Saturday, July 9, 2016

Tokyo top 3 Ramen in Taipei! Menya Ittou 麺屋一燈

Menya Ittou in Taipei!! I cant even express how excited I was!

How famous is Ittou in Japan?  Rank #2 in Overall Japan Ranking in Ramen Database (Here).  Tsukemen rank #2 in Japan.  Toripaitan (Chicken Soup) rank #1.  Tabelog (Japanese yelp) scores 4.18!  Many and many awards.

I did visited the sacred Ittou ramen back in 2012 (Click Here!).  I thought back then it did live up to the expectation despite the location is a bit far.

The Taipei store is the first oversea store of Menya Ittou.  It is actually the 4th store for the group (Other 2 stores are Ramen Tourou, and Tonkotsu Ittou.)  I thought it was an adventurous, but well thought move to expend to Taipei.  The current tsukemen landscape in Taipei is not as big as tonkotsu ramen, but Mitta Semensho (三田製麺所) has most of the city covered with 10+ stores.  Ittou buzzes in as the favorite in the category.

I arrived around 4:30pm on Monday to avoid the long lines (came twice and the line was 2 hours).  There were no line and got seated right away.  The waitress was very kind to introduce the menu to me and the special rice dish.  Ordered the famous toripaiton seafood based soup tsukemen (濃厚魚介つけ麺).  The chicken soup is full of flavor with the seafood, but the better part is that it was not greasy.  I would say the soup is comparable to the one in Tokyo but a bit sweeter in taste.  The noodle is a straight middle size yellow noodle.  Not as chewy as in Tokyo but it would still be better than other stores in Taipei.  The topping includes chicken and also pork.  After dipping the meet into the soup, the tenderness of the meat is fully exposed and mix very well.


When you get a chance to be in Taipei in one of the most famous ramen shop, I did ordered the second bowl to taste the whole menu... 


This is the Scallop Toripaitan Ramen.  This version of toripaitan stresses the seafood more than the chicken soup where the sweetness is a bit less.  Noodle is the thin straight egg noodle which is a very easy eat.   Adding the Scallop sauce on the side, it would enrich the flavor of the chicken soup (but kind of cheating).  This bowl is still one of the top unique bowl in Taipei

I would definitely recommend Menya Ittou in Taipei, especially on the weekday between lunch and dinner time with no lines.  Definitely try tsukemen first!  Yum.

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Menya Ittou 麺屋 一燈
MRT Zhongshan Station about 5 minute walk.  Next to the Okura Hotel