Homemade Ramen Muginae — Restaurant in Tokyo

One of the top two ramen places in Tokyo as per Tabelog.

They just reopened recently after a break in October and it seems they changed their side menu. Only 100 bowls of noodles are served per day.

Went in line up at 0920hrs on a Sunday, and there were already 12 people in queueing up. At exactly 1020hrs, the lady boss came out to basically tell you when to come back again - was given 12pm. There are essentially two reservation periods (ie lady boss gives you timing to return) - 1030hrs and 1200hrs.

Ordered a Special Niboshi (Iriko) Ramen, Special Shoyu Ramen and their new Hayashi SPF Pork Don.

Niboshi Ramen - Clear but tasteful soup with a complex flavor of niboshi. Slightly salty but not overpoweringly so. Kuroge wagyu slice was top notch, but the star of the dish was the char siew - smoky, tender with instances of melty fats. Shrimp wanton was unique - had a hint of alcohol. Bits of shallots provide a crunchy texture.

Shoyu Ramen - Same toppings, slightly darker soup and slightly saltier than the niboshi ramen. I still feel shoyu ramens are one-dimensional, but this version has a deeper flavor. Most people order this, but my partner and I prefer the niboshi.

Hayashi Pork Don - The marinade was a tad heavy-handed, thus can't really taste the pork even though it was tender. You can't go wrong with the Japanese rice though.

Overall: I'm not a huge fan of shoyu ramens, but this stall is probably one of the best there is out there. However, I don't think I will queue up again unless I am staying in Japan long-term due to the amount of time/effort needed - from travelling to Omori (30mins to 1 hours depending), queueing in the morning (9am+), getting your return timing + gallivanting nearby aimlessly to finally eating at 12/1+pm if you are early/lucky. Do try it at least once though if...

We live quite near this ramen place, but since it always has a long queue, it took us a while to try it. They start giving out tickets for the first batch at 10:45AM, so many people were already lined up at about 10:20AM when we arrived. We were asked to go back at 12:45PM.

We ordered 2 kinds of special ramen: niboshi (left) and shoyu (right). After all the anticipation and expectations, this place only gets 3 stars from me, because, uhm, well, it was overrated. We have tasted a lot of other better ramen joints than theirs and waiting in line for so long doesn’t do justice, haha!

Their soup stocks were too salty. It would have been better if we ordered rice on the side, but they ran out of maguro gohan at that time.

Also, the rules that they hand out while you wait in line had English translations BUT their ticket vending machine inside didn’t have English translations, so the foreigners who were next in line to us didn’t know which to order. (They were Filipinos and so I am, so I was able to help them though.)

Anyhow, the owners were kind and polite and the shop was clean. However, maybe I wouldn’t spend an hour of waiting again just to eat shoyu ramen. But this is just...

The most delicious shoyu ramen I have had in my life! I recommend you to order 上醤油 (Joushouyu), which is a shoyu ramen with special toppings, because the toppings here are extraordinarily delicious. The bowl comes with 3 nori (dried seaweed), 2 pork chashu, 1 wagyu beef, shiso-flavoured chicken, pork wonton, and menma. The shoyu chicken-based soup is not too strong and refreshing, and most noticeably, it's very clear, indicating that the owner delicately controlled the temperature very well when extracting the umami out of chicken. The noodle (men) is a thin type and perfectly cooked. The toppings are extraordinary, especially the chashu, which they said to use 林SPF豚, a specially-breed of pig from Chiba prefecture. The chashe has a perfect fat and a heavenly flavor of roasting, which is so mellow and enhancing the bowl itself.

Expect the long waiting (at least one hour) when visiting despite during COVID-19, I went the at 13:00 and got the reservation of the last queue at 14:15. There are only 8 seats inside, so the owners need to manage the queue by letting the customer write their name in a time slot and come back again when...