彩色ラーメンきんせい高槻駅前店

The Takatsuki branch of Kinsei has replaced the now-closed Tonda branch as the head of the Kinsei Group. This group has four shops under the Kinsei moniker, five under Nakamura Shoten (中村商店), and one Jiro-style shop called KinJiro (麺屋きん次郎). They are known for their luxurious shoyu (極みの醤油) and kodawari shio (こだわりの塩).

Around the end of 2021, I decided to tackle the Tabelog Hyakumeiten (百名店), a list of the top 100 ramen shops in Tokyo, East Japan, and West Japan. In reality, this means 300 shops. Tokyo was no problem, as I had been to all of the shops already. West Japan, though, is another story. With around 60 shops in Osaka alone, this was going to be a monumental undertaking. I’d spend the odd weekend in Japan’s second-largest city, but never the amount of time needed to eat at 60 shops. There were also half a dozen in Nara, half a dozen in Kyoto, and half a dozen in Hyogo. That’s a lot of half a dozens. But try I did, starting with Kinsei.

Chicken broth is mixed with a five-ingredient dashi broth for a smooth umami flavor. Natural rock salt provided the salty punch in my shio ramen order.

Frequent gentei limited bowls keep local customers happy. This shoyu was made with three kinds of specialty dried fish. There is also an Awaseasji (あわせあじ) and New Awaseiaji (新あわせあじ) bowl that you can only get at this branch of Kinsei. The “new” version has bonito oil and spicy miso.

It was ok, but I think I remember the original shop being more to my liking. I remember the soup being similar, but the chicken being smoked. This kind of special point puts a simple bowl like this one over the top for me. I’m in the minority though, as the Takatsuki Kinsei shop has been included in the Top 100 West Japan List 2022 as well as the newly formed Top 100 Osaka List 2023.

Official site here.

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彩色ラーメンきんせい高槻駅前店 (Kinsei in Takatsuki, Osaka)

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彩色ラーメン きんせい 高槻駅前店 (Kinsei in Takatsuki, Osaka)

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Noodle&Spice Curry 今日の1番 (Kyonoichiban in Kawaguchi, Saitama Prefecture)

Tsuta in Singapore

彩色ラーメンきんせい高槻駅前店 (Kinsei in Takatsuki, Osaka)