LocalEatsJapan

Ramen Kaichi is a popular ramen shop In Sendai that serves up a chicken-based broth with your choice of either soy-sauce or salt as the base of it. 

It is a smaller shop with only counter seats, and they had only 14. I went a few minutes before it opened but there were already a few people lining up. 

Because it is so close to Sendai Station, I imagine that this is a mix of people working around the area as well as travelers such as myself. 

Once you get in there is a ticket machine where you will buy your ticket and then take your seat which the owners/staff will have the first person go all the way down to the seat furthest from the door and then have people fill up next to them. This is to avoid people sitting randomly and also so that they have an idea of where the next people are going to sit which allows them to operate efficiently and coordinate cleaning etc. 

The lineup which had been decently long outside before I entered continued into the store where they had the people that weren’t able to get a seat line up behind the people eating to accommodate for more people to line up outside (this is quite common at ramen shops in Japan.) 

It does kind of feel like people are breathing down your neck sometimes, or that you need to rush to finish, but this isn’t the case at all. My advice is to just eat how you normally would! Trust me, the first time I was in a situation like this I felt like I was going to cause an issue brought up in the next G7 meeting if I didn’t eat fast enough, but I realized that it really isn’t that deep. 

The shop owners I believe are husband and wife, and I really like the home-like feeling in the shop. It was pretty quiet and a lot more relaxed compared to some other more cut-throat ramen places I have been to. 

As for what I ordered, I went with the chicken chashu soy-sauce based ramen with a bowl of rice (of course), and a side of chicken skin. 

The chicken skin was perfect, it was like a little appetizer before the ramen as the main course. It was slightly crispy and seasoned perfectly with what I imagine was the same seasoning/brine used for the chicken-chashu. It was also only 120 yen, so it felt like I was getting it for free despite getting something that tasted as good as it did. 

As for the soup, it was extremely good. They market it as “chuuka soba” which is the traditional way of saying ramen and often refers to a soy sauce based chicken or pork soup and simple toppings like chashu or menma (bamboo shoots). 

This was exactly that, and to me, it captured the fact that ramen doesn’t have to be complicated. As long as it has a strong soup, strong chashu, and good noodles, that is more than enough. 

The soup was super rich, and you got hints of soy sauce mixing well with the chicken. The nice thing too is that I find that on a normal basis I can eat more chicken than I can pork, and the same goes for the soup too – it is less rich than pork based soups I find, therefore I can drink more of it. While it may not be as strong, and hence not pair as well with rice, this soup still went extremely well, and getting a spoonful of piping hot rice and dipping it into the soup still stands to be one of my favourite ways to enjoy ramen. 

Now the chicken chashu is not something you see every day, but I think that it was dark meat (maybe chicken thighs?) cooked with the skin on and served onto the ramen. I mean, it is common knowledge that dark meat is more flavourful, and combined with it being simmered for hours on end until it is super tender and filled with flavor… Well, I think it is safe to say that it is going to be delicious. And that it was. It was extremely flavourful and honestly one of the best ways I have had chicken to this date. 

The bamboo shoots are another common thing you see on ramen, but they add a nice crunch that takes away from the rather soft-texture that fills ramen usually. 

This was a really good bowl of ramen, and also very close to Sendai Station, so if you ever travel to the Tohoku Region (which I highly recommend you do), this should be a stop on your list! 

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