Welcome to my ramen review! Today I’m reviewing Shinpuku Saikan’s Chuka Soba!
About Shinpuku Saikan
Shinpuku Saikan opened up their first shop by Kyoto Station in 1938. Their ramen stands out due to the extremely dark color of the soy sauce/shoyu broth. It’s nearly black.
We visited the Yamashina shop.
They have an order machine by the door that issues tickets. It is entirely in Japanese, but there’s a menu with pictures at the top.
You can see their homepage here (JP).
I ordered the Chuka Soba and their chahan. I shared the latter with my husband. As you can see, the ramen broth is nearly black and there’s a delicious mountain of green onion and bean sprouts.
As you can see from the photos, both are nearly black, even the chahan.
Location
Score
Mind that this score is based entirely on my pallet and preferences alone and doesn’t reflect on the overall quality of the restaurant itself.
Broth
The nearly black soy sauce broth is not only eye catching, but delicious. They bring soy sauce ramen to a whole new level
Noodles
The noodles are slightly thicker than standard and very easy to eat.
Meat
There was plenty of thinly sliced chashu. It was very soft and delicious.
Egg
There is no egg. They have an optional raw egg topping, but no hard boiled egg.
Overall Balance
If you like soy sauce or salty flavors, you’ll love this. I highly recommend it.
Customizability
Restaurant Amenities
Water is self-serve and the glasses a bit small. Not a huge deal, but I prefer larger glasses if I have to walk somewhere to get water. Chop sticks and other items are provided by the server.
Overall Shinpuku Saikan (Yamashina Shop) Score
They have an extremely solid shoyu ramen. It might be the best shoyu ramen I’ve ever had. Their only weak point in my opinion is the lack of any hard boiled egg options, flavored or otherwise. However, their service is EXTREMELY fast. I pulled out my phone and expected to wait for a bit but the ramen seemed to come out almost instantly. I’d say that this speediness may well be thanks to their limited options. They may have scored a bit low using my usual review criteria, but they’re truly exceptional in both speed and flavor.
