ラーメンかなや

Kanaya is a local tonkotsu ramen spot in Tokyo at the end of the Marunouchi subway line. What should you order at a place specializing in thick tonkotsu ramen? If you’re me, you get their Taiwan Mazesoba (台湾まぜそば). Soupless ramen with some mild spices and a scattering of green things.

I just wasn’t in the mood for a rich, fatty pork bone soup. The shop also does spicy, Taiwan-style tonkotsu ramen, ramen with black oil (マー油), ramen spiked with fish powder, and a bunch of rice bowls. The soup here is made from mostly pig heads, with pork back fat thrown in to smooth it all out. Noodles are from Saitama-based Hoka Shokuhin (豊華食品).

Taiwan ramen isn’t actually from Taiwan. It’s from Nagoya. A local ramen shop called Misen was serving left over noodles in a thin soup with hot oil. A customer saw it and asked for a bowl. The style was a hit, making Taiwan Ramen an actual thing. The shop master at Kanaya must have been inspired by a trip to Nagoya.

This shop was ranked as one of Japan’s top 100 shops, but they were removed from the list in recent years. I always wonder if this is a devastating blow, or if shops just don’t care. It was interesting that there were two shops on the list within a couple of minutes of each other. Ranchu (中華蕎麦蘭鋳) is just up the road.

For me, I was underwhelmed with the noodles at Kanaya. The ground meat was nothing special to me. Usually I wouldn’t visit a shop like this a second time, buit maybe I should. The story of the shop is an interering one.

Naoto Yamauchi (山内直人) was a ramen hunter known as the Ramen High School Student. He had a website with over 100,000 hits a day. That’s over 20 times what I get! He even wrote a book about his ramen hunting (全国やみつきラーメン). His dream to open a shop came to fruition in 2018 when he opened it with two friends. Ka (from Kanehara-san) Na (from Nagaoka-san) Ya (from Yamauchi-san). They were a big hit and the rankings on all platforms where food is ranked tend to be high.

I stand by my low ranking of the Taiwan mazesoba, but I’ll surely come back to try the tonkotsu ramen. Good tonkotsu ramen is hard to find in Tokyo, meaning this one might be a gem.

Official X here.

Ramen Adventures

Ramen Shop Reviews from Japan and Abroad

ラーメンかなや (Kanaya in Honancho, Tokyo)

麺創庵砂田 (Sunada in Sugamo, Tokyo)

からみそラーメンふくろう (Fukuro in Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture)

喜一 (Kiichi in Kitakata, Fukushima)

ラーメンかなや (Kanaya in Honancho, Tokyo)

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麺創庵 砂田 (Sunada in Sugamo, Tokyo)

からみそラーメン ふくろう (Fukuro in Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture)

喜一 (Kiichi in Kitakata, Fukushima)

麺創庵砂田 (Sunada in Sugamo, Tokyo)

からみそラーメンふくろう (Fukuro in Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture)