We check out the #1 ramen restaurant in Japan – Chuka Soba Tomita Ramen, which has a Tokyo location at KITTE Marunouchi

The following was originally featured on dennisamith.com:

I have written about the late Yamagishi Kazuo, “The God of Ramen” and how he was responsible for tsukemen (cold noodles and hot broth) and how he made sure his techniques were not lost by bringing in apprentices at his Higashi-Ikebukuro ramen restaurant Taishoken (1, 2, 3).

I talked about apprentices who have went on to create the wonderful taste as Yamagishi had made and also those who went on to create their restaurants but make changes to the original taste.

For the latter, there is one man who has earned the reputation of taking Yamagishi’s teachings and creating the #1 ramen restaurant (according to ramendb.com) and that is Tomita Osamu, owner of Chuka Soba Tomita Ramen in Matsudo, Chiba.

Osamu is also featured on the documentary (available worldwide) titled “Ramen Heads”.

At the Matsudo shop, many come very early in the morning in hopes to get a seat sometime in the day to eat at Chuka Soba Tomita Ramen.

Osamu Tomita, Japan’s reigning king of ramen, has won awards for his ramen shows no signs that he is growing wary, if anything, he is always experimenting and trying to achieve perfection.

While Chuka Soba Tomita Ramen in Matsudo is the place to get awesome tsukemen, it’s a pretty long travel for many people as it’s in Chiba prefecture, outside of Tokyo. So, you’ll need to be hardcore ramenhead to travel so far, early in the morning (at 7:00 a.m.), hoping to get a seat (you are given a ticket early in the morning where you must appear at that time to eat at the restaurant) and it won’t be minutes, it would probably be sometime later in the morning or afternoon.

For many Tokyo-based ramen heads, I’m sure it’s crossed their mind that they wished Chuka Soba Tomita Ramen was in Tokyo and not so far out in Chiba.

And so it was shocking was when it was announced that in March 2019, Chuka Soba Tomita Ramen was coming to Tokyo and it would be located at the upscale shopping complex, KITTE next to Tokyo Station.

Tokyo Station has Ramen Street (a popular area with high caliber ramen restaurants), which has one of Yamagishi’s apprentices, Mita Ryosei, running the very popular Rokurinsha, which was known for its tsukemen.

So, with KITTE now making their own ramen goto area called “KITTE GRANCHE” (KITTE is located right across the street from Tokyo Station and is located in floor B1), Ramen Heads who are fans or have been curious about Chuka Soba Tomita Ramen now have their chance to try Osamu Tomita’s famous tsukemen!

And the good news, the location opens in the morning and no tickets are necessary. Just wait in line and you’ll get in!

While the ideal time to visit Chuka Soba Tomita Ramen would be during the daytime, I went right in the early evening when many people were getting out of work, so I expected there would be a line and a considerable wait (the wait time in the busy early evening around 6-7 p.m. was around 30 minutes).

It’s important to note that this is a restaurant which you must pay through a machine, so you will need to have cash at hand!

So, the choices you will need to make while in line is if you want to go for the famous tsukemen, the mori soba, or chuka soba. If you want pot stickers, extra chashu (Japanese braised pork belly), egg, etc.

As you get closer to the door, you see the “Ramen Heads” movie poster on the ground, some staff wearing “Ramen Heads” t-shirts but also how much seating the restaurant offers. This Tokyo restaurant for Chuka Soba Tomita Ramen can hold a good number of patrons!

It’s important to note that the restaurant follows the usual ramen protocol, so for those planning to eat here, it’s eat and leave, no hanging out with friends to eat as there is a long line of people wanting to be seated and are very hungry!

Once you get inside, the machine is touch screen, choose which one you want and pay! It’s that easy!

You will go through numerous pictures of how big of a bowl you want, so a smaller bowl of Tsukemen is Y920 (200 grams), Y1070 (for 320 grams) or Y1220 for (Y450 grams). And you will see a screen with other buttons of if you want extra egg, extra egg with chashu, or just chashu with no egg.

And inside the restaurant, may it be where you pay or where you sit, you will see Tomita paying his respects as Yamagishi Kazuo “God of Ramen” can be seen.

When you are seated, you will notice condiments, water, a sign for side-orders (for those who want beer, rice, etc.) and also in English, instructions on how to eat tsukemen and to request for your broth to be made as soup at the end (when you have eaten all of your noodles).

The staff were no doubt busy, as they were serving many people. My order took a little longer as I ordered the tsukemen, with extra chashu and marinated boiled egg.

It was about another 15 minutes, so waiting in line and getting my food, it was around 45 minutes, but that’s on me for choosing to go during a busy time but also, 45 minutes is nothing in Tokyo. Especially since I have endured around 7 hours for the line and to be seated at Sushi-Dai in Tsukiji and an hour and 25-minutes at Fellows in Omotesando, 45 minutes was well worth it to try the best tsukemen in Japan.

The broth smells great and you can see the naruto fish cake, sea weed, yuzu, bamboo shoots. The noodles which I tend to eat first for taste, is very good but now I have to try the ultimate combination of both noodles and Tomita’s famous broth.

The broth is a little thicker compared to other restaurants but once combined with the noodles, you are literally in heaven.

I’ve eaten at many restaurants throughout Japan and immediately, I knew from the first bite down to the last, this was the best tsukemen I have ever eaten in Tokyo.

Watching “Ramen Heads”, you have an idea what Tomita does in order to get that taste, from the pork bone to the use of fish and melting the it at a high temperature to blend into the soup broth. It’s a masterful way of achieving such a high level of taste. It’s amazing!

Granted, the Matsudo area is still the best, the tastes are similar but you have Tomita at the helm at the main restaurant, and like Yamagishi, he is very selective and there’s only so many people that can be served per day. Whereas, the KITTE GRANCHE location, they have a staff that must go full force from late morning to night and it’s even more high profile restaurants who go from morning to night, the chefs will say the challenge is maintaining the same level of taste from morning to night.

But because of the location, being next to Tokyo Station and Tomita’s apprentices working to make sure that hundreds of people are served per day, the fact that they can maintain the high level of taste similar to the original store (not the same but very close), it’s amazing!

I do love Menya Itto, I do love Taishoken Higashi-Ikebukuro but when it comes to tsukemen, Chuka Soba Tomita Ramen has become my favorite ramen shop in Tokyo.

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