Luxurious Roast Beef Ramen (贅沢焼牛らぁ麺 )
The next shop in my Top 5 is near and dear to my heart. I absolutely love beef and nothing makes my eyes roll back in my head quicker then a perfectly roasted piece of bone marrow or an unctuous lusciously gelatinous piece of beef tendon. This shop was first time I've had a true beef based ramen that wasn't named Maruchan and the experience truly opened my eyes to the potential of ramen.
Matador is located in sleepy neighborhood past a large train crossing in Kita-Senju, a neighborhood in the Northeastern part of Tokyo. It feels a little special each time I make the trek out here (most people don't realize how expansive Tokyo really is). If this shop was any closer, I'm pretty sure I'd be indulging myself with this ramen on a weekly basis - that's how delicious it is! This shop serves up one of the most unique and flat out satisfying bowls of ramen I've recently had the pleasure of enjoying in the last few years.
Matador is located in sleepy neighborhood past a large train crossing in Kita-Senju, a neighborhood in the Northeastern part of Tokyo. It feels a little special each time I make the trek out here (most people don't realize how expansive Tokyo really is). If this shop was any closer, I'm pretty sure I'd be indulging myself with this ramen on a weekly basis - that's how delicious it is! This shop serves up one of the most unique and flat out satisfying bowls of ramen I've recently had the pleasure of enjoying in the last few years.
Their signature is the "Luxurious Roast Beef" Ramen, served with 2 large slices of roast beef that eclipse most of the bowl. The soup is a shoyu based beef bone soup fortified with dried anchovies and squid for body and a subtle oceanic sweetness. It's topped with three varieties of onions and a scoop of an out-of-this-world braised beef tendon stew that totally takes it over the top.
There are innumerable superlatives I could use to describe this bowl of ramen (hyper savory, unctuously rich yet simultaneously light, full bodied and complex), but the one aspect that I feel brings it all together is the sweetness. If you've ever had Sukiyaki or French Onion soup, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about. I don't know if its coming from the beef broth or if they use some extra sugar and special mirin in their Shoyu-dare (concentrated ramen flavoring sauce), but for me, it's what makes the ramen so addictive and forces me to keep going back until every last drop of soup is inhaled.
Check out the gallery below for some shots of the other types of ramen they serve. The tsukemen was also surprisingly delicious for having thin noodles and a looser soup which is normally the death knell of tsukemen. Some how they've got the balance of the tsuke-dare (dipping soup) down to where it's loose enough but flavored perfectly to coat their thin house made noodles.
There are innumerable superlatives I could use to describe this bowl of ramen (hyper savory, unctuously rich yet simultaneously light, full bodied and complex), but the one aspect that I feel brings it all together is the sweetness. If you've ever had Sukiyaki or French Onion soup, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about. I don't know if its coming from the beef broth or if they use some extra sugar and special mirin in their Shoyu-dare (concentrated ramen flavoring sauce), but for me, it's what makes the ramen so addictive and forces me to keep going back until every last drop of soup is inhaled.
Check out the gallery below for some shots of the other types of ramen they serve. The tsukemen was also surprisingly delicious for having thin noodles and a looser soup which is normally the death knell of tsukemen. Some how they've got the balance of the tsuke-dare (dipping soup) down to where it's loose enough but flavored perfectly to coat their thin house made noodles.
