Tai Shio Soba Touka / 鯛塩そば灯花 - Akebonobashi

Tai Shio Soba Touka is one of the top shio ramen shops in Tokyo, and probably among the best with a fish broth base ramen. At Touka it is all about seabream, called "tai" (鯛) in Japanese. All parts of the seabream are used and prepared in a way to bring out the best of them.

Their main menu item is a bowl of ramen made from seabream with a side bowl of rice, that is served with fresh seabream filet and thick peanut sauce. The bowl of ramen is available as regular ramen or as tsukemen dipping noodles. Both equally recommendable and a good reason for at least two visits, to try both. The idea is to eat the bowl of rice and fish filet in "ochazuke" style together with the soup. Therefore you should save some broth to ladle over into the rice bowl and mix it with the fish and the sauce.

*Ochazuke rice with fresh seabream filet*

Another rather interesting menu item is the aedama. It is not unlike the already more well known "kaedama", which is essentially just another serving of noodles. The aedama includes the noodles of the kaedama, which are covered in the aroma oil and the tare of the soup bowl with some added vinegar. It can be eaten just like this like a pasta dish or like an abura soba. However, at least after taking a few bites, you can drop the whole thing into your leftover soup.

If you could not hold back and finished all your soup, you can ask for a bit more soup to enjoy the full experience. The whole experience and the quality of the ingredients, preparation and presentation easily make Tai Shio Soba Toka one of the best seabream ramen restaurants in Tokyo, probably even in all of Japan.