Maikagura / らーめんMAIKAGURA - Chitose-Funabashi

Maikagura is a ramen shop in Tokyo, famous for its tori paitan creamy chicken ramen, topped with luxurious truffle oil. Maikagura opened its doors in 2018 to ramen lovers and has since then managed to gain quite the reputation and daily long lines. Originally, this ramen shop started with a focus on clear shoyu and shio ramen, but gradually the popularity of their tori paitan special bowls increased and overtook their other bowls.

Nowadays, most people come for their creamy chicken bowls, of which three variations are offered. However, I’ve been told that the other bowls are also fantastic, which means you’re not making a mistake with them, if you get dragged to Maikagura but you’re not a paitan fan.

*Menu and opening times of ramen shop Maikagura. The menu includes paitan as well as chintan style ramen.*

The main attraction of Maikagura is their truffle tori paitan ramen bowl. However, you can also order this bowl without the truffle oil if you’re not a fan. I think most people will make this decision instinctively correct after entering the shop, since the whole shop smells like truffles. The third option is called “CREMA” which is an extremely foamed up version of the tori paitan bowl. I heard that it’s also worth trying and maybe the bowl to go for, if you don’t like truffles.

*White Truffle Oil Tori Paitan Ramen at Maikagura*

The soup at Maikagura is intensely strong in chicken flavor. Rich and creamy, but not too much. Sometimes bowls like these lean too heavy into gelatin for creaminess, but that isn’t the case here. It’s a great balance of good flavor and lip smacking creaminess that will cover the inside of your mouth. The truffle oil is white intense if slurped up as complete droplets on spoonfuls of soup, but it becomes a background flavor once a bit mire mixed into the soup. The truffle oil is earthy and rich, but not completely overpowering, which I found to be a nice surprise.

*Thick, rich and aromatic chicken soup with fragrant truffle oil droplets.*

The noodles are quite interesting as well. Very thin and low in kansui, one would maybe wonder if they pair well with this rich and heavy soup. I found them to do their job quite well, the soup managed to cling to them for good slurps.

*Thin low-alkalinity noodles match the tori paitan soup well.*

The toppings are geared towards you focusing on the creamy chicken soup. You will find thinly sliced pieces of pork chashu flanked by a few stalks of menegi green onion. Next to that, there’s a onsen tamaga style poached egg floating on the side of your bowl.

*Rosy pork chashu, very tender and lightly seasoned to match the delicate soup.*

I personally recommend opening it up about halfway into your bowl and get it to cover your noodles while you slurp them up. It dramatically amps up the richness and the flavor one more time. I wish the bowl had a few more flavor change moments like this. The black pepper on the counter helps to break up the monotony a bit, but I was left wanting a bit more zing and ajihen.

*Noodles coated by “onsen tamago” poached egg.*

For some, Maikagura is the best tori paitan ramen in Tokyo. The long lines would certainly suggest this, although I got lucky with a quite short line. For me, it’s certainly one of the top tori Paitan ramen I have had so far, beating some other creamy chicken ramen I had in the past. If you’re looking for creamy chicken ramen in Tokyo and a truffle adventure, then Maikagura might be the ramen shop for you.