Tokyo Style Noodle Hotate Biyori

Since there aren’t any English reviews yet, I feel obligated to share my experience. From what I know, this shop is fairly new on the scene and has been one of the most buzzed about places amongst local ramen nerds lately. It’s received a number of “best of year” and recognition from places like TRY, RamenDB, and Tabelog. This was one of my last meals of this trip, so I wanted to try something special and something that wasn’t the usual tonkotsu pork bomb that I’ve had many times here and in Los Angeles. This definitely delivered on both fronts.

It’s not easy to get a spot here though - because it is such a hot shop right now. You have to line up before they open and then make a reservation for later in the day. I’m not a morning person, so I opted to make a dinner reservation. Dinner starts at 5:30, and they typically start taking reservations at 4:00. (Check their Twitter to make sure they’re open for dinner service.) The friendly woman who worked there told me to show up at 4 or a little earlier (~3:30). I happened to be in the area at 3:15 on a Thursday so I jumped in line and was the 7th one. At 3:40 she came out and had us write our names down in the time slot we wanted. I was only in line for 30 minutes though, so not too bad.

I returned later and the owner helped me place my order at the vending machine. When I asked for his recommendation, he said the two “special” scallop tsukemens were the best / most popular (1400 yen). He said the white one had a stronger scallop flavor and that’s the one I went for - the top-right button. I also added the “large” option for extra noodles (“大盛”), which I’m glad I did - since part of the experience is trying the noodles in many different ways. It’s definitely a large portion, but I’d say that most folks with strongish appetites can handle it without it being excessive. (If you think you might not finish it, don’t order it - it’s rude to waste.)

Part of the fun of the food here is that it is a whole experience - he really wants you to try the noodles in many different ways that highlight the different characteristics, and I loved going on that journey with him. There’s instructions on the table (in Japanese) and even a dice on the table that apparently lets them know whether you want their instructions or not. The chef apologized for his English but it was actually pretty good - I’m the one who should be apologizing for not speaking Japanese. Nevertheless, it’s hard to remember 7 different steps, but the gist is that he wants you to try the noodles by themselves first and then with each of the different ingredients (salt, dill, wasabi, truffle oil, the dipping broth) before going freestyle.

After eating the scallop carpaccio, I started by mixing the noodles with the clear kelp water, as instructed. I was surprised to see the noodles get frothy in texture as I mixed them. Even by itself, this was light, but very good - you could really taste the noodle. Then having it again with the salt brought out a whole other element and richness in the noodle, as did the wasabi and dill. Dipping it in the broth changes it yet again - the broth is rotated seasonally and the ingredients will be listed in Japanese on the card next to you (I took a photo on my iPhone and translated it to get a rough idea). There were scallops and a chicken meatball in mine, as well as a wonton.

With the noodles you’ll find pork loin char siu and chicken char siu, flavorful menma, a green veg, and a perfectly jammy egg. I haven’t had slow cooked chicken char siu like this before, so the texture was a bit odd for me, but the flavor was fine though not a highlight. It was the torched scallop on top and the rest of the bowl that made it a real meal to remember. Finally, after you finish the noodles, they give you another light broth (mine had yuzu and other ingredients) to warm the remaining soup and give you yet one more experience before you slurp the last drops and vanish into the night.

It was not only an amazing meal, but also really changed the way I think about ramen.

One of the most well thought out ramen dishes I’ve ever had.

This shop cares a lot about in season products and selecting high quality ingredients. They even rotate the スープ割り (soup used for finishing the Tsukemen broth) monthly. This time it contained onion, ホタルイカ (firefly squid), and some other ingredients I didn’t catch 😅 but, it was incredibly flavorful!

The flavor of this scallop based ramen is amazing. The noodles are also very delicious and should be enjoyed on their own as well. They have a recommended way to enjoying the ramen which includes trying the noodles on their own and with salt and wasabi, then to eat the noodles as normal Tsukemen, later to add the truffle oil and dill to enhance the flavor a bit, and so on. They will explain this all to you when you go! They also have a card on the table describing this as well 👍🏽

Please enjoy this ramen shop, they are doing amazing things! 😋

I am speechless, so many wonderful things in a ramen bowl.

I wont spoil it for you, for 1400 yen, they gave me a totally out of this world experience