Yokohama Ramen Teppenya / 横浜ラーメン てっぺん家 - Motosumiyoshi
Teppenya is one of the many iekei style shops which emulate the style of tonkotsu-shoyu ramen which originated from Yoshimuraya in Yokohama. Due to the incredible popularity of this style, basically all of Kanagawa is peppered with local iekei ramen shops, some part of chains and franchises, but lots and lots independent ones. Teppenya is one of the independent ones, or at least I couldn’t make out any connections to other stores.
As with a lot of iekei ramen joints, Teppenya offers a multitude of ways to modify their classic iekei ramen bowl. This includes a wide variety of toppings and even 5 different tare types, of which you can find some mixed forms on the menu as well. For my visit I decided to go the mix of their spicy tare and their miso tare, which would make it a spicy miso iekei ramen I guess (at this point definitions lose their purpose).
Another typical iekei ramen thing is the possibility to further modify the ramen at the point of handing over your vending machine tickets. You can select ramen firmness, amount of oil and amount of tare. I went with hard noodles (katame), lots of oil (oome) and lots of tare (koime). The result was an outrageous bowl, but very satisfying at that. Oh and I added extra chashu.
First thing that catches the eye are the multiple thick slabs of chashu. Classic iekei fare, not as fatty as some pork belly chashu out there, but also not stingy with it. The chashu isn’t heavily seasoned, which isn’t a problem because the chashu is basically sitting on a bowl full of seasoning. Between the chashu and the soup lies a mountain of veggies consisting of cabbage, sprouts, nira and chashu end cuts. The soup is heavily seasoned, very much on the salty side or things, not sure it that’s entirely my fault for ordering “koime”, but I’ll take responsibility here. It works out well when slurping the thick noodles together with some of the veggies and chashu, but the soup isn’t a pleasure to drink on its own. While the miso flavor is quite bold, I would have hoped for more heat from the spicy part.
Overall, this bowl is a satisfying mess. Neither the pinnacle of ramen making, nor something you need to avoid. It’s for these specific moments when you’ve got that itch that only a bowl of oily and salty iekei ramen can scratch. However I would probably not go for this exact combination again and just stick to their more original tares, which I had before and enjoyed.
