Kanda Katsumoto (神田勝本); Light, Tanrei Tsukemen of Kanda, Tokyo

So I’m obviously going backwards here in writing about the Katsumoto brand, but figured next up is the Kanda Katsumoto location famous for a tanrei, light Tsukemen which honestly is one of my favorite tsukemen right now. Opened before Ginza Hachigo in 2016, this is the second brand of Chef Yasushi Matsumura's growing ramen dynasty. Matsumura-san has slowly, but surely built an incredible collection of ramen shops with Hachigo garnering Michelin Bib Gourmand nods. I'm sure it won't be long before word gets out about his other shops which are honestly just as good in my opinion. Located just a short walk from Jinbocho station, Kanda Katsumoto is definitely a must go shop, particularly those who are fans of Tsukemen.

Pretty basic menu here as is with most of Chef Matsumura's shops. Top row is the famous Tsukemen in varying toppings from left to right. The top left is the basic bowl of Tsukemen and you have it topped with Ajitama soft boiled egg to the right of it, then the Tokusei version. The far right button is for a large portion of noodles for your Tsukemen meal. Next row is the regular ramen, again, starting with the regular bowl, bowl with an Ajitama soft boiled egg, and the Tokusei which comes adorned with extra toppings. The far right button is for extra noodles for the ramen. Third row are th specialty gentei, special menu. Be on the look out for signs outside if he has any available on your visit. Next row down is the rice bowls starting with plain rice, then raw egg and rice, and finally a Chashu rice bowl. Fifth row are the extra toppings starting with Nori dried seaweed, Negi green onions, Ajitama soft boiled egg, Menma bamboo shoots, three slices of extra pork Chashu, and finally shredded pork. The final row is beer which comes in medium and small sizes. The shop is pretty foreigner friendly so if you’re having trouble, feel free to ask a staff for some help. Hopefully my translations here can provide a bit of help in your ordering.

My order for the day was the Tsukemen with an Ajitama soft boiled egg. As it was my second bowl of the day, I decided to skip out on the Tokusei version and just have it as is. As you can see from the photo, the Tsukemen is a lot different from the more modern and well known shops such as Tsukemen Michi or Fuunji. The style Katsumoto serves is a Tanrei, or light Tsukemen which is in some way an homage to the lighter tsukemen that was served when the style was first conceived. (Side note, if you would like to learn more about how Tsukemen was born, check out my shop for comprehensive history guides on a variety of ramen styles, tsukemen included). The soup is a chicken base with tons of Chiyu, chicken oil, infused with aromatics giving it an oily, but refreshing flavor profile as it floats on the surface of the soup and isn’t emulsified in to it. Base is a specialty brand chicken called Nagoya Cochin. Think of it as the Wagyu Beef of chicken if you will. Hailing from Nagoya prefecture, the chickens extract tons of flavor and is a popular breed for steeping soup. In order to get this light consistency, these chickens are stewed in a low temp simmer so that the collagen and fats don’t emulsify in to the soup, but rather give the stock a deep and soothing flavor. Once the chicken are properly steeped, in goes a variety of dried fish. Katsumoto uses Niboshi dried sardines, Katsuobushi bonito flakes, Sodabushi a type of dried tuna flakes, Sababushi dried Mackerel flakes, and finally Iwashi dried baby sardines. The different times ingredients are added is based on the steeping temperature for each ingredient. Flavor is extracted in the most precise way here at Kanda Katsumoto.

The shoyu tare is key here as a light, tanrei style tsukemen can sometimes be a bit underwhelming to those who are used to a richer, more condensed soup base. Shoyu is hand selected by Chef Matsumura and the dark hue really brings out a fantastic color to the soup. The salinity is a bit high, but expected for a soup of this style. A hint of smokiness permeates from the shoyu tare and brings another level of flavor to the already delicious stock. Combined with the chiyu, chicken aroma oil, the soup is in perfect harmony with the stock and tare. The time and dedications the chef puts in to the soup is evident and admirable. Chef Matsumura describes soup as a living being that needs to be properly taken care of,, and that level of care really shows as one spoonful and you’ll be in heaven.

As for the noodles, Kanda Katsumoto serves two types, a thinner version with lots of slipperiness and a thicker chewier version. Both are made daily and has a freshness to them which is a bit unordinary as recent shops have adopted an aged noodle for their ramen. I found that having the two styles were perfect as the thinner version gave the dish a satisfying slurp while the thicker version gave it some textural variety while clinging the soup a bit better. You don’t see a lot of shops serving two types in one dish so I did like the variety it provided to my meal. Both were boiled and then shocked in ice water to stop the cooking. The water helps wash off any excess starch and it made for a bouncier texture for both. Noodle fold was impeccable and made for a visually pleasing dish as well.

Toppings were top notch as well with an Ajitama soft boiled egg to die for. Cooked to perfection, the creamy yolk oozed out after splitting in half providing a nice textural balance from the thin soup. Marinated in a light soy sauce, it also provided some extra savoriness and salinity to the dish. Pork chashu was a belly cut today and had a nice balance of both meat and fat. It did have some chew. but for the most part was very tender and almost fell apart in between my chopsticks. As the Chef wants to serve the upmost quality everyday, the chashu varies depending on the selection of pork the shop can get their hands on, so be prepared to have a chashu a bit different than mine on your visit. However, for a bowl such as this, I think the chashu for the day was exactly what the dish needed and gave it a great protein pairing. The dipping broth also came with Japanese herbs, thinly sliced Japanese negi, as well as everyone’s favorite naruto fishcake. On the side of the noodles were slices of dried nori seaweed giving the bowl a nice earthy flavor.

Overall I can’t give Kanda Katsumoto enough praise. They took a style that isn’t common nowadays with the booming popularity of rich and creamy Tonkotsu Gyokai and went the completely opposite way. Flavor balance was damn near perfection and the different textural variety gave me a pleasant surprise with every bite. My tastebuds were in pure bliss throughout the meal and I think this is a shop worthy for any tourists coming in to see the current climate of tsukemen. If you what to check out another shop doing this sort of tsukemen style, check out my review of Uchoku, another top notch restaurant serving a similar bowl. Also, Simon and Martina actually made a video at Kanda Katsumoto. If you want to check that out, I’ve linked it below.