LocalEatsJapan

Located close to the famous Waseda University is a very popular ramen shop – Toshioka. 

It is run by just one person, and he used to be a disciple of a very famous ramen shop by the name of “Benten” in Takadanobaba before opening up his own shop in the neighbouring station. 

I have never been to Benten (yet) so I can’t speak on the two bowls, but from what I have seen online they are very similar in taste and also look practically identical. 

Another reason Toshioka is popular, or rather infamous is that the owner is not the nicest person, or at least very strict. 

I have heard stories of people getting yelled at and when my friend and I went, after we had bought our ticket and placed it on the counter to be collected we had to probably wait for like 10 minutes just for them to get collected. We even had the couple next to us ask us if we should just continue waiting or not lol… It wasn’t the best vibe for sure.

So why am I writing it in this blog then? Well that is because the ramen itself was really good, and good enough to get past the owner’s attitude. 

They have both a salt and soy-sauce based ramen offered here, but I went with the more classic soy sauce one. 

It was light but still had a good punch to it – it was really good. 

The other highlight were the noodles which are made in house. They are thicker than your average ramen noodle, but had that good firm, homemade taste to them.
Toshioka also has tsukemen (dipping noodles) so I imagine this would be great as well. 

The chashu was really tender and flavourful and even though it is hard to tell, they were actually quite thick pieces so it was a generous amount I found (I also ordered the chasu-ramen so this is likely why). 

What came with my ramen too was the stick looking things which is menma, or bamboo shoots and though you will see them occasionally on ramen, these were especially delicious. 

They had a really good crunch to them and seemed to be flavoured with sesame oil. It was a nice fresh balance to the soy-sauce based soup. 

Though you may not see it in the picture, the bowl is filled to the brim, and so the amount may be a lot for some people. Even my friend who often eats a lot had to pass the rest to me and I had to take one for the team (because it’s seen as rude to leave food in Japan). 

Overall this was a very enjoyable bowl of ramen, and if you overlook the negativity surrounding the owner/chef, It is just like any other good ramen shop I feel! 

Also, I recommend going a bit before it opens to guarantee you get in because the shop is small, and the chef also is pretty slow with getting peoples orders out so the amount of people that can get in are quite limited. 

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