★★ よってこや (Yottekoya) - Tokyo

Yottekoya is a large ramen chain store in Japan that specializes in Kyoto style ramen. Kyoto ramen is very similar to Hakata style ramen where both uses a heavy tonkotsu soup. This was my first time trying a Kyoto style ramen and I ordered their 京都醤油とんこつ半熟卵入りらーめん (Kyoto style tonkotsu soy sauce ramen with half cooked boiled egg).

The Soup - is a blend of Tokyo style 清湯スープ (chicken or pork based clear soup) and Kyushu style 白湯スープ (tonkotsu creamy white soup). The soup seems like a lighter weight version of the Hakata style ramen where it doesn't pack as strong as strong a punch, the flavor seems more toned down and it had less of the tonkotsu smell as well.

The Noodles - are medium curly noodles cooked on the softer side. The noodles didn't seem like a good match with the tonkotsu blend soup. Maybe I am too biased toward the Hakata style thin straight hard noodles.

The Toppings - I got to mention the cha-shu pork, roasted one more time right before being served, the outside is slightly burnt and so very tender. I would come back just for the cha-shu. Over all it had a few slices of cha-shu pork, menma bamboo, bean sprouts, srping onions, kikurage mushrooms and the boiled egg. Everything was flavored on the sweeter side with the cha-shu being the best.

Overall - besides the cha-shu pork which were outstanding, the soup and ramen was down right ordinary. I recommend you try the large variety of Hakats style ramen available in Tokyo before trying this place. I don't want to judge too early but as a ramen type on its own it seems that Kyoto style ramen shares a lot of similarities to Asahikawa ramen, where they are slight variations to the Hakata style Tonkotsu ramen.

Yottekoya has over 60 stores in Japan, 3 in Shanghai and 1 in Hawaii.

http://www.yottekoya.com/