Welcome to my first ramen review featuring Makotoya! I usually share photos of food on my social media, but with how shaky the social media scene has been lately with Twitter getting bought and AI art steeling photos and art, I decided to start posting more on my blog. It’s a good chance for me to write about things a little more deeply than “Hey, I ate this!”, plus it gives me a chance to think more deeply about the delicious food I just ate and share my thoughts with y’all.
About Makotoya
Makotoya specializes in bone broth ramen. I think the most famous kind of bone broth ramen is tonkotsu ramen, but they don’t have it. They serve beef bone broth (gyukotsu, they call theirs “gyu-jan”) and chicken broth (torigara, they call theirs “tori-jan”) ramen.
I ordered the “soft boiled egg gyu-jan ramen” (半熟に卵牛じゃんラーメン/hanjuku nitamago gyu-jan ramen). This is their most popular ramen.
You can see their full menu on their homepage (JP, there’s also an EN version).
Location
Makotoya has many locations, but we went to the Kinkabashi shop in Gifu City.
Score
Mind that this score is based entirely on my pallet alone and doesn’t reflect on the overall quality of the restaurant itself.
Broth
The broth was a rich, full bodied yet beef bone. It had some spice, but not so much that my delicate tongue couldn’t handle it. Makotoya’s beef bone broth is why I enjoy their ramen.
Noodles
You can choose the softness of your noodles here. I went with the recommended “katamen” (stiff noodles) and they were great.
Meat
The chashu, which was good, was not the star of the show and that’s OK.
Egg
The default egg in the ramen I got was great. The yolk was creamy and the flavoring that was added to it had sunk into the egg white enough to give it a lovely, delicious gradient.
Overall Balance
While the meat and the noodles were average, what really brought the soup together was the broth. It has a deep, rich flavor without being too heavy partly thanks to the thin, stiff noodles.
Customizability
They have all the basic ramen toppings and sides that you can usually expect at a ramen restaurant.
Restaurant Amenities
They give you a huge pitcher of water so you can refill your glass at any time, which is great because the glass is quite small. Every table has tissue to you can blow your nose as your sinuses inevitably open up. You can also find all your sauces and spices on the side of the table to add to your ramen if you wish. I added some fresh garlic because garlic is great.
Overall Makotoya Ramen Score
I waffled on whether to give this a 3 or a 4 and decided to go with a 3.5. My primary reason for going here is always the broth and that never disappoints, however the rest of the ramen is average. A very good and satisfying kind of average, mind. I go here pretty regularly and will continue to do so for their fantastic beef bone broth.
I highly suggest checking out Makotoya.
