Pon pon.
Pon and I went for an early/late lunch (horribly late for her, a bit early for me) and found ourselves heading toward Kanda, which we evidently do all the time in various other groups as well. With no clear plan, we were seduced by the lure of noodles, and in particular tsukemen, which excited her but which I still struggle to understand.
This shop is on the new & stylish side (opened in September), which for ramen these days seems to mean they use a lot of black in the decor. I think it’s an attempt to seem tough, reserved and cool – very manly ramen. It’s welcome as far as I’m concerned – I’m not really into cramped, sweaty and old (unless the food’s good enough to justify it…fair point).
I had tsukemen as promised. The noodles were a bit soft and flavorless, and very much on the ‘udon’ side of the scale – big, white, chewy, machine-cut. The soup has pretty well faded from my memory even at this early remove from the fact, and I also know that I dumped a lot of chili oil on top at various times to liven it up. The pork was sliced into slivers and mediocre, while the egg was cooked just to the wrong side of done but was still decent. Pon had the aburamen, which are a different thing altogether – more or less like dry ramen that are sexed up with a lot of oil and very thick soup in the bottom of the bowl; you stir until it’s all mixed together and the noodles are coated.
My summary would have to be that this was OK, but nothing to turn your head. Actually one further point that might interest you is that you can order noodles in extra size for no charge – I had the more-than-enough 200g size, but 300 is available, or 400g for extra charge. That’s too much food. Don’t do it, even if it’s free.
Over and out.
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