Susan C.
Yelp
One of the top 2 ramen shops I've tried outside of Japan. Would come back in a heartbeat.
Heard about this place from a friend of a friend who said this was one of the top ramen places in Paris. Came by first on a Sunday evening at 7:30pm and the line was about 25 people outside, so we ended up going elsewhere that night. Next day we came at 6pm, at which point there were only a couple people in line so we got seated within 10 minutes.
The staff was cordial and friendly, once greeted and seated we were presented menus right away. Since it was pretty busy you'd have to flag them down to order, after which the food came pretty quickly within 10-15 minutes. Our server checked in a couple times while we were eating too and asked if we wanted dessert or additional drinks after we'd finished our ramen.
Now let's talk ramen--we got "our classic" sardine shoyu ramen €13.5 and the "creamy and rich" sea bream paitan ramen. This wasn't your momma's traditional shoyu that you may normally get--the broth had a clear cut sardine flavor, the personification of sea water meeting umami in a savory broth. First sip of the broth and my reaction was O_O WOW. The sea bream ramen €13.5, a richer broth with a mellow balanced flavor, traversed the line between creamy and drinkable in a good way; you could taste the fish base yet the creaminess was more delicate than the sardine flavor of the shoyu broth. Enough to make you keep coming back for another spoonful.
I was also impressed that both broths were super flavorful without being too overly salty like so many US ramen spots where I'm searching for a huge glass of water afterwards.
It gets better. The noodles were next level. Perfect texture, bounciness/springiness and chew. (Ugh. Dying a little inside right now bc this place is so far away and I can't go grab a bowl right now =( ) the marinated sardines were delicious. The chashyu was one of the best I've ever had--super flavorful and tender, yet managing to hold together in the broth. The sea bream slices were fresh, cooked just right, and paired well with the broth. The tamago (added as an extra) had a perfectly soft yolk. There's a little blurb on their menu saying how they grow, mill and make they own ramen noodles in house with wheat from Champagne area in France, and how their chashyu pork is Iberico Pata Negra Cebo de Campo sourced from Spain, and how their ramen flavors and techniques follow Japanese ramen "DNA". Yes, yes and YES!!! The ingredients are unabashedly a mix of local and Japanese sources and the result is a successful marriage of flavors and textures that defines ramen innovation while staying true to it's core.
As you can see from the pictures, the other interesting thing about the shop is the decor. They've managed to recreate a scene directly out of a seafood shop at Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo, complete with boxes of fish, lobsters, clams, etc harvests from the ocean lined up in the aisles, scales, hooks, gloves, a portable radio, a rice cooker--if you could find it in a seafood purveyor at a fish market, you can see it in the decor of the restaurant. There was a giant (plastic) tuna sitting attached atop the middle of the table where we were seated. They even went as far as to recreate a sewer cover on the floor of the restaurant in the same style as in Tokyo. And the bathrooms are no exception--they look straight out of a back alley between the fish market shops (speaking from experience in Tsukiji!). Straight up amazing the level of detail they put into recreating the ambiance.