ラーメン二郎神田神保町店 (Ramen Jiro in Kanda, Tokyo)

0 Reviews

ラーメン二郎神田神保町店

Ah, Ramen Jiro. I hate it and love it. Whether you hate it or love it, or haven’t even tried it, you might want to head to the Kanda Jimbocho branch for what many consider one of the best Jiros out of the 40 plus Jiro shops around Japan. Eat an apple and get your system ready for piles of pork back fat, garlic, and that dirty Jiro soup that has the ramen world divided down the middle.

Very few Jiro shops don’t have a line. I’ve seen the one in Shinjuku with no queue, but that’s about it. I also hear from Jirorians (those who truly love this style of ramen) that the Shinjuku branch is the bottom of the heap.

Kanda Jimbocho is considered one of the top. It is often in the top five of this style on the ramen database, though there seems to be an unwritten rule that Jiro fans give Jiro shops no less than a perfect score of 100 when asked to rate.

ニンニク入りますか？

You’ll be asked if you want garlic in it. This is code for the amount of free toppings you would like. Most Jiros are the same in this regard. Yasai is for the amount of bean sprouts. Abura (or seabura) is for the amount of silky, goopy pork back fat. Karame is for the amount of tare seasoning. Ninniku is for the amount of raw garlic. The above is abura mashi ninniku tsukuname. Just say futsu for a normal bowl with no customization if you are new to the game.

For anyone stumbling on this with no context, Ramen Jiro’s ramen has a heavy, “dirty” soup that is full of fat and flavor. I say “dirty” because they don’t skim the gunk from the soup as it cooks. The result is a soup that will probably make you a bit sick if you actually drink it. In fact, most Jiro shops don’t even give a spoon with your ramen, you have to ask for it separately. The noodles are thick things made from a kind of cheap Japanese flour. The low cost means you can get a massive bowl for much less than ramen at other, non-Jiro shops.

To be honest, I’ll recommend this one. It’s convenient, and I didn’t feel like lapsing into a coma after eating it. The line is long, as is the norm. You can estimate that for every five people waiting, you’ll be waiting 10 minutes. They also have a unique topping, julienned ginger (千切り生姜), that I probably should have ordered as a topping.

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