★★★ 麺屋 Chichi - Sapporo

Menya chi-chi has been around sapporo for more than 15 years, but around the year 2004 the owner came up with a new ramen called the 焦がし味噌らーめん (burnt miso ramen), that made chi-chi one of the new favorites in Sapporo. On my first trip I gave their burnt miso ramen a try.

The Soup - is a pork bone, vegetable, broth based soup. The soup is topped with some black oil that gives the soup a burnt flavor that is a very nice match to the miso soup. I have had a similar ramen in Tokyo a few weeks back called Go-gyou, Chi-chi's soup is slightly lighter and has much less of the burnt black oil... slightly dissapointing since the smokey flavored soup can be so addicting.

The Noodles - are regular thickness, slightly firm, slightly curly noodles.

The Toppings - two slices of cha-shu pork, green onions, menma bamboo and kikurage mushrooms. The boiled egg and cha-shu pork are slightly flavored, neither of them overpowering. Like a lot of other miso ramen, the main character is the soup.

Overall - a very delicious ramen where the burnt black oil adds a new twist to the miso soup. However, if you are in Sapporo and had time for only one ramen then I would recommend 白樺山荘 (Shirakaba Sansou). Chi-chi actually has 4 different miso ramen on their menu, the 白味噌、赤味噌、辛みそ、焦がし味噌、(White miso ramen, Red miso ramen, Spicy miso ramen and Burnt miso ramen). I am tempted to try the White miso ramen on my next trip, since that type of ramen soup is so rare.

麺屋 Chichi is located in the "Sapporo Ramen Republic" which is near Sapporo station, on the 10th floor of the department store Bic Camera.

http://www.sapporo-esta.jp/ramen/top.html