Paimen / 百麺 - Nakameguro
Paimen offers iekei style tonkotsu shoyu ramen, which means the broth is based on pork bones and the flavoring tare is based on soy sauce, plus a heavy helping of chiyu chicken fat. The resulting soup is so rich and heavy that it gives fresh cream sauce a run for its money.
Ramen at paimen with spicy negi and extra chashu.
Nakameguro location of Paimen (百面中目黒) is the second shop of the Paimen franchise. The first ramen shop was opened in August of 2007 in Setagaya. Just one month later, the ramen restaurant in Nakameguro (中目黒) followed. Since then, a third one in Itabashi has opened.
The specialty of Paimen is very similar to an iekei style ramen of tonkotsu ramen, soy sauce flavored, made mainly from pork bones and fatty pork cuts. This kind of ramen is currently all the rage among Japanese people and tourists alike, which often name this as their favorite Japanese food.
According to their website, the pork bones are boiled over 17 hours to extract all the flavor, collagen and fat. Once you go into their stores, you can easily see the 4 to 5 big pots which have broth with pork bones boiling at any time. The smell that reaches your nostrils is very “porky”, for a lack of better words. You can definitely smell that you have entered a tonkotsu ramen restaurant that takes their broth serious!
The all topping bowl with thick noodles including thick pork belly blocks, lean chashu, egg, lots of negi and plenty nori sheets.
Another great point to not overlook is are the pork belly cubes which are called “rafuti” (ラフティ) in this restaurant, but more commonly known as “rafute” (ラフテ). They are also known as shoyu pork in Hawaii. The pork belly is stewed for a long time in soy sauce and brown sugar. Cooking it for such a long time breaks down the tissue and gives it an almost butter-like texture. This pork belly absolutely just melts in your mouth!
Thin ramen noodle choice at Paimen, called “soumen”.
Noodle wise, you can choose between thin so called “soumen” (素麺 / そうめん) which are close to what is typical for Hakata style ramen and the recently more popular thicker “futomen” (太麺), which perfectly soak up the creamy and rich tonkotsu soup. Also like in a Hakata-style ramen place, you can always get a cheap “kaedama” (替え玉), which is an extra serving of thin noodles for just 100 Yen. So make sure to not simply slurp away all your leftover soup, in case you still feel hungry once you are done with your noodles!
The opening times of Paimen in Nakameguro are 11:30am to 2am at night, ideal for a bowl before the last train or a bowl to drown your sorrows if you missed the last train.
More information about Paimen
