Ramen again! Yes, you are right… I am trying out another ramen in Tokyo! Mutekiya was rated as one of the best ramen in Tokyo, not just from the mouth of a foreigner but most importantly from the mouth of the locals as well. Seriously, I was not a ramen lover but I just couldn’t say no to the different ramen styles in Japan. Actually, I wanted to visit Ichiran again for my last ramen during this Japan trip but Miss J kept persuading me to try out other ramen restaurant. So, here I am. The queue was quite long when I arrived at the ramen restaurant on a sunny Sunday afternoon.
The queue started from opposite side of the road and there were instructions and informative stuffs to read along the queue to the restaurants. The restaurant staff will hand the menu to the queuing customers and take your order before you enter the restaurant. English Menu is available upon request. I ordered their No. 1 ramen which is Mutekiya-Ramen for JPY1100.
I was finally in the restaurant after queuing under the hot sun for almost an hour. The restaurant was quite small and could only accommodate very little customers. Everything inside the restaurant was labelled with English words.
Concentrated jasmine tea and iced water was available at the table. The jasmine tea was really concentrated. They will give you a cup and you can mix your own jasmine tea. My jasmine tea – iced water proportion was about 20:80 which was still at the concentrated side. It was a refreshing drink after queuing for so long under the hot sun.
Japan’s serving speed was incredibly fast. My ramen arrived not long after I have seated. The display looked nice especially with the welcome message. I am not sure whether they serve this to foreigners only or only when customers ordered certain ramen because the Japanese guy beside me did not have the welcome message.
I would say a good bowl of ramen would be determined by its broth, noodle and chashu. The soup base was really rich and creamy. The thin springy noodle had a nice texture. The egg was the usual braised type but the inside was just nice since the yolk was still slightly runny. Their best ingredient was their chashu. The size of their chashu was the biggest that I have eaten at any ramen restaurants. It was well marinated and the lean meat-fat proportion was just perfect. And most importantly, it melts in your mouth.
I was glad that Miss J kept persuading me to try out this ramen restaurant. The ramen certainly did not disappoint me and it was really worth my one hour of queuing time. I will definitely visit this restaurant if I ever come to Japan again. Bear in mind that this restaurant doesn’t has any branch. It was actually written in their website that there are no “Mutekiya” branches at other places. There is only one Mutekiya in Japan which is this.
Mutekiya
Address: 1 Chome-17-1 Minamiikebukuro, 豊島区 Tokyo 171-0022, Japan
Operating hours: 10.30am - 4.00am (Daily)
Contact No.: +81 3 3982 7656
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