Chukasoba Nishino / 中華蕎麦 にし乃 - Hongo-Sanchome
Chukasoba Nishino (中華蕎麦 にし乃) is a top level ramen shop near Hongo-Sanchome station, just to the West of Ueno and Akihabara. Normally, Nishino is well known for their light and yet rich shio ramen.
The front of Chukasoba Nishino, just 2 minutes away from Hongo-Sanchome station.
But it is summer and I was enticed by their summer gentei special, which they called Sudachi Hiya Hiya Tsukemen. Another thing that Nishino is famous for is their plump wantan, don’t miss out on those.
The full menu of Chukasoba Nishino on their vending machine, including summer special bowls.
The cold tsukemen was presented really beautifully, extremely visually pleasing. The extremely long noodles are draped into a bowl that is filled with the umami boosting kombusui, literally “kombu water”, which is made by boiling kombu kelp in water at high temperature for a long time. It has incredible umami qualities to it, but also has the tendency to become slimy. Not so at Nishino, where it has a negligible viscosity and yet retains a good umami kick.
The summer gentei special Sudachi Cold Tsukemen at Chukasoba Nishino.
As just mentioned, the noodles themselves are extremely long, which makes them fun but also a bit cumbersome to eat, since you oft need to lift them waaaay up, to get them into your dipping soup. They are thin and have a snappy and firm quality to them, giving them a really good bite.
Firm noodles, great slurpability, extremely long! Super fun for tsukemen.
The soup is, from what I would guess, a chicken base with a niboshi kick. Lots of green onion and the sudachi citrus slices give it a fresh and tangy feel, that fits well to the overall refreshing theme of the dish. With cold broths, it is quite difficult to hit the right balance between flavor, salinity and freshness. Simply said, cold broths often taste quite boring since a lot of flavors a way more subdued, especially extracts of meats and bones. Somehow they managed to keep those flavors punching in this dipping soup.
The cold tsukemen soup for this summer tsukemen was light, fragrant and refreshing.
The chashu is, typical for Ramen Koike group shops, prepared sous vide. Hard to find anything to complain here, they know what they’re doing. The result is a perfectly tender and pink piece of pork. But the real stars are actually served on the side. The plump meat and shrimp wantan are a hit and can’t be missed when visiting Nishino. They are quite the mouthful, if you want to one-bite them. Well seasoned, stuffed with fresh ingredients, I could go there just to eat more of those wantan.
5 simple steps to eat your tsukemen - or do whatever you like!
As mentioned in the video, the cold tsukemen comes with a set of instructions. First, they ask you to try the noodles as they are, without adding anything. Then, they ask you to just add a bit of sea salt that is given to you on the counter. Already here, I would have been perfectly happy just slurping those kombusui noodles with this delicious salt, that’s how great they were. From then on, they ask you to start using the dipping soup. Next step, once you feel like the soup is getting a bit “weak” or your flavor receptors are worn out, you can add tare seasoning to the soup, which is also given to you. Lastly, once you are done with the noodles, you can ask for “soup wari”. An employee will take your bowl and add hot kombu dashi and dilute your soup, to make it more drinkable, so you can enjoy drinking the whole soup without struggling with the saltiness of the soup. One last advice is to chomp on the sudachi slices, which can be eaten whole, to get the maximum zing and impact from them. I would at least give it a try and find out if you like it, because they also bring a bit of bitterness to the table. Maybe not everyone’s thing.
Ingredients and kodawari points of each menu item at Nishino.
Overall, I can really recommend Chukasoba Nishino as one of the top shops in Tokyo that ramen nerds should put on their to do list. With the amount of care or “kodawari” that is put into everything that is served at Nishino, this ramen shop deserves the spot it seems to have reserved on all the top ramen rankings and the Michelin Bib Gourmand list.
More information about Chukasoba Nishino (中華蕎麦 にし乃):
