Hasumi Shinmachi Itchometen/ 蓮爾新町一丁目店

Hasumi Shinmachi Itchometen (蓮爾新町一丁目店) is a famous or rather infamous Jiro inspired ramen shop near Komazawa-Daigaku station, a quick 20 minutes away from Shibuya.

As you will see below, there are surprisingly few pictures in this ramen shop review, especially for this website. And there is a reason for this. The owner of Hasumi in Noborito of the is a quite eccentric guy and is known for being not very happy about people taking plenty of pictures or videos of his ramen or the ramen shop. I thought this somehow was true for this Hasumi location as well. Therefore, I snapped a picture of my ramen bowl and the outside of the ramen shop, that’s it. For whatever you can’t see, you will have to trust my description or search for more pictures online.

Later I heard that the owner of this Hasumi location is way more relaxed, which is also reflected in the Google Maps reviews. The Noborito location has as of writing of this review a strong 2.9, which is mainly due to the “friendly” nature of the owner.

*The outside of the ramen shop Hasumi. Quite easy to walk past, as it does not look like a ramen shop.*

As you approach this ramen shop while looking at Google Maps, it is actually quite easy to walk past it, since it does not really look like a regular ramen shop or one that is currently open. But the outside already gives a good impression of what it looks like inside. Rough around the edges would be absolutely underselling it. Dilapidated, sordid, rundown or straight up filthy are the words that come to mind. This is at least in the top 3 dirtiest ramen shops I have ever been, probably battling with Ramen Jiro Shinagawa for the top spot. The path behind the noodle cooking pot to the fan that transports away the steam is so incredibly “moldy black” that it even shocked me, someone who is not really squeamish about dirty restaurants in Japan. And yet, I got a bowl of ramen here anyway.

When you enter the shop, you will find the vending machine to the right. You will see ramen, tsukemen and soupless ramen variant in “small” and big versions on the menu. Fair word of warning, the big versions are absolutely massive and not for people who visit this shop for the first time.

Another thing to know is that you will be requested to loudly announce what you are getting, so they can start the preparation of your noodles, even before you sit down and show your ticket to them. Just be aware that you will be talked to, most likely while you are buying your ticket and standing in front of the vending machine.

I went with their small bowl of ramen this time and added quail eggs, which you do by adding 100 Yen to the ticket, which you put on top of the counter at your seat.

At some point during the preparation of your ramen, while you are already sitting, they will ask you something like “Ninniku wa” which is your prompt to tell them about the free toppings that you like. I went with the call “ninniku, abura, karame” which gives you fresh garlic, pork back fat and extra tare seasoning. Interestingly, you cannot add more vegetables here, so no mashi mashi vegetable towers at this place.

*A small bowl of Jiro inspired ramen at Hasumi with extra garlic, pork back fat and quail eggs.*

What is immediately striking is the low volume of soup that is in the bowl, probably somewhere around 200ml. However, from what I have seen, the amount of tare added to the low amount of tonkotsu broth is quite substantial, which means that you get an incredibly salty and rich soup as a result. It’s almost like a mazesoba bowl and works best when eaten as such, which means just continuously mix the veggies and the noodles into the soup, to make sure that everything is coated before you slurp it up.

For me personally, the noodles here were the star of the show. The noodle machine is hidden behind the curtain in the shop and can be seen when the master or their staff pass through it, to come to the other side of the counter. Don’t think too much about noodles being made in this not so squeaky clean shop. I did not investigate the cleanliness of the noodle machine and will probably be happier if I don’t know.

However, the noodles themselves were fantastic. Very thick, reverse-cut and lightly massaged, they have an incredible texture. They are also boiled for a relatively short time, which means they still have a quite firm core to them, which gives them a bit of a hard bite, which works really really well with the strong and intense soup. Take your time chewing them, your stomach will thank you.

The chashu was standard Jiro style fare in my books, nothing extraordinary, but of course very good. The quail eggs were hard boiled and marinated, great moments of texture change in between.