Ramen Nagi Niboshi Golden-gai @ Shinjuku, Tokyo

This Nagi ramen shop located at quiet Golden Gai street in Shinjuku. The area famed with old school bar district and seems deserted when I visit it on sunday. The ramen shop located on the second floor of an old wooden house. The smell of the sardine broth is so strong even you can smell it from ground floor. The stairs going up the shop is so narrow and cramped. The speciality in Nagi ramen shop is their thick sardine broth which they claimed boiled for 12 hours. The taste is distinctive and boldly flavoured sardine soup. Nagi is open for 24 hours a day.

Taste:9/10(Delicious. I ordered their regular Nagi ramen without seaweed, egg and bamboo shoots. The broth is thick and pungent sardine taste. The noodles is a mixture of broad and thin noodles. The broad noodles is something different as its soft and smooth. The pork slice were great as it was done medium rare and the taste were so good).
Price:7/10(Moderate. The niboshi ramen that I ordered cost 820 Yen per bowl).



Nagi ramen with some anchovies spicy sauce. See the broad noodles which is different from other shop. The great thing about ramen is you get a variety of taste from shop to shop and not just limited to pork based broth. The topping and the noodles offered are different as well.

Famous ramen of Menya Musashi main restaurant @ Shinjuku, Tokyo

Menya Musashi is a famous chain ramen restaurant in Japan and their outlet in Shinjuku is their main restaurant. Do come here early or later if you would like to have their delicious ramen queue free. The restaurant is a bit hard to locate as the signboard does not have any English wording. The shop name is in japanese and I was standing outside the restaurant for a while figuring whether I am at the correct restaurant. Until someone came out from the shop then I asked whether this is Menya Musashi and they said "yes".

Taste:9/10(Delicious. The lean pork slice were tender and fatty meat were good as well. You can taste a hint of orange peel in the soup and maybe that is the secret to tasty soup. The soup was moderately thick and enough saltiness. Noodles texture were good and the place were clean and comfortable - unlike some of the places that I went which is cramped).
Price:6/10(Moderate. I ordered their ramen with everything in. I had the version which the noodles inside soup with bamboo shoot, egg, pork and seaweed. The price was 1080 Yen including tax. You need the specify the amount of noodles that you would like to have either small, medium or large. Do make sure you are a big eater before ordering large portion).


Finally I found the shop. Located two streets away from the underneath izakaya of train lines.

Yummy ramen at Mutekiya @ Ikebukuro, Tokyo

Mutekiya is a popular ramen shop in Ikebukuro. They are famous for their delicious pork belly in the rich ramen soup. They have menu in various languages, so ordering a meal here shouldn't be a problem. The staff can understand English as well. Be ready to queue about 30 minutes when you arrive to this restaurant. There is only 17 seats in the restaurant and you will satisfy with the waiting time once you have your ramen in the shop. The "chashyu" (pork belly) in the ramen here are know to be the most tender and delicious.

Taste:10/10(Excellent. Thick and flavourful soup. With cloudy and rich soup from pork and chicken simmered for 16 hours, no doubt that the soup is great. The pork is odorless, sweet and enough portion of fat which melts in your mouth. The noodles were cooked to the correct level which soaked up the soup aroma into the noodles).
Price:6/10(Moderate. The bowl of hontorotokumarumen that I ordered cost 1,030 Yen. The pricing for large and small portion of noodles are the same).


Mouth watering ramen with thickest soup. I choose hontorotokumarumen. This is among their most popular ramen with very thick soup. The others are nikutamamen and honmarumen. It comes with one slice of delicious pork belly, seasoned bamboo shoot, seaweed, an egg, some vegetables and spring onion.

Delicious bowl of ramen with melts in your mouth pork slice.

In mutekiya, they provide raw fresh garlic. Use the tongs to press raw garlic and squeeze the juice over your ramen noodles.


The egg were done just right. The egg yolk still in half cooked in liquid but not harden. The yolk colour resemble that they use better quality egg.

Fresh whole garlic and spicy pickles are provided.

Usual long queue outside Mutekiya restaurant. You will forget about the queue once you tasted the ramen.

The frying pan showing the ingredient in honmarumen.

GPS/Coordinate: 35.726911, 139.711548
Address: 1-17-1 Sakimoto Building 1F, Minamiikebukuro, Toshima, Tokyo.
Phone: +81 3-3982-7656
Opening Hours: 10:30am-4.00am
Public transport: Ikebukuro train station in Tokyo.