Dried sardine ramen｜Ichijo-ryu Ganko Souhonke Bunke Yotsuya Arakicho

“Ichijo-ryu Ganko Souhonke Bunke Yotsuya Arakicho” is the legendary location of Ichijo-ryu Ganko Ramen Souhonke by Iemoto Yasuyuki Ichijo, which started after Iemoto retired.

Even after the Iemoto retired, the shop remains popular, with queues still forming. Because of the queues and the short opening hours, it was a long-awaited visit, as the timing had never been right.
As expected, there were about 10 people queuing in front of the restaurant.

I bought a meal ticket first and got in line.
The waiting time is about 20 minutes. The long-awaited entry to the restaurant.

When we were shown to our seats, the owner asked us, “Is this your first time here?”
When I replied that it was my first time, the owner let me smell two kinds of soup.
“Which smell do you prefer?” He asked me which smell I liked better.
This is the first time I’ve been asked to choose a menu item based on its smell in all the different places I’ve eaten ramen.
I really like this way of choosing. It’s interesting.
I was attracted by the appearance of one of the two soups, which looked like a light soy sauce soup, but as the owner said, I decided to go for the soup with the smell of dried sardines, which I thought was perfect for my mood that day.

After a short wait, the ramen I ordered was brought to me. It probably took around five minutes.

The soup had the expected aroma, and when it came out in the form of ramen, it was moderately hearty and appetising.
It contains two types of char siu pork, one of which is said to be a salty meat.

First, we have the soup, which is attracted by the smell.
Naturally, it is very tasty. It is so rich that the flavour of the dried fish seems to be concentrated. The moderate bitterness enhances all the flavours and creates an amazing balance.

Then we have the noodles. The noodles are yellow in colour, slightly wavy, low-moisture thin noodles that go perfectly with the thick soup. By tasting the chewy texture and the soup that is brought to your mouth together at the same time, you can enjoy this deep flavour.

The filling is a generous portion of char siu pork, both types of which are so delicious in their own right that when served with the soup and noodles, I found myself wanting to order more char siu pork.

It was a very satisfying first visit to Ichijo-ryu Ganko Souhonke Bunke Yotsuya Arakicho, which I had always wanted to visit. I would like to come back for another ramen.

It was delicious. Thank you for the food. Thank you very much.