Yokohama Iekei Ramen Daikiya / 横浜家系ラーメン大輝家 - Kamata

Yokohama Iekei Ramen Daikiya (横浜家系ラーメン大輝家) is an iekei style tonkotsu-shoyu ramen shop with multiple locations in Tokyo and Kanagawa. This review is about the Kamata location of Daikiya. The others are in Hiyoshi and Aomono-Yokocho.

Before you enter the shop you are greeted by some posters detailing the menu of the shop with pictures, which makes selecting your preferred bowl a breeze.

As you enter the shop, you will see a well known sign of quality to your left: A stack of Sakai Seimen noodle boxes.

*Boxes of Sakai Seimen noodles, stacked at the entrance of Daikiya.*

When you make your choice, be aware that you are getting a lot of heavy food, even with the smallest option available on the ticket machine. And there’s a ton to pick from. You will find mainly pre-chosen topping versions, equivalent to the poster, on the left side of the machine. The only 3 that stand out are the “umakara” (旨辛) spicy version, the tsukemen version and the breakfast ramen. You can also get almost bowls in either nami, chu or dai, which means small, middle or big. But don’t be fooled, the nami/small bowl is enough for most humans.

*Full menu on vending machine at Daikiya in Kamata.*

After you get to your seat and hand in your ticket, you will be asked for your “okonomi”, or your preferences. This means selecting your choice of noodles “hardness”, the saltiness of your soup (more like the amount of seasoning sauce) and the amount of chicken fat, you wand to have floating on top of your bowl.

My personal preference is usually “katame, koime, oome”, which means hard noodles, lots of seasoning and extra chicken fat. I normally only modify if the shop is famous for being very salty or very heavy handed with the chicken fat, like for example Makotoya to the South of Shinagawa.

*The “okonomi” list of Daikiya. Pick how you want your bowl of ramen made.*

Finally, you should make your way to the self-service rice bar of the shop. This shop offers free rice, as much as you can eat, plus a selection of sour and spicy pickles as rice topping.

*The rice bar at Daikiya. Take as much rice as you want plus pickles.*

The recommended way is to make yourself a small rice bowl while you are waiting to receive your hot bowl of ramen. Below is my rendition with 2 types of pickles and a bit of mayo, which you will find on the counter.

Rice bowl at Daikiya with mayonnaise and pickles. — *My idea of a great side bowl of rice to flank a bowl of iekei ramen.*

Talking about the counter, you will find various further additions to your bowl of ramen or rice. From left to right, you find pickled garlic, pickled ginger, doubanjan spicy fermented bean paste and minced fresh garlic.

*There’s lots of things to add to your bowls at Daikiya, like garlic, ginger and much more.*

Looking a bit further, you will also find things like the aforementioned mayonnaise, black pepper and a infused ramen vinegar. At Daikiya, the ramen vinegar is infused with garlic and a few dried sardines for that bit of extra kick. A great recommendation if you want to bring your bowl of ramen back to life after you are half into your meal.

*The ramen vinegar at Daikiya contains dried sardines.*

After a short wait, you finally receive a hot bowl of tonkotsu-shoyu ramen handed over the red, slightly oily counter.

Bowl of ramen at Daikiya — *This is the cheapest bowl of ramen at Daikiya, only 800 Yen, including the rice!*

My order was katame (hard noodles), koime (more tare), oome (more chicken oil). The resulting soup is dark and impactful with probably way too much msg. The consistency is very creamy, very emulsified, which gives it that lip smacking quality and coats the inside of your mouth.

The noodles are short and slurpy, as you would expect from Sakai Seimen noodles. I personally prefer longer noodles in general, but the short noodles by Sakai Seimen are hard to beat in combination with iekei style tonkotsu-shoyu soup.

The noodles are covered by a big slab of incredibly well prepared slice of pork, nice smokiness from the Chinese style chashu roasting process. The amount of meat you get without ordering any additional chashu is impressive. So be aware, if you order extra chashu, you will get A LOT.

I am personally a fan of these very dark and emulsified iekei bowls which are combined with some smoky chashu. So from my perspective, if you find yourself in/around Kamata and a hunger for great iekei then Daikiya is a place I can recommend. And for sure, I will find myself in one of the other Daikiya shops in the future with a bowl of ramen in front of me.