After finishing my errands in Shimokitazawa, I felt like having some ramen and started looking around. That’s when I found a place that looked promising, so I decided to check it out. The shop is called Kaimen Mikawa (貝麺みかわ). I don’t know this neighborhood very well, but it seems to be a very popular spot. Even though it was raining in the evening, there were about five people waiting in line. The photo was taken around the time I was leaving, when I thought it must be close to last order, but there were still people waiting.
There’s a ticket vending machine outside the shop, and you buy your meal ticket before lining up. Credit cards and various cashless payment methods are accepted. Inside, there are only about seven counter seats.
Because it was raining and I was carrying a lot of bags, I only took a few photos. The ramen comes in three types: soy sauce, salt, and paitan. All of them use shellfish-based broth, and on the ticket machine the amount of shellfish extract is shown in five levels (🐚🐚🐚🐚🐚). Based on that, the strength of the shellfish flavor seems to go from strongest to mildest as paitan -> salt -> soy sauce.
That said, I was in the mood for soy sauce ramen, so I went with that. I added a seasoned egg, and the total was 1,100 yen.
It’s a very beautiful bowl of ramen. The toppings include two kinds of chashu pork, green onions, red onion, and the seasoned egg. Even in the soy sauce soup, I could fully taste the shellfish extract. Perhaps to let the shellfish shine, the soy sauce flavor is kept fairly mild. The soup is rich, mellow, and delicious. It seems that the soy sauce ramen also contains beef extract. The egg yolk was perfectly soft and runny.
The noodles are slightly on the softer side. Because the soup is so good, the noodles might feel a bit ordinary on their own, but since the soup is clearly the star here, it doesn’t feel out of place at all.
I heard that the owner previously worked as a head Japanese cuisine chef at a hotel in Fukuoka, which makes total sense given how refined this shellfish-based soup is. Next time, I definitely want to try the salt version.
About
Name Kaimen Mikawa (貝麺みかわ)
Open Lunch, Dinner
Reservation Unavailable
Credit card Available
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