Tantanmen Hōzuki

🍜 激しく辛い担々麺 / hageshiku karai tantanmen
🇯🇵 担々麺 ほおずき / tantanmen hozuki / nakano, tokyo
🗓️ 07/02/2024

(@wei.oframen on ig for my ramen adventure 😚)

Like many people, I happened to find this shop through The Anime Man's video lol. From what I've read, many people with decent spice tolerance will have no problem with the regular bowls cranked up to extra spicy. I guess that's why they have a dedicated menu item labeled as intensely spicy with like 10 🌶️ next to it. I feel like this bowl is more or less equivalent to a Samyang Buldak 2x if you need something for comparison. I think this could be more painful if they amp up the tingling taste through the Szechuan peppercorns. However, I think the amount they use is already spot on because otherwise, you wouldn't be able to taste the base broth. It's quite a classic way this Japanese-style tantan broth was prepared; a chicken stock with a combination of spices and sesame paste. A free side of rice is nice to finish off the leftover broth. For something that was advertised as super spicy, I'm glad that it was also delicious and not just pure pain.

I went due to a YouTube video saying it had the spiciest ramen in Tokyo. While I don't know how true that claim is, I will say it is by far the spiciest ramen I have ever tried. They have plenty of water and fresh rice on standby, but I would also recommend bringing some dairy products or something sour to help deal with the spicy as well. As for taste the first two or so bites are pretty good before the spicy melts your taste buds off, afterwards all you have left is the heat. All in all a good place to go if you want to challenge your taste buds. I plan on going again to try out their normal ramen

Nice and cozy place with a friendly and helpful owner. The food was really tasty and the sizes were quite big for a relatively cheap price

Was told they had some of the Spiciest ramen in tokyo. While it was pretty spicy, it was not the spiciest I've had. Was easily able to finish the bowl. That being said, the flavor was decent.