The Highest Rated Ramen Shop in Tokyo: Menya Kissou

Menya Kissou (麺屋吉左右) is an absolute favorite of ramen nerds in Japan and has been the number one highest ranked ramen shop in Tokyo on Ramen Database for a long time. In case you’re not familiar with Ramen Database, or RamenDB in short, it is the main website for ramen otakus, or “raota”, to leave their reviews.

Menya Kissou serves that is described as either “doubutsu-kei” (動物系), double soup or “W soup”, which means the same as double soup. Doubutsu-kei means literally animal soup, because they are so many elements at play, that you can’t really describe it by categorizing it with its main broth component. The double soup description alludes to the to the combination of two broths at the point of assembling the final soup.

The first broth is a mainly pork bone and chicken broth, which provides a ton of richness and heaviness. It is also the main broth according to my observation and it seems to make up around 70% of the final soup. The second broth is a fragrant fish broth, which is made with various types of niboshi and katsuobushi. Both broths are only combined in the ramen bowl that is served to the customer. Until then, both broths are kept in separate pots, which can be seen behind the counter.
The resulting soup is incredibly rich and velvety, every slurp coats the entire inside of your mouth. At the same time, it is very fragrant and aromatic, balancing the flavors of both soups without anything overpowering the rest. After taking the first sips of the soup, it is easy to see why this soup has gained a big following among ramen heads.

The noodles swimming in the soup are quite substantial noodles of medium thickness with an almost yellow hue. They have a good chew, but are a bit on the softer side, which is not uncommon for this style of ramen. The fit the soup quite well, as the soup sticks to the noodles for great and tasty slurps. My tip: Really dig your head deep into the bowl and slurp up as much soup as possible with every bite of your noodles. Loud slurping noises absolutely permitted!

Topping wise, the standard recommended bowl comes with a perfectly executed ajitama ramen egg, a slice of very tender pork chashu, as well as a slice of nori, a sprinkle of cut negi green onions and last but not least, their famous menma bamboo shoots. Especially the menma are worth highlighting, as they are just a real treat to munch on, with great flavor and a crunchy texture that provides a great contrast to the velvety soup. My recommendation is to get an extra serving of menma from the vending machine.

Menya Kisso serves not only classic ramen, but also tsukemen. It seems like there is no clear recommendation as to which is the thing to go for, so just use your intuition and go for what you feel like on that day.

Regarding the opening times, it is important to know that Menya Kissou is only open for lunch and the lines can get quite long. My personal recommendation is to get there at least 15 minutes before opening time on a weekday and maybe 30-40 minutes before opening time on the weekend. Be warned that the shop might run out of soup and might not be able to serve you, if you come too close to the closing time.

Find Menya Kissou (麺屋吉左右) on Google Maps:
► https://goo.gl/maps/pyLfpmg53TR3z3Su6

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