麺屋吉左右 menya kissou: men you can bring home to mother

by rameniac | 29 Dec 2008

There are two kinds of music fans in the world: those who find their own way, and those who don’t. For the former, airplay or word of mouth is a prime means by which a new band or artist enters one’s personal consumer radar. This group includes both the hit lovers and the NPR hipsters; regardless of genre, their iPods are filled with music either blessed by the charts, unearthed by DJs, or simply passed along by friends in the know, people other than them.

Then there are the diggers themselves, the music geeks who spend hours ferreting out new sounds via the internet, record store listening stations, or yes, even album liner notes, delving deeper into b-sides and back catalogues than the general public could ever be bothered to and dragging you to concerts for obscure bands you’ve likely never heard of.

Frankly, the same could apply to ramen lovers, as there are those who live and die by guide books, message boards, and yes, even overly meticulous websites with cryptic rating systems. I’m speaking of course, about Ramen Database, the canonical Japanese resource that compiles aggregate scores for noodle shops from Sapporo to Shimonoseki, then spits out rankings like some sort of ramen oracle broadcasting on behalf of a nation’s 120 million citizens.

By such estimation, Hiroyuki Uehara should be sainted and borne aloft on a golden throne every time there’s a festival within a hundred kilometers of the Sumida river. Menya Kissou, his low-key ramen shop in Tokyo’s Koto ward, ranks #1 on the Database’s all-time list, and routinely places in the top 5 every month. An undisputed hit, the two-year old, lunch-only operation routinely features in guidebooks, on forums and in food blogs, both Japanese and non alike.

And so on a recent afternoon in Tokyo, I braved the hour-long lunch line down a residential side street (complete with a musical chairs-style seated queue) to sample Menya Kissou’s jikaseimen, or handmade noodles, proudly proclaimed on the shop’s signage. Jikaseimen a la Kissou, as it turns out, is a wheaty, thick sort of noodle that evokes both udon and spaghetti in equal measure. Firm and chewy, yet slippery on the tongue like pasta, it’s filling stuff whether served in ramen or tsukemen dipping-style, and it nearly lives up to the hype. Nearly.

Menya Kissou’s greatest flaw is also its strength and perhaps the reason it rates in the nineties on RamenDB - mass appeal. Even the finest handmade noodles wouldn’t be complete without soup, and so in addition to the much-lauded jikaseimen, the shop features a noukou gyoukai (thick seafood) concoction of tonkotsu and torigara - pork and chicken bones, dried shiitake mushrooms, and kelp to provide the wafu flavor. Such “multi-soup” fare is all the rage in Tokyo these days; add some thin if sublimely buttery slices of chashu and a lightly-marinated half-boiled egg and it’s easy to see why lines routinely stretch the block.

And yet I can’t help but dissent with the opinions of food bloggers, forum hounds, and even ramen fans on the ‘Database (which skew heavily towards Tokyo ramen styles, by the way - to the point where one wonders if people in places like Fukuoka and Sapporo contribute to the ratings at all). Its soup hit all the trendy wafu tonkotsu notes, and yet the flavors were not quite punchy enough; the experience never quite gripped me in the throes of revelation. Even the jikaseimen went down went down a bit too effortlessly, without that charisma, that “fighting spirit” so prized in Japan. Was it simply an issue of expectations? I’ll admit that after all the hype, I went into this one expecting something incancatory. But i think the truth is far simpler: I don’t know if Menya Kissou does takeout, but this is noodling that plays it a bit too safe, jikaseimen you can bring home to mother - the ramen equivalent of Coldplay.

a smooth, even gyoukai soup made of chicken and pork bones and wafu dashi flavor. this style of ramen is all the rage in tokyo, and menya kissou's take on it is pleasing enough, if not exactly bold and screaming for repeat trips through an hour-long line.	8.5
jikaseimen, or handmade noodles, as produced by the restaurant here are thick and something of a cross between udon and spaghetti in both texture and feel. good stuff if a bit too slick, it will surely fill you up.	8
the toppings are less hyped than menya kissou's noodles, but they are actually the best thing in the bowl - buttery slices of thin but fatty and flavorful chashu, a nicely done if lightly seasoned hanjuku tamago semi-cooked egg. menya kissou is good ramen,	9.5
after an hour in line, you'd think i would have been hungry enough to order some gyoza. didn't happen. the truth is, i don't order much gyoza when i'm in japan on a limited stay. any excess eating might take away from my ability to cram in another ramen shop!	NA
menya kissou has no ambiance to speak of. it's a prime example of the utilitarian ramen shop. a point or two for the musical chairs-style seating queue, which has to be experienced to be believed.	2.5
menya kissou tops the charts as a ramen shop with mass, relatively likable ramen and tsukemen, and yet i can't help but wish there were a bit more idiosyncratic edge, a bit more punch to the fare. then again, it would probably be far less popular if that were the case.	6.5
〒135-0016 東京都江東区東陽1-11-3 tel: 03-3699-5929 hours: 11:30a - 3p (closed wed and sun)	26