japanese/tsukemen: MITA SEIMENJO

MITA SEIMENJO 三田つけ麺阪急台北店

at Hankyu Mall 

No. 8, Zhongxiao E. Rd, Sec. 5, B2

台北市信義區忠孝東路5段8號, B2

(02) 2729-9699

MRT: Taipei City Hall 

hours: 11AM -  9:30PM

$$ (NT$240-400/person) cash only

Kid friendliness: no high chairs available, no room for strollers, may be a long wait in line.

Visit reviewed: 10/22/2012

Taipei diners love to wait in line. Or maybe they love food so much that they are willing to wait in line for it, no matter how long. The first time I passed by Mita Seimenjo (aka the tsukemen place) was after lunch at Smith and Hsu upstairs and there wasn't really a line since it was already late afternoon. But I was curious since I had become addicted to tsukemen in LA at Tsujita and I made mental note to return. 

The first time I tried to eat at the Taipei  branch of the Japanese tsukemen chain, I made a last minute lunch date with a friend and started waiting in the line. She hadn't arrived by the time I got to the front of the line and I was promptly informed that I couldn't be seated until everyone in my party arrived. It was annoying seeing people pass me by, at least 4 groups or so, while I was waiting at the front. Once my friend arrived, they still didn't seat us at the open seats since the kitchen was so slammed. Since I was in a bit of a time crunch that day, we ended up eating next door at the roomier Azabu Sabo.

So the next week, of course, I had to return. I went with a different friend a little before noon and the line took about 10-15 minutes to get us inside. Mita Seimenjo's interior is a bit cramped, with small tables and booths surrounding a large table in the center that serves well for solo diners. Printed on the back of the shirts on the waitresses rushing around is "Tokyo Mita, Japanese soul food, serving tsukemen since 2008." 

While waiting in line, we discovered that the price was the same for a small, medium or large bowl of tsukemen (NT$230). Only the extra large bowl cost extra (NT$270). Or you could get a regular ramen if that's what you were craving.

And what the heck is tsukemen? Literally, it's dipping noodles.  A dish where you dip the noodle into the broth, instead of the noodle and broth being served together like ramen.

Tsukemen's broth is typically thicker and heavier from being boiled down longer, so that the sauce sticks to the noodles, and has both a fish and pork flavor. If you want to drink the broth, you can pour hot water into it to dilute it and drink it that way. At Mita Seimenjo you can order the noodles either hot or cold. We decided on cold since the waitress said that's how people typically order it in Japan.

The fried chicken (NT$120) arrives first and it ends up being my favorite dish of the day. Crispy, burning hot at first bite, juicy karaage.

The spicy tsukemen (NT$240) arrives not too long afterwards, and to my disappointment the pork and egg are also cold. The egg is also a regular hard boiled egg, not gooey like the soft boiled egg I've favored elsewhere.  

I guess you could warm it up in the broth, but the broth is hot, but not steaming hot. I also ended up ordering the spicy version which was a tad too spicy for me and overpowered the flavors of the rest of the bowl. 

The noodles are also thicker than regular ramen, like a fat spaghetti. It's very chewy, but the medium bowl was quite filling.

The gyoza (NT$70) were alright, stick to getting crispier guo tie elsewhere.

All in all, I was slightly disappointed. It definitely didn't live up to the flavors from Tsujita and it definitely wasn't worth waiting in a long line for (twice!). Maybe I would have been more dazzled by it if I hadn't tried Tsujita first?

If you still want to give it a try, I'd suggest avoiding peak times (go before 11:30AM or after 1:30PM, and don't go with too large of a group, and of course make sure everyone is there when you get to the front of the line). My noodle/broth/eggy egg craving was left so unfulfilled that I ended up trying Ippudo the day afterwards. Do you get the tsukemen craze or do you prefer the standard bowl of ramen?

ramen/japanese: i recommend RAMEN SANJI

RAMEN SANJI 麵家三士
at ATT4FUN
No. 12, Song Shou Road, 5FL 
台北市信義區松壽路 12號 5樓
(02) 7737-5188

MRT: Taipei City Hall

website: ramensanji.com.tw 

$ (about NT$200/person)

Kid friendliness: lots of kids spotted, lots kid friendly menu options

Visit reviewed: 2/3/2012

When I saw that Ramen Sanji had lines out the door when I was window shopping for a place to eat, it definitely piqued my curiosity. Was it worth waiting in line for, or was it just another Taiwanese "we love to line up no matter what" place?

It looked promising, but I ended up at its neighbor San Yuan that night instead. So when I needed a place to eat after the Taipei Book Fair, I wandered over to ATT4Fun. It was a late lunch so there was no line- we just waited a few minutes for them to bus the table.

We ended up getting a nice corner seat with a window view of 101.

table spices and sauces

The menu unfortunately is only in Chinese and Japanese, but there are lot of bright looking pictures (that look all like the same bowl of ramen). I interrogated our server and the gist is basically- the first page is a shoyu pork bone broth that has varying pieces of grilled fatty pork, with options of 1 piece, 2 pieces, 4 pieces (the NO. 1 bowl at NT$250), or chopped up pieces; the second page has the more unique black sesame flavor, bonito flavor or spicy flavor pork bone broth; the third page (not pictured) has the noodles separate from the broth which is served in a smaller bowl for dipping and includes a garlic miso broth;

and the last page has the appetizers and additional topping choices. There's also sets available with Kirin Ichiban beer.

I end up getting the original broth with ramen 2 pieces of char siu (NT $190) and not too long later a steaming bowl comes to me. Being pork bone broth, it's slightly oilier and heavier than the miso broth I usually order (with the post meal thirstiness that you get sometimes). The ramen is nice and al dente and the portion is just right. The elements set it apart from the other chains I've eaten at before- I love the egg has the soft boiled, custardy yolk and the char siu pork is served hot with a nice chargrilled flavor. Even though it's a tad fatty, I end up eating it all anyways.

My friend's screaming red bowl of spicy ramen looks good too. One small spoonful of her broth into mine gives my bowl a nice punch, but there's no way I could drink her whole bowl.

The fried chicken (NT$120) here is also heavily seasoned. Good, but the batter is a bit thick and I preferred the version I had other ramen places.

Even at 1:30PM, Sanji is packed with ramen slurping customers. There aren't a ton of ramen options in the Xinyi area and the ones I can think of are all in food courts, like Ajisen ramen at Xinyi Eslite or Ramen Kagetsu ramen in Vieshow food court. Sanji has a nice noodle shop feel without being too expensive.

And after we pay the bill, Sanji's regular line has formed at the door with ten or so people in the middle of the afternoon. I'd definitely come back, especially if I spotted there was no line.

japanese: i strongly recommend WANG WEI RAMEN

WANG WEI RAMEN
No. 40 Chang An E. Rd, Sec. 2
(02) 2571-1678

MRT: Song Jiang/ Nan Jing

website: Facebook page

hours: 11 AM - 10 PM

$$

Kid friendliness: no high chairs spotted

Visit reviewed: 4/1/2011 &

Most of us probably have memories of buying cheap packs of instant ramen or Cup O Noodle and eating them at home, or in college or at work because all you needed was water to make a quick meal. Maybe we even fancied it up with a soft boiled egg, some veggies or meat to make it more appetizing. And there's a ton of forgettable ramen shops out in LA and even Taipei where I've paid US$7 and thought I could have totally made a better bowl at home myself.

All the ramen I've had before pales in comparison to the ramen I had at Wang Wei Ramen, which should satisfy those who haven't yet found a real bowl of ramen in Taipei.

The busy ramen shop probably seats about 40 or so, and fills up quickly during the lunch hour. With an open kitchen, the seats in the back have a good view of the chefs.

The Chinese/Japanese only menu is a bit confusing to the uninitiated- I'm still a little confused by it now even after having eaten there twice. Available from left to right are styles from three regions- Shinshu (shown with the red square) which is more thick, Kyushu (the orange square) is more sweet, and Hokkaido (the right page with the brown square) which is more intense. Then within each column there are different bowls to choose from, with bowls ranging from NT$220-290.

My first visit I chose a spicy miso ramen (to the far right of the menu) and on my second visit I got a bowl of Kyushu ramen with three pieces of cha siu. Surprisingly, I couldn't finish three slices and the bowls are huge enough to share, if you wanted to.

The broth is thick, but not too oily and thick with miso flavor, some might say umami, and the wavy ramen has the perfect QQ bite. The cha siu pork slices are the biggest I've ever had. I loved the the pork slices from the first bite- the huge pieces of cha siu are thick, juicy and hot and not too fatty. (Unlike some ramen places in Taipei where I've experienced that put in cool or cold pieces of meat into a hot broth which makes for a lukewarm cha siu and terrible experience). In addition to adding extra slices of pork to your bowl for NT$30, you can also add corn, butter, egg or vegetables.

You can get more broth to dilute your broth if you think it's too thick/salty/heavy. On my second visit, I did feel like it was too salty and you can request for it to be diluted before it comes to you the first time.

The garlic/onion ramen variation that my friend ordered is seasonal, only available from November to May. The Kyushu ramens also come with a slice of sweet potato and are made from wheat flour.

The soft boiled egg over rice with meat sauce (NT$100) is supposed to be mixed together before eating, and is a good bowl for someone who's not feeling like ramen. You can also get just cha siu over rice.

The Japanese style fried chicken (NT$180) is perfectly crispy and tasty.

Ramen aficiandos, tell me- what is the difference between the various regions of ramen and does Wang Wei Ramen get it right?

japanese/mall food: i don't recommend SUGAKIYA

SUGAKIYA
at Shin Kong Mitsukoshi, A8
No. 12, Song Kao Rd, B2
(02) 8780-9573

$

website: sugakiya.com.tw Chinese only

Kid friendliness: sure

Visit reviewed: 6/4/2009

Maybe I should have listened to my suspicions when the bowl of ramen was only NT$100. But I thought I'd give it a try, especially since my nearby fave Ajisen Ramen was now an run-of-the-mill udon food court shop.

I was a bit disappointed when I got the bowl. The lonely piece of meat looked unfulfilling. Then after one bite, I didn't want anymore. The noodles were soggy. The broth tasted like soy sauce broth than anything else. The crab meat was, well, krab. A packet of instant ramen would have been better than this. There was no depth to the bowl.

The most interesting thing about it was the spork that it came with that reminded me of sporks I used as a kid from KFC. Kinda cool.



It's possible that their other broths or ramens or other locations would be better, but I'm not taking my chances. Back to the Korean place or Mos Burger in that food court.

Snapshot: Hello Kitty Ramen at 7-11

I think Hello Kitty is celebrating her 35th birthday so you can find all sorts of Hello Kitty related stuff for awhile at 7-11, or at least more than usual. I wonder if there is anything special about the ramen inside or if they just slapped an image on the package.

japanese/ramen: RAMEN KAGETSU ARASHI

Ramen Kagetsu Arashi
at Xinyi Vieshow Cinemas Foodcourt
20, SongShou Rd, 2F
(02) 2729-2128

website: gone-grp.com Taiwan site- Chinese only
kagetsu.co.jp Japan site- Japanese only

hours: Mon-Thu 11 am-11 pm, Fri/Sat 11am/10am-1 am, Sun 10 am-11 pm

$$

Kid friendliness: kids meal with smaller sized ramen available. no high chairs

Visit reviewed: 12/20/2008



Over the past few years, the Vieshow food court has stayed mostly the same- Burger King, Haagen Daaz, Doner Kebab, the Korean and Taiwanese places, Bellini Pasta- with some turnover in the Pho spot, Froot and a long time ago Taco Taco. In the back, you can play some arcade and basketball shooting games while waiting to see your film. And what used to be a DVD/CD shop is now a ramen restaurant.

Apparently, movie goers have been waiting for ramen. Ramen Kagetsu Arashi was packed on the day I wanted to try it and after waiting a few minutes on the list, I grabbed my seat. The menu is only in Chinese and Japanese with a lot of pictures, so I wasn't sure what made the ramen different from from the places- but apparently this is the newest Taipei branch of a popular ramen chain in Japan.



I think they offer 3-4 basic broths (garlic and pork bone broth, white pork bone broth, miso broth), and then you can order extra meat or make it spicy. They also offer different sides such as salads, tonkatsu fried pork cutlet, potato croquettes and gyoza dumplings.



The space is a natural modern, though a bit tight as the tables are on the small side and they want to get you in and out.

On every table, there's a nice little assortment of spices and seasonings to customize your ramen as you like it.



I ended up getting the bowl with the biggest picture and the shop's best seller with a "No. 1" (NT$160). But after eating it, I wasn't crazy about it- the "Ninniku Genkotsu Ramen" broth just seemed oily and not had a slightly burnt garlic flavor. The cha shu and noodles were decent, but the tastes overall weren't up my alley. Was I missing something? The white pork broth soup was better. Maybe I should have stuck to my preferred miso flavors. At that point, I had wished I had walked to Ajisen Ramen at A4 instead.



It was only after getting back home and doing some googling that I find out that Kagetsu has a lot of fans- the soup is a "shoyo tonkotsu" or soy sauce pork bone soup and supposed to be oily and rich.

And when you are done, you gotta deal with the line again at the register which seemed to take almost longer than the meal. Maybe they've improved that since I've visited, but you'd best stick with your other food court options if you are in a hurry to catch a film or plan in the extra time.

I'd love to hear from the ramen lovers out there if I should go and try it again, or maybe I'm just a miso ramen kind of girl.

OTHER LOCATION

Breeze at Taipei Main Station
3, BeiPing W Rd, 2F
(02)2389-1998