Ramen Tomita

OCT 2024 Made a reservation in advance and had the medium size tsukemen ramen with all the toppings which included four different cuts of pork meat, minced pork shumai and a soft-boiled seasoned egg. The noodles were springy and was perfect with the rich bonito fish broth. The meats were tasty, each with a slightly different flavor and texture; shumai was soft and juicy. Also had a rice bowl with grilled pork and onion topped with an egg yolk. After you finish the noodles, you can request for dashi stock to dilute the thick broth to drink. Overall it was a satisfying and filling meal but quite expensive and difficult to reserve.

A shop that does not need me to describe how exceptional its ramen is. The most obvious strengths would be his pork selection, all were extremely tender and flavorful. His noodles exceptional springy even amongst other tsukemen powerhouses standards. His broth is what inches this place above others, with immense depth in flavor yet not salty such that you would be unable to savor it directly. The master was kind & friendly & service was very good. Again, another spot that deserves all the hype around it.

I appreciated the environment from Tomita. The team works hard to support him, but he really knows how to put on a show. It’s melodic the way he makes you watch him ever so carefully prepare a bowl for you. It’s a show that is teasing you, preparing you to taste this intricate dish. The broth took me elsewhere, but to my own fault I ordered an extra large noodles which was impossible to finish without feeling sick. It took away from my experience as I felt pressured to finish the noodles. The worker advised against but I was excited. I’m happy for Tomita, he knew how to lighten the mood and create a good environment for all. Thank you very much!

Went on a Tokyo trip for the sole purpose of experiencing the #1 ranked Ramen shop in all of Japan. This is purely reservation only. So fastest fingers will win once they open their reservation slot every tuesday at 1230H +9GMT. Slots are taken almost immediately. Easier to get slots on weekdays. I was unable to book one for the weekend. I was able to book the 1030H slot. Arrived there before 10am and was asked to wait outside, by the side of the shop. They have this makeshift wooden bench where you can sit (uncomfortably 😅) under the scorching summer sun. You will be then asked to place your order on the machine. I also got their souvenir shirt for ¥3300 yen. They did let us in around 1040H. Place is very cozy and intimate. Less than 10 counter seats are available. The broth is thick, super rich and tasty, bursting with umami goodness. Too tasty that i have to drink a lot of water to drown the flavor. The noodles are exceptional, best tsukemen noodles I have eaten. The Shumai is so so. I’ve definitely had better shumai at numerous chinese restaurants. The meat that comes with the ramen is served separately so you can enjoy it plain or dipped in the broth. To finish things off, Chef Tomita will make you a citrusy soup that you can enjoy. It is a great experience especially if you love ramen so much. 🥰

One of Japan’s greatest ramens specialising in Tsukemen (dipping noodles) house made noodles with a thick rich dipping broth and 4 kinds of braised and smoked pork. Tomita has also serves a fat juicy Shu Mei for good measure.

Omg what an experience. Yes it's on the pricy side but the portion is large and the experience was legendary. By far the best tsukemen I've had in Japan and we'll worth going out of your way for. There was no English on the menu but Google translate did a good enough job.

Legendary tsukemen lauded as Japan's greatest. Booking online for a seat is required to gain access at this coveted establishment where you can be served by Chef Tomita himself. The atmosphere and the shop itself serves as a stage for Chef Tomita's elegant and calculated display of constructing his signature dish. Simply watching the chef prepare the tsukemen is theatre itself and raises your anticipation levels even before the dish is served. The shumai dim sum that can be order on the side is a great addition to the tsukemen. Once the tsukemen is served, taste the noodles itself to really savor the texture and fragrance of wheat. Finally, dip the noodles in the umami rich fish and pork broth and slurp away for a truly one-of-a-kind flavour experience. Leave a bit of soup to enjoy soup-wari (broth diluted using stock so you can enjoy drinking up the tsuke soup) at the end but this is only allowed after you have finished your noodles.

Managed to book a weekday late afternoon table for 2 online. Weekends booking went really quickly in seconds. Rated as one of the best Tsukemen, it definitely lives up to the hype! Thick and rich pork and fish broth with complex flavours. The noodle is so chewy and full of wheat flavour. You definitely can’t find anything like this elsewhere as this are home made noodles. The roast pork slices are also full of creativity. One of them is a smoky one which is rare to be seen in a ramen shop. Ordered a siumei as well, this is for sure a Japanese style siumei instead of Chinese one. It is alright, I prefer a Chinese one instead. You can also see chef attention to details while he is serving the Tsukemen. The only drawback is the location which is further away from Tokyo centre. I would say it will be better for me as a tourist to visit it in the morning to save some commute time. Overall it is a great experience and top quality Tsukemen!

I'm normally not a fan of tsukemen, but this place blew my mind! Once you get seated, there's instructions on how to eat it. One of the first step is to taste the noodles by itself and my goodness, even without anything on them they had such a sweet and clean taste. With the broth, it completely changed to a savory, umami taste and it was the perfect balance when you dip in half the noodles. This place is known to be the number one spot by ramen heads as well as winning multiple awards and they definitely deserve it. I don't think I can go back to any tsukemen spots now after tasting the best!

After watching the 'Ramen Heads' movie on a Delta flight like 3 times and twice at home on YouTube TV, I made it a point to go there in person for the full experience. Well worth the 1/2 day spent from the time of the early morning line for a reservation (I got there at 7:30am) to my reserved seat time of 12:20pm. It's quite a bit different than in the movie, in a good way. They seemed to have renovated and upscaled it to be an "eating experience." (FYI, this is going to be a long review...) Classical music was being played and everything from the seats, counter and even kitchen area looked brand new. The reservation is a group seating of 8 people at a time and it is a performance to be seen. Tomita San is the main attraction as he is right there "on stage" preparing everything for each person while his staff helps to prepare the smaller things & deliver each item to us. I couldn't understand all that the server was telling me, but think I got it, basically by following what everyone else did. First thing I think I understood was to taste the noodles and broth separately to understand the taste of each. Noodles were firm and chewy, broth was a bit fishy tasting. But when you eat the noodles with the broth, the fishiness taste went away and it was a nice flavor together. If you watch the movie, he is very meticulous with his menma(bamboo shoots) and the soft boiled egg, that is why I ordered side orders of both. Menma was perfectly cooked and seasoned but I found out that there were two pieces of it in the soup already that you can't see when they bring it to you. The side order of it came with like 6 large pieces, but I like menma and ate it all anyway. The egg was perfectly cooked, see my picture. Yum! The pork bowl looked good in other people's posts, so I ordered it and it was great! It didn't have the egg yolk in the middle like in their picture, but for 500yen, what a deal! The portion of noodles are larger than what you think, so that is why I got the smaller portion and that was enough since I added on the side dishes. I forced myself to eat everything I ordered down to the last grain of rice as that is proper manners in Japanese culture as my mom taught me. It took me like 40+ minutes to get there from Shinagawa station and had to kill like 4 hours before I ate, but the actual HIGH CLASS experience was worth it! I would do it again if someone was with me, but if I'm by myself again, I would go to his satellite shop a block or two away for a quick eat. I will not forget this experience, thank you Tomita san and your staff! Superb job!

I wanted to take a moment to extend my personal gratitude and appreciation to the legendary chef, Osamu Tomita, for selecting one of my Yelp photos to be featured on the Yelp business advertisement page for the Chuka Soba Tomita restaurant in Japan (and for your kind and generous invitation to come back for a visit). I am deeply honored and more importantly thankful for the opportunity to experience your craft of delivering ABSOLUTELY delicious Tomita ramen. Your culinary skill is certainly worth a special trip and I look forward to revisiting your restaurant again when I am in Japan again this Fall!

I have written about the late Yamagishi Kazuo, "The God of Ramen" and how he was responsible for tsukemen (cold noodles and hot broth) and how he made sure his techniques were not lost by bringing in apprentices at his Higashi-Ikebukuro ramen restaurant Taishoken (1, 2, 3). I talked about apprentices who have went on to create the wonderful taste as Yamagishi had made and also those who went on to create their restaurants but make changes to the original taste. For the latter, there is one man who has earned the reputation of taking Yamagishi's teachings and creating the #1 ramen restaurant (according to ramendb.com) and that is Tomita Osamu, owner of Chuka Soba Tomita Ramen in Matsudo, Chiba. Osamu is also featured on the documentary (available worldwide) titled "Ramen Heads". At the Matsudo shop, many come very early in the morning in hopes to get a seat sometime in the day to eat at Chuka Soba Tomita Ramen. Osamu Tomita, Japan's reigning king of ramen, has won awards for his ramen shows no signs that he is growing wary, if anything, he is always experimenting and trying to achieve perfection. While Chuka Soba Tomita Ramen in Matsudo is the place to get awesome tsukemen, it's a pretty long travel for many people as it's in Chiba prefecture, outside of Tokyo. So, you'll need to be hardcore ramenhead to travel so far, early in the morning (at 7:00 a.m.), hoping to get a seat (you are given a ticket early in the morning where you must appear at that time to eat at the restaurant) and it won't be minutes, it would probably be sometime later in the morning or afternoon. The broth smells great and you can see the naruto fish cake, sea weed, yuzu, bamboo shoots. The noodles which I tend to eat first for taste, is very good but now I have to try the ultimate combination of both noodles and Tomita's famous broth. The broth is a little thicker compared to other restaurants but once combined with the noodles, you are literally in heaven. I've eaten at many restaurants throughout Japan and immediately, I knew from the first bite down to the last, this was the best tsukemen I have ever eaten in Tokyo. Watching "Ramen Heads", you have an idea what Tomita does in order to get that taste, from the pork bone to the use of fish and melting the it at a high temperature to blend into the soup broth. It's a masterful way of achieving such a high level of taste. It's amazing! Deserving of being in the #1 spot, as a ramen head, Chuka Soba Tomita is highly recommended and should be on your bucketlist if you are also a ramen head!

This is hands down the best soba I've had. My friends and I decided to come after watching a two hour documentary on ramen, featuring Tomita's ramen. We came on a rainy day, around 8 am or so to get our time slots. Tomita restricted the size I could get to a regular, since I'm a girl who hasn't been there. There wasn't much use arguing about it, but that's really the only reason why I give this place 4 stars. It just seemed a bit sexist (my guy friends can order a large), but it does make sense considering how the average American does eat more than the average Japanese. So we got a 11:30 time slot I think. After waiting outside for the first batch of people to leave, we were seated in. They prepared the soba in front of you, and served each individual one by one. When I got my ramen, I was super excited. Each slurp was rich and flavorful, and I didn't even realize I finished it until i reached out for more (and there wasn't any). They added water to the thick broth after. Tbh, I was still hungry after, so I really wish I got a large. Otherwise, I would definitely go back again. Tldr: small restaurant with an ambient environment, very very good ramen, wouldn't let me get a large :(

Came with a local who arrived at 630 am to get an 1120 seating. It's almost a pilgrimage spot for tsukemen enthusiasts. Worth it!

Tomita-san makes excellent ramen. Small shop, a trek from central Tokyo but well worth it. I had the tsukemen and it was delicious. Being from the states I don't have much of a reference point for tsukemen. Pork and dried anchovy based broth. Tomita uses broth from the previous day as well. The broth is insanely thick and coats the noodles and toppings more like a sauce. It is very, very rich. The toppings are incredible. There are several different cuts of pork, an unbelievable marinated egg and what appeared to be medium cooked chicken. I don't speak Japanese so I couldn't ask about the chicken but it was delicious. Lastly the noodles are thick, long and absolutely incredible.

Best of the big 3 ( Rokurinsha and Menya Itto) both was thick and the noodles were dark and perfect. Are they wheat noodles? Not sure

There is a good reason this place is constantly ranked in the #1 spot on the Ramen database. This place has perhaps the best tsukemen hands down in all the world. I waited one weekday in the blowing snow for over two hours for a bowl. And it was worth it. Noodles made on site. A great al dente noodle. The soup is great thick with excellent yuzu hints. For tourists, this place is pretty outside of Tokyo and there isn't much around Matsudo to see. But if you really really want a bowl of tsukemen this place could be worth it but you'll have to put time into your journey.

Ramen and Tsuke-men are good, but the line is too long. Tastes are unstable. I like his policy, just he can't do everyday, that's all.