Menya Ittō — Restaurant in Tokyo

Reservations are recommended here. The outside of the shop is divided into two lines: Line A for those with reservations or pre-purchased meal tickets, and Line B for walk-ins. Staff will guide walk-ins to purchase tickets from a machine inside when a seat becomes available. Despite having no reservation on a Thursday at 11:30 AM, I was seated in about 20-25 minutes, and the wait was tolerable as the restaurant provides seats for waiting patrons.

The shop contains about 10 counter seats, and when it's busy, there's a 20-minute limit per customer.

Their flagship tsukemen is the fish and chicken, which is a thick, rich, and creamy broth with a mild sweetness and a strong savory flavor. The noodles are served al dente and chilled, while the dipping broth is served piping hot, ensuring they combine at the perfect temperature. The price starts at JPY 1090 for the regular size, with extra costs for add-ins.

I also ordered the Special Lobster Broth set for JPY 1980. I personally would have ordered the large size of noodles to fully enjoy the various flavors offered in this set. Since the instructions are in Japanese, here is a paraphrased translation of the five steps:

First, taste the plain noodles in the konbu (seaweed) broth. Next, sprinkle the pepper from the spoon onto the noodles and try them again. Pour the tomatoes and toppings from the white porcelain spoon over the noodles to enjoy an Italian-inspired flavor. Finally, dip the noodles into the lobster bisque broth. Add the fried onions as desired for a more concentrated flavor. After finishing the noodles, add the provided rice and cheese to the remaining broth. Pass the bowl to the kitchen staff to have it baked in the oven, creating a small risotto to...

Worth the trip.

I ordered #10, rich broth with 3 kinds of meat. As shown in the menu pic, the light salt bowl is only available Wed, Fri and Sun, and the shoyu bowl is on Tue, Thu, Sat so plan accordingly. Super flavorful tonkotsu with strong fish flavors. I slurped every last bit of it. The rich broth is quite heavy, and left me feeling like I ate too much salt though, so you may need a couple hours to walk it off. I ate Ramen with light broth the last couple days, so it wasn't too bad to go heavier today. But I wouldn't be able to do this every day.

I didn't like the darker braised pork as much. It was too chewy for me. But the chicken and white chashu were buttery soft and moist. Flawless.

The man managing the door spoke basic English and was helpful. Line up on the right side to place your order at the ticket machine. Shove about 2000 yen worth of cash and click the number of each item and topping you want from the menu. You get a small ticket for each button you push and you give the stack of tickets to the door man. He'll give you another receipt with a number. A whiteboard outside tells you what time to come back. For us, we arrived at 11:25 and got a 11:55 time. We noticed that those who came at 11:45 were asked to come back at 12:45. So come at or before 11 AM for the shortest wait. Lunch is served only from 11-3.

When you come back, you wait on the left side of the door. Each seating is about 15 minutes long. They wait for everyone to empty out and everyone from that time batch enters at the same time. Pretty efficient I think. You sit where the man tells you and the chefs will give you what you ordered without any other...

I've had my share of tsukemen in Tokyo, but after visiting Menya Itto, I can confidently say that this is definitely the best tsukemen I've ever had. Gone are the days of painfully-long lines if you would just make a quick and easy reservation. Based on my experience the hype is over and it is quite easy to find availability on the reservation site. When I visited there was a short line of people waiting, but thanks to my reservation I was able to walk right in and order. I noticed that the wait is longer than most tsukemen places, and I do believe they're aware of this enough that there are signs advising customers that there will be a bit of a wait. But what arrived was WELL WORTH it. The soup base was rich and flavorful as one would expect, and the noodles were perfectly chewy (personally I would describe them very nearly al dente), but the highlight for me was the chashu. The three pieces were all prepared differently and all had different flavors and textures. My favorite piece almost reminds me of smoked iberico ham. On my way out, the line was much longer than pictured. Although the location is far from most tourist areas, it is easily reached from Akihabara without needing to change trains and it is a very short walk from the station. There is nothing else to do nearby so it would be a trip just for this place, but again, I'd say it's WELL WORTH it especially if you made...