Japan Adventures: Tokyo – (Michelin Star) Tsuta Ramen

O.k. now that I’ve gotten my wondrous visit to see those Snow Monkeys out of the way – let’s back up a tad to one of my favorite adventures in Tokyo.

In total, I spent 6 nights in Japan’s humongous capital city, and could well have stayed longer.  But the key thing I’d recommend for visiting such a huge (the Greater Tokyo Area pop. = 38 million!) and wildly eclectic city chock-full of unique and fabulous sights is…  If possible divvy up your time there – else risk burning yourself out.

To wit:  I wisely split my Tokyo stay into two separate slots:  3 nights at the start of my trip, and the other three at the tail end.  You see, the first 3 nights (2 days) were (understandably) attended by the the usual culture shock upon arriving in a wholly new foreign land, new surroundings, new daily routine, etc.  And in the case of Japan, this adjustment was compounded by my initial terror of navigating the legendarily convoluted Japanese train/subway system.  However, by the time I returned at the end of my trip, I was much more relaxed and eager to explore the city more widely without fear that I’d end up lost and whimpering in a cavernous Japanese train station – never to see the light of day again.

Venturing Forth…

Thus, for my first full day in Tokyo I stuck close to “home” (i.e. visiting the nearby sights amid my Asakusa neighborhood on foot:  Senso-ji temple, Kappabashi Street, etc. )  But by day two I was ready (if not altogether eager) to hop headlong into the maze that is the Japanese transit system.  My motivation?  I was hell-bent on trying to snag a precious ticket to slurp a bowl of ramen at Tsuta – the first ever ramen restaurant to earn a coveted Michelin star.
I’d done the online research of course, and knew well that – since Tsuta won their first Michelin star in 2015 – one doesn’t just waltz into this tiny ramen icon and expect to get a place at the (just 9 stools!) counter.  Nor can you make a reservation (neither online nor by telephone) in advance.

Nope, with Tsuta’s world-wide culinary acclaim, they’d (wisely) set up a unique ticketing system, whereby – one must line up in the early morning hours, and hope to get a ticket to return later in the day for your bowl of ramen goodness.  Furthermore, with such a small seating capacity, there are a limited number of such tickets handed out each morning.  Shoot, Tsuta even has a special twitter account (@number_ticket) where they tweet frequent reports as to how many tickets are left for the day!

Low Expectations

So needless to say, I (once again) donned my “Low Expectations” hat, and valiantly hopped on a train to the Sugamo neighborhood in northern Tokyo shortly after 6 am on my second full day in Japan.  Arriving in Sugamo, I used my GPSr to locate the obscure little Tsuta restaurant (set unobtrusively in a residential neighborhood) and…

Lo and Behold!  There wasn’t even a line yet by the time I arrived!  Indeed, for a moment I thought I somehow had the wrong place (or worse, that I’d miscalculated the days Tsuta is open), but soon a line did form (and rapidly grew!)  When my turn came, a Tsuta lad asked me what time slot I wanted to return to dine (I chose 11 am) and – in exchange for 1000Y (~$10) as a deposit – I suddenly had my own precious Tsuta ticket for a bowl of the only Michelin star ramen in the World* – Woo-HOOO!

*Note: in 2017 yet another Tokyo ramen restaurant earned a prestigious Michelin star (Nakiryu), but Tsuta was the first.

Michelin Star Eats On a Budget?  Youbetcha!

As a diehard shoestring traveler who ever aims to make EVERY BLESSED DOLLAR COUNT (even – especially? in pricey Japan), trust that I normally don’t make a habit of eating at Michelin-starred restaurants (well o.k. there WAS that $200 lunch at Central in Lima, Peru which was worth.every.penny).

But I am nothing, if not a travel foodie and thus am ever up for delicious eats – be they cheapo street food or (far less frequently) celebrated haute cuisine.

And oh my – in the case of Tsuta, the quest for sublime eats was a most inviting no-brainer: A steamy bowl of Michelin-star ramen – for as little as 8 BUCKS! That said however, as I was clearly not likely to be in a position to slurp award-winning ramen again any time soon – I (naturally) opted to toss “budget” to the four winds at Tutsa and… I ordered the most expensive dish on the menu (Wanton Ajitama Shoyu Soba), which – at 1700Y – was still but little more than $15 for a huge bowl of Michelin ramen goodness.

And indeed, this was no ordinary bowl of ramen. In the words of those far more gastronomically eloquent than I:

“The shoyu ramen uses a sauce of cedar cask-aged Marudaizu natural soy sauce from Wakayama blended together with two more types — a naturally brewed, aged Nagano soy sauce and a white soy sauce — that deliver a unique, powerful flavour.  This is added to a soup stock made from Hokkaido kelp, pike from Mie and Asari clam stock added to the chicken base.  The bowl of ramen is topped with a high-grade Italian black truffle oil and black truffle sauce to complete the signature look.”

Dump in a boatload of perfectly al dente soba noodles lovingly handmade in-house from (4 kinds of) stone-ground wheat, a few succulent slices of charsiu (pork belly), fresh bamboo shoots, leeks, a plump wonton and a marinated soft-boiled egg (alas, note that I’d already gobbled up the latter “ajitama” before I snapped the pics below), and…

Suffice – my 2nd Michelin-star restaurant foodie experience was nothing short of EPIC!

And the verdict?

Of course I don’t presume to be an expert on gourmet ramen, but…

Not only was that first slurp of Tsuta broth a singular moment of PURE HEAVEN in my personal foodie history, but – I later sampled a wide variety of ramens in my travels around Japan, and – absolutely NONE compared with the bowl I slurped at Tsuta!

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