Ramen Marusen / ラーメン丸仙 - Musashi-Kosugi

Ramen Marusen (ラーメン丸仙) is a super old school ramen shop, serving showa era style ramen ranging from shoyu ramen, shio ramen, all the way to miso ramen with a side of gyoza. Marusen has been open for over 40 years is run by Tanaka Shinichi as the second generation. He and his father are true Musashi-Kosugi locals and represent the original Kanagawa-spirit as much as they can.

*The super nostalgic front of ramen shop Ramen Marusen.*

Ramen Marusen offers a wide array of ramen, ranging from “Shinasoba” shoyu ramen, “Shiosoba” shio ramen to miso ramen.

*The complete menu of Ramen Marusen with a wide array of ramen and toppings.*

The shop themselves claims that their so called "Shinasoba" shoyu ramen is their specialty, but I have seen an equal amount go for the shio ramen and the miso ramen, which also looked very good. Additionally, you can get a wide variety of additional toppings like nori, corn, wakame, butter, ajitama seasoned eggs and so on.

*The vending machine easily let’s you go for 1.5 or 2 times bigger versions for only a few Yen more.*

One side dish to highlight is their gyoza, which I would recommend getting. They were very plump, juicy and well seasoned. I could have eaten 2 dozen of them easily, if I was not in the mood for ramen that day.

*The plump and juicy gyoza at Ramen Marusen.*

I got the shoyu ramen and for me, the soup has an almost burnt shoyu taste to it, really BBQy and yet it’s a simple shoyu ramen, which points to the great ingredients and their combination. The old guy next to me said it right when he said to himself “this is showa style ramen”.

*The ramen come so piping hot, they are difficult to get off the counter and in front of you!*

The soup at Marusen soup is mainly made with Nagoya Cochin chicken bones and purified water that is high in minerals. Nagoya Cochin is one of the best chicken breeds in Japan for making ramen, some would argue it is almost a cheat code, as it is hard to make bad ramen broth with Nagoya Cochin chicken.

*A modern classic ramen shoyu soup, refined with top quality ingredients. Hard to resist!*

Additionally to whole chicken, chicken feet, a small amount of vegetables and dried fish are added and boiled together for six hours. In the finishing stages, oni kombu is added to enhance the umami of the soup. The soup is made fresh every day before opening the shop.

*Perfectly matched noodles, made in-house at Ramen Marusen.*

The noodles of Ramen Marusen are made inhouse and specifically made to fit the bowls for a perfect match. As I understand, they have different noodles for each of their bowls. The noodles of the shoyu ramen bowl were perfectly fitting, somewhat old school but modern enough to withstand the upgraded classic shoyu ramen with its impactful flavors.

*The chashu at Marusen is almost falling apart at the seams. I wish I could have gotten extra!*

Chashu was great, classic almost falling apart. They offer only 10 chashumen per day, so no extra chashu for most people, unless you arrive within the first hour of opening.

One last thing of note were the super classic, but very well executed menma. It is the type of small cut and crunchy menma with a strong seasoning that make you want to sit down, get an extra order of them on the side and munch away with a beer in your hand, while the ramen masters are preparing your bowl for you. I explicitly recommend doing this at any time of the day.

*The menma bamboo shoots come with great crunch and seasoning.*

The bowl comes piping hot, actually hard to pick up from the counter to put in front of you lol and the soup stays hot until the last slurp. Hours later, tongue is still tingling from the burns and the msg.

You can find Ramen Marusen a short 5 minute walk from Musashi-Kosugi station, which is very easily accessible from Tokyo via multiple lines, especially the Toyoko Line from Shibuya or the Yokosuka Line from Shinagawa.