June 29, 2017
Tsuta Japanese Soba Noodle Tokyo is the first ever ramen restaurant to earn a Michelin Star in 2016. While currently it can no longer boast to be the only Michelin ramen restaurant, as it is joined by Nakiryu which also won the award in 2017, Tsuta continues to keep its Michelin star as well as accolades with numerous local rewards and was even ranked #1 in 2013 in Tokyo Ramen of the Year (TRY) for new shops (arguably a higher honor locally in Japan than Michelin for ramen).
While Tsuta has several flavors of ramen, it won the reward for its shoyu ramen. Their shoyu is made from a blend of three different soy sauces. They are all raw and unpasteurized, being from Shodoshima, Ibaraki, and the last from Wakayama, which is made from Chef Onishi Yuki’s specifications. Talk about dedication to your craft.
Although the name of the restaurant has soba, it refers to the chuka-soba version which is the Japanese version of Chinese egg noodles and made of wheat flour. It is not the same of Japanese soba, which are straight, tan-colored noodles made from buckwheat flour.
The location of the shop is in Sugamo, Tokyo, which is about a 40 minute train ride from our hotel in Ginza. It’s a three-minute walk from the JR Sugamo station.
There is a process of obtaining tickets in the morning as they only have about 70 bowls of ramen served during lunch. They start issuing tickets around 7am on weekdays (closed Wednesdays), and 6:30am on weekends.
We arrived around 10am and were able to get our tickets for the first seating. You have to put down a 1000yen deposit (cash only), and they will hand you a color coded ticket indicating the time to come back. We had our whole family with us, so got 6 tickets and then walked back near the train station to sit at a coffee shop to wait of our meal.
The restaurant itself is only a 9 seat counter space, so is relatively small. With the 6 of us, there was room only for 3 other guests. The restaurant was extremely helpful and polite, despite our young children.
We could not help ourselves and ordered the tamago kake gohan (rice with raw egg) with a small spoonful of black Italian truffle and black truffle oil. An amazing version of tamago kake gohan, we ended up ordering 3 more. Just mix it and eat.
I ordered the #1 which is the Charsiu, Wonton, Ajitama(egg), Shoyu Soba. The noodles are topped with menma, onions, wonton, finely chopped scallion whites, charsiu, kakuni, and Italian black truffle oil and black truffle sauce.
The broth is made from a combination of chicken bones, asari clams, Raesu kombu, and aromatics. When paired with the shoyu tare, you get dark yet clear soup. It has a clean, yet layered taste that is complex yet delicate. The truffle does not overpower it at all, and adds a nice earthiness to the broth that complements the deep umami flavors of the shoyu, This is simply shoyu perfection.
The noodles are made in the shop, from flour that is ground by stone from four different kinds of wheat. The texture is like a cross between ramen and soba, where it’s firm, but soft. It’s also has much more slippery texture than other ramen noodles i had, going well with the light shoyu broth.
The eggs in Japan are soft-boiled and can’t resist taking a photo of the perfect egg yolk.
For our younger two children, we ordered the shio version of the ramen for them to share. But of course we got to sample a bit of their noodle and broth.
The shio ramen combines sea bream with asari clams into a seafood broth. It is then blended with shio tare, made from Okinawa sea salt and Mongolian rock salt. It is all topped by Italian white truffle oil and other flavors to compliment the seafood. It packs as much flavor as the shoyu, but if I had to only order one, definitely go with the shoyu.
Overall, I would highly recommend coming to try out this $10-$15 bowl of Michelin ramen.
Chef Onishi Yuki has a quote on his menu where he says, “Ramen is the noodles of which Japan can boast to the world”. He’s done a great job as he has currently expanded to Singapore. Maybe, soon he’ll come to San Francisco next.
Restaurant information
Tsuta / 蔦
Address: Tokyo-to, Toshima-ku, Sugamo 1-14-1, Plateau-Saka 1st floor
東京都豊島区巣鴨1-14-1 Plateau-Saka 1F
Open 11 am-4pm and 6pm-9pm(approximately)
Closed Wednesday