★★★ 七重の味の店 めじろ (Meijiro) - Tokyo

Mejiro, the full name of this restuarant is "七重の味の店 めじろ" which can be translated to (Mejiro, the store with seven layers of flavor). They serve a large variety of Japanese shoyu style ramen here, from 煮干しら～めん (dried sardine ramen) to 鰺塩ら～めん (mackerel ramen). On my first trip here (which was more than 2 months ago) I tried their standard ら～めん (ramen).

The Soup - packs a strong punch of Japanese seafood aroma and flavors. The soup is also blended with just the right amount of chicken/pork based broth to give the flavor more depth. Then there is the flavored oil on top of the soup giving it another layer of aroma.

The Noodles - are medium thin, slightly curly noodles that are cooked quite firm. The oil and the soup wraps around the ramen quite nicely, the flavor of the noodles is also a very nice match with the soup.

The Toppings - include a big slice of cha-shu pork, menma bamboo, chopped spring onions, fried green onions, and a slice of nori seaweed. The cha-shu here is very tender and slightly sweet flavored. The variety of onions add yet more complex aromas to the ramen. I think I can easily count more than seven layers of flavors in this ramen.

Overall - the flavor of the dried seafood dominates this ramen. If you like this type of ramen then you will like Mejiro since this is a very well balanced ramen that combines the flavors and aromas of may different delicious ingredients. When it comes to this type of ramen I prefer Setagaya over Mejiro. With Mejiro and Musashi being close seconds.

Mejiro is located near Yoyogi station on the Yamanote line. Mejiro is only open in the evenings from 6pm-10pm, they are not open on weekends or holidays either.

http://www.mejiro24.com/