Tokyo Rmen Report: Shio Taizen

Akihabara: If you're a huge fan of Japanese anime or manga, you might have heard of this, but this area has been a mecca of Otaku culture for years.I never fail to take my guests from foreign countries to this area as each of them say, "This is totally unique to Tokyo! I've never seen something like this!" 

10 years ago, who had expected this old area used to be known as a heaven for geek & nerd would be such a tourist attraction in the future? 

Let me write about this area some other time because today there is a ramen shop to be introduced here. Its name is Shio Taizen. (maybe you guys already know, but "shio" stands for salt)

In my opinion, here in Japan, the era where we can simply say "I like ramen" seems to have already ended. With ramen shops ever-increasing specialization in particular types of broth, your Japanese friends would expect you to have a preference for a type of ramen, such as light, heavy, pork broth, seafood and soy sauce etc...

This shop, Shio Taizen, as its name proudly states, mainly sells shio ramen which generally has a light & clear broth seasoned with salt. (Nowadays there are more detailed categories in it...)

Placewise, there are only 7 seats on the first floor & 8 on the second respectively, but it's always good to see how a dish you're gonna eat is cooked in front of you, isn't it? 

What I ordered is "Ajitama Shio Ramen ¥780 (about $8) Ajitama is a soy sauce egg on top. 

As I expected, this suits my taste. For the ramen eaters who are accustomed to punchy & spicy broth or full of toppings, this could be less satisfying. However, if you're a moderate ramen eater like me, this will be a perfect for your lunch.

When it comes to shio ramen, a topping I crave for is wakame seaweed (which is a quite cheap ingredient, but certainly gives an additional flavor to the ramen soup) And most importantly, look at this gold & clear broth. I could drink it all day instead of tea!

If you wanna give a much stronger flavor to your dish, you can find some free spices & toppings on a counter. Garlic and fried onions would be good companies with this light soup and stimulate your taste buds! 

Thanks for reading.

Posted by 3e-Tokyo

 Shio Taizen:

open: 11:00am-5:00am

menu: here