Tatsunoya Ramen Restaurant - Shinjuku Stn, Tokyo

 One of my favourite restaurants in Shinjuku is Tatsunoya, a ramen restaurant that serves tonkotsu (pork-bone broth) ramen and tsukemen.  The piping-hot tonkotsu ramen is great for wintertime but not during the humid Tokyo summer when just walking down the street causes sweat to pour down your neck.  So when you crave noodles in summer, luke-warm tsukemen is a more practical solution.  Tsukemen consists of cold noodles and accompaniments that are dipped into a warm broth.  Both are tasty:  the tonkotsu being a bit saltier of the two but having soft pieces of cha shu (bbq pork); the tsukemen more filling since it comes with a porridge as well as noodles but the pork pieces are tougher.  Whenever I visit Tatsunoya, I generally alternate between the tsukemen and the tonkatsu with a hard-boiled egg (which always has a perfect, slightly-runny yolk) and finish with the torokeru purin, which translates directly into 'melts in your mouth pudding'.   It's made from yellow bean and is utterly amazing.

  When you enter the shop, simply place your money in the vending machine on the right and choose from the picture menu.  Each bowl of ramen comes with 2 pieces of cha shu, green onion, fungus and a serving of thin, straight noodles. The shop offers tonkotsu in 2 ways: regular and strong-flavour (with added miso paste).   The top row of the vending machine, from right to left is:  an extra serving of noodles (¥100), regular tonkotsu (¥700), strong-flavour (¥750), regular with a hard-boiled egg (¥800), strong flavour with a hard-boiled egg (¥850).   Tsukemen is on the 2nd row from right to left: small (¥750), medium (¥750 - yes, you've read it right, the same price as the small), and large(¥850); followed by extra vegetables (¥100) and an extra egg (¥100).

Torokeru purin

 The third row are side dishes: a small bowl of rice with mentaiko (pollock roe - ¥250), rice with tororo (grated Japanese yam - ¥250) and rice (¥150).  The fourth row is: extra green onion (¥100), 3 extra slices of cha shu (¥250), and the last in this row is torokeru purin (¥300).  The last row is a bottle of beer (¥400).

Once you have received your pink tickets and got your change back from the machine, the waitress hovering nearby will show you to your seat.  Glasses of water will be placed in front of you and the waitress will take your tickets.  This shop offers to prepare noodles to differing consistencies: harigane (extremely hard), barikatai (kind of hard), katai (hard), futsuu (normal), yawarakai (soft), bariyawarakai (very soft).  Each seat usually has a card on it, with these options on the bottom right.  If you have ordered ramen, this is the first thing that she will ask you.  If you order beer, she will ask you how many glasses and you can simply count with your fingers.  If you order pudding, she will ask before or after, so simply say 'ato' (after).

 After stating your preferences to the waitress, you'll notice 3 jars in front of you.  These are the appetizers and are meant to occupy you until your order arrives.  Simply use the chopsticks to scoop some into the small white dishes.  Do not use these chopsticks to eat with.  The disposable chopsticks are in the rectangular box under the white dishes.

Tonkotsu ramen

 Then the ramen arrives, which most people seem to inhale.  If you have broth left after eating all the noodles and are still feeling peckish, simply order another serving of noodles by flagging down a waitress, pointing to your bowl or saying 'kaedama' and giving her ¥100 - this is possible for both ramen and tsukemen.  If you order another serving of ramen, you'll have to choose the hardness again.  Note that this is for noodles only, no extra broth will be forthcoming.

Tsukemen comes with green onion, bamboo shoots, seaweed and pork.

 When you have completely finished your tsukemen noodles, you'll probably still have quite a bit of broth left.  Flag down the waitress, point to your empty noodle plate and nod to her question.  She'll bring you a bowl of warigae, rice porridge, which you're supposed to dump into the broth to dilute it.  It's still remains flavourful and this allows you to spoon up all the bits of meat on the bottom along with all the broth.

 The restaurant itself is a bit cramped, with only 2 tables at the back.  The majority of the seats are stools at the counter which runs most of the length of the restaurant.  However, the counter seats allow you to see directly into the kitchen where the staff can be seen flinging ramen noodles into the air.  It's also comforting to see the cooks place the already clean bowls into boiling hot water right before they fill it with noodles and broth.  Hygiene is sometimes a bit questionable at ramen shops- I've come across places where I've wondered if the bowls are only cleaned once a day and even then it's probably only done by the cockroaches during the night.  In a typical ramen shop kitchen,  the water from the noodles is flung to the floor with abandon and this is the case with Tasunoya, but it's by far the cleanest ramen shop I've been to.  It's a good place to eat but not to linger and chat, as there really isn't the space to relax.  But the staff are friendly, the prices are reasonable, the food is great and the entire restaurant is non-smoking.  If you're near Shinjuku station, you really must make the 8-minute walk and check out this restaurant.


For a general map of my restaurants, visit :  My map