Chūkasoba Tagano Review Summary

I will agree with another reviewer here that there isn't one particular part of this bowl that is truly amazing, but the bowl is greater than the sum of its parts. The broth is warm and welcoming and very balanced in flavour, the chashu is cooked perfectly for my taste and not too fatty with a nice thickness, and the egg is lightly marinated and cooked more on the harder side but still nice and soft. The noodles are the really stand out player here, a beautiful firm bite that persists even until the end of the bowl. All this comes together to be a delicious meal that you can't really beat from many places at this price, and for me personally is my favourite bowl of ramen I've ever had.

Every bowl of ramen is really delicious. I've been here three times. If it's your first time coming here, it's kinda confusing because the store has a different system when it comes to waiting for your order. You get a ticket (it's sort of a priority number for you) from the ticket machine at the entrance then you wait for your number to be called. It usually take like 2-3 hours. You can also ask for their menu in English.

Soup is a very refreshing 煮干しbase (Niboshi: dried sardine) with Shoyu tare and a drizzle of fat of top. The soup is not too salty, and is well-balanced enough that I can finish the bowl. The noodle here is whole-grain buckwheat cooked to perfect al dente.
Chashu is tender, not melting but not so hard to chew with mild scent of grilling, what a mellow piece of pork. The price is cheap compared to the quality.

Luckily, the line is not too long when I visited there, only 40 minutes waiting (for 19 queues). The restaurant provide the queuing system where you need to:
1.Buy a ramen ticket at vending machine
2.Reserve your queue at the tablet beside the vending machine, enter how many of you and your companions, then print it out
3.Keep both tickets until your number is called.

Tips: if you are bored waiting in front of the restaurant, you can scan the QR code and check the status of the queue online, and also ask it to sends you a notification through email or you can add a service to your Line’s friend, so you can monitor the queue conveniently. *Unfortunately, it’s all in Japanese*

Mom and pop store at its best with their dedication to serve the best bowl of Ramen. For the price nothing can beat this bowl. I had shio men for ¥750. Mild yet deep flavor and noodles with enough chewiness. Well balanced and well prepared. Thank you for rekindling my love of the dish.

Having visited Takano (Tagano?) a number of times, it really isn't anything to write home about until you've had it a few times, interspersed with lots of other ramen. That's because it's one of those places that serve ramen that's just inexplicably good. The components are good, but not mind blowing, top of the line good. I can easily name places that do each individual ingredient better (except the noodles). Yet, as a whole, Takano is definitely a whole lot better than your average ramen. Its soul food, of the soothing, lilting variety that caresses you gently as you step 20 years into the past.

The most standout thing about Takano is the noodles. The char siew is decent, and so is the menma, but make no mistake, the noodles are the star of the show. They're chewy, yet soft and supple, and go perfectly with the light, unassuming soups/dips they are often paired with. Char siew is a very good balance of meat and fats, but more on the meaty side. Egg is very lightly marinated and to my disappointment every time, very much on the side of done. Its probably a feature rather than a bug. If you want onsen tamago, you won't find it here. Menma (bamboo shoot) is thin and soft, providing a more chewy alternative to the already chewy noodles. The negi (scallion) seems pretty normal, nothing to write about here. Nori (seaweed) is pretty light on taste but is very good at soaking up the soup to create a flavourful punch.

There's a lot of variance between the soups they offer, but the overwhelming consensus is that they're quite flavourful while retaining a light feel. The shoyu exemplifies that by being very deceptively simple, but well crafted to complement everything else. The tantan men soup is very complex, with a strong vinegar flavour, lots of numbing Japanese pepper, a good helping of chilli oil, all which serves to cover the soup base so thoroughly I have no idea if it's ship or shoyu. Probably shoyu. Despite all that, it's a nice, comfortable sort of spicy, slightly less spicy than those 辛 Korean spicy instant noodles, but has enough bite to leave a lingering numbing sensation on your lips when you're done.

Would I recommend Takano? It's definitely a hard sell. What Google maps tells you is they only open in the afternoon. What Google maps doesn't tell you is that they sell out almost everyday and even if you manage to get in the queue its a solid 60-120 minute wait. After 2 years I'd expect the queue to maybe thin out a little but since last summer (2019) the queue doubled and even with corona out there the queue shows no sign of letting up. Thankfully they've switched to an electronic ticketing wait system which means you can now explore the bustling neighbourhood in the meantime. There's a nice shotengai 15 metres away begging to be explored. It's very much a ramen made for an afternoon of lazing around. The problem is, is Takano worth the amount of planning and travelling to eat it? I'd say no, for the uncultured taste buds there are plenty of other similar ramen even in the same area that don't demand that much dedication - one of them is literally down the road from Takano. Only come when you've tried every other ramen and want something more - and even then you might not like it if you're not a fan of light tasting shoyu ramen. There's a reason it only has a bib gourmand and not a Michelin star. However, it seems to get awards every year locally and overseas, testament to the consistency and dedication of the old lady and her husband running the joint.