Mensouan Sunada / 麺創庵砂田 - Sugamo

*Ramen bowl 100 for me in 2021 - Wantan shoyu ramen at Mensouan Sunada*

Sunada-san at Mensouan Sunada had the honor of serving me my bowl number 100 in 2021, or rather I had the honor of getting served a bowl by him. He opened his ramen shop in April of 2020, right at the start of the pandemic. Even in those difficult times, he has managed to accumulate quite the reputation and following. I went with Cody from Ramenguidejapan.com, who recommended the shop, and we had to wait over 1 hour to be seated, even though we arrived only a few minutes after the 11am opening time.

*Sunada-san, the one man army in this ramen kitchen*

Sunada-san, the master of Mensouan Sunada, apparently quit is office job when he was 53 and decided to become a full time ramen chef. After training Watanabe in Takadanobaba, he finally opened his own shop in 2020 and has been running it all by himself since then. While commendable and quite the feat, be ready for extended waiting, even if the line does not look that long. A word of warning: In summer, you’re gonna be standing in the sun around lunch time. Luckily there are some drink vending machines right next to the queue, so you can get yourself a cold beverage or two while waiting.

Your wait is rewarded by received an excellent bowl of ramen. The soup is made purely from chicken, although a mix of different breeds is used. Topping wise, Sunada goes all out. Highlights are for sure their delectable pork wantan, their charcoal flavor infused Chinese style chashu, as well as their optional addition of wantan wrapper. Don’t miss out on that, it’s just an extra 70 Yen.

*Curly and chewy hand massaged noodles at Sunada*

The noodles are another highlight at Sunada, even though they are not made inhouse. Great curly and chewy “temomi” hand massaged noodles, something I am a big fan of. They left a small question mark, since they were surprisingly short and made slurping them a bit difficult.

Summarized, Sanada-san is serving a good bowl of ramen, that promised a bit more through the hype and wait line, but ended up falling a bit short in some of the components. While I thought the chashu and noodles were great, I would have wanted the bowl to have a bit more impact and the wantans a bit more flavor, maybe more filling? The soup itself was a bit too mild for me and could have used niboshi or other components for more complexity. It is still a recommendation for people who are more into simple and old school style of ramen and definitely one of the better shops in the Sugamo area, if we forget about Nakiryu for a moment.