Abura Soba’ Rises as a Savior Amid Soaring Ramen Prices
Waseda] This is Wase-meshi! Tokyo Menchin-tei Honpo, the Original Restaurant Specializing in Aburi-Soba
Founded in 1997 in Tsurumaki-cho, Waseda, “Tokyo Menchin-tei Honpo” is known as Japan’s first restaurant specializing in abura-soba, and has long been loved by students as “Waseda-meshi” (meals around Waseda University). Currently, the restaurant has three branches in the Waseda-Takadanobaba area, including the Tsurumaki-cho main branch, the Nishiwaseda branch, and the Takadanobaba branch (science and engineering canvassing branch).
The restaurant’s motto is to “pay serious attention to the sauce and noodles,” which are the heart of its aburasoba. The noodles are made in-house and blended with a base of Hokkaido wheat flour, which gives them a “plump and chewy” texture after boiling. The thick sauce is intertwined with the noodles, creating a simple yet powerful bowl of noodles that is appealing.
The restaurant emphasizes the step of “pouring” the vinegar and raayu over the bowl and then “stirring” it. Stirring first lowers the temperature in the bowl and makes it difficult for the vinegar to mix with the room-temperature raayu. Enjoy the exquisite marriage of noodles, sauce, vinegar and raayu while still hot.
On the Takadanobaba-Waseda line, “Musashino Abura Gakkai Waseda So-honten,” which students call “Gakkai,” draws a long line for its punch with thick sauce, and “Kirinji,” which originated in Osaka, also has a strong presence. Also worth checking out are “Katsu-no-Hana” with its hearty “Katsu-no-Katsu-no-Soba” and “Menya” with its multiple branches of yakisoba, a specialty of yakisoba.
Today, the popularity of aburasoba is not limited to areas such as Shibuya, Ikebukuro, and Waseda, but continues to spread throughout Japan. Aburasoba has a healthy advantage over ramen noodles, with about two-thirds the calories and half the salt content of ramen.
In the future, more health-conscious businesses and menus will be introduced, which may attract not only male students but also female customers. The hot battle in the “hot battle zone of aburusoba” will continue to heat up in the future, as restaurants compete with each other in terms of cost performance, typicity, and unique menu items.
Interview, text, and photographs： Masataka Sasaki
Representative of Kids Factory. He has edited several ramen books, including "Hideyuki Ishigami Ramen Selection" (Futabasha), "The Industry's Highest Authority TRY Certified Ramen Grand Prize" (Kodansha), "Ramen Saikyou Unchiku Ishigami Hideyuki" (Shinyusha), and "Solanoiro Chihiro Miyazaki's Ramen Theory" (Shibata Shoten). He loves ramen and his motto is "Be a pervert in your quest for ramen and a gentleman in your behavior.
