We visit the #1 (or #2) ramen restaurant in Tokyo – Menya Itto in Katsushika City

Originally featured on dennisamith.com:

When it comes to “Ramen Heads” (hardcore ramen fans), ramendb.com is the bible for all things ramen.

And while so much attention is received by Tomita Ramen in Matsudo, Chiba (and a film titled “Ramen Heads” featured the restaurant and has been #1 on the ramendb for years) and Tomita is known for its tsukemen, in Tokyo, there is one restaurant that has received the acclaim of being called the best (or second best) ramen shop and best place for tsukemen and that is Menya Itto in Katsushika City which opened its doors back in 2010.

(Note: It’s a back in forth battle between ramen heads between Menya Itto and Menya Kissou in Koto ward. Currently, as of July 2019, Menya Kissou has 99.183 points which is #1 in Tokyo/#6 in Japan, while Menya Itto has 98.969 points #2 in Tokyo/#7 in Japan).

So popular that Menya Itto has two locations in Taiwan, Singapore, Bangkok and Hong Kong. The company also has numerous other restaurants, Ramen Torou and a block away is their Tsukemen Itto.

But for master Sakamoto Yukihiko, his original store is Menya Itto and where people will wait in line to taste their ramen or tsukemen. Sakamoto began his culinary career at Apicius Restaurant known for French Haute cuisine. He decided to pursue his efforts in ramen and worked alongside Tashiro Kouji (who is known as “son of Ramen God”), a student and disciple of “God of Ramen” and tsukemen inventor, Yamagishi Kazuo of the famous ramen restaurant, Higashi Ikebukuro Taishoken.

Note II: You’ll start to notice that a lot of the top ramen restaurants, many were disciples of Yamagishi Kazuo, including Tomita Osamu of Tomita Ramen.

Menya Itto means “noodle shop – One Lantern” and the metaphor is “one small light can illuminate the path for others to shin, into create a brighter world”.

So, I went to Menya Itto to give this popular restaurant a try!

Once you get there, you will notice a line of people. It’s important to note that unlike other restaurants where lines are often people sitting at tables with family, friends, co-workers. This is not the case. People go there to eat and they are in and out, so the wait is not too long. About 20 minutes or so, depending on how big the line is. And all seats are counter seats.

Knowing many Ramen Heads from all over the world are traveling, they put an English menu and information outside the door, so for those who worry about not being able to read on the ticket machine, you can look at the menu. Also, there is a person who is a greeter at the door who can assist you. So, if you want tsukemen or ramen, you can look and see which one you want. Click here for a larger image of the menu shown above.

I decided to try their rich soy sauce tsukemen with fish flavored soup tsukemen (#1) for Y900 plus (#26) Additional topping of braised-pork slices (5 pieces) for an additional Y380. Next time, I will have to make sure to select #28 with a mix of pork and chicken and a #2 with the soft-half boiled soy-dipped egg.

For those who wonder if I prefer tsukemen over ramen, it always depends on the restaurant and season for me but tsukemen is my choice.

With Tsukemen, the soup/broth and the noodles are served separately. The broth/soup is typically thicker and the noodles are cold and you put it in the hot broth/soup. And once you are done, you can ask for them to put hot soup into it which is less thick and so you have a soup afterward.

I absolutely loved the tsukemen at Menya Itto but I’ve been asked many times, does it beat Matsudo Tomita Ramen’s tsukemen? I loved Menya Itto, don’t get me wrong, Menya Itto’s tsukemn was delicious! It’s great! It’s awesome! But yet there is something about Tomita Ramen’s tsukemen that is just heavenly.

But I highly recommend Menya Itto in Katsushika City. It’s definitely top-tier and is one of the top 3 ramen restaurants in Tokyo.

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