter stops where the kitchen ends, so you can see the food preparation closely. Midweek lunch I waited for less than 5 minutes.

The menu consists of - Wantan noodle soup, regular chashu chuka soba, shio men (salt base), tsukemen (thick soup and dipping noodles), you can also order the wantan dumplings as a side. The broth is quite interesting - it has a punchy katsuoboshi taste and it’s slightly more oily. The chashu is ok plus and the wantan is great. At 900 yen this is a great lunch and definitely one of the finest ramen places...

Truly deserved the Michelin reputation.

The food is really really good. The broth has a strong taste but feels light and not heavy at all, you will not feel overwhelmed by it. The chashu is tasty and the wonton is really tender with a strong flavor.

It is also reasonably priced, you can get a portion for less than ¥1000. The staff are friendly and attentive, and warm up to both locals and foreigners.

Mind that the shop is quite small with limited seats, so it is possible you have to wait for an open seat. Dining in with many people would be difficult.

For my personal opinion and experience, this is one of the best ramen I have...

Affordable, clean tasting ramen. Recommended on the Michelin’s Bib Gourmand guide, this is well worth the stop. You might miss the exterior signage during the day so be sure to look for the white barred door. There was a line when I went but it goes by fast. The two main type of broths are shoyu and shio. I ordered the shoyu or chukasoba because it is the most recommended type to get order.

What’s noteworthy about this broth is that it’s made from pork and chicken bones and dried fish. The fish adds another layer of depth to the clean tasting broth. When I left, I didn’t feel too full and...