Uchoku / 迂直 - Ogikubo
Uchoku (迂直) is one of the top tsukemen shops in Tokyo, famous for offering their tsukemen noodles in so called kombusui. They are probably the best tsukemen place to try out kombusui noodles in Tokyo, maybe even the best in Japan. Their tsukemen generally shows similarities to the traditional tsukemen recipe of Taishoken, rather than the more modern and new thick tonkotsu-gyokai based soups with thick noodles like at Tomita or Michi.
The soup at Uchoku is a clear chicken and niboshi based soup with shoyu tare based seasoning. The soup packs so much flavor and punch that all concerns regarding flavor density of the clear soup are gone with the first slurp. The tsukemen noodles are excellent as well, just beautiful to look at, with a nice gloss and great chewiness. The toppings don’t fall far behind and continue the excellence of the soup and noodles.
What draws a lot of people to Uchoku is how they serve their noodles. Normally, tsukemen noodles are shocked and washed in cold water to firm them up. Then they are drained and served cold on a plate with nothing added. At Uchoku, the noodles are served in kombusui, liquid that is created by boiling kombu/kelp. It is full of umami and has a slightly slimey texture.
At the end of your meal, you would normally get your leftover dipping soup filled up with some kind of dashi, to make it drinkable. At Uchoku you are asked to use the kombusui instead, which works wonderfully in my opinion.
If you are looking for great tsukemen, but you’re not a fan of the thick tonkotsu-gyokai tsukemen at Tomita and such and you’ve been disappointed with the clear soup tsukemen you had at other places, then Uchoku might be the tsukemen you have been searching for.
Mind you, there are a ton of other great ramen shops around Ogikubo. So you can easily combine your trip to Uchoku with checking out some of the other shops around Ogikubo station.
More information about Uchoku:
More reviews of Uchoku on Ramenguidejapan and Ramen Adventures
