Ramen Jiro Shinjuku Otakibashidori-ten (ラーメン二郎新宿小滝橋通り店): The Forgotten Jiro; Shinjuku, Tokyo

As some of you may know, there are 42 Jiro locations currently operating throughout Japan. I don’t want to get in to the specific history of this iconic ramen franchise here, but if you’re curious I wrote a pretty comprehensive eBook that you can check out in my store or read about over at sabukaru. Anyway, the style birthed a cult like following who began traveling throughout Japan to eat at these 42 different locations. Jirorians (as these cult obsessives are called) will post their reviews on the shops in either their blogs (aka Jilogs) or on restaurant review sites like Tabelog and Ramendb. Those who have conquered all 42 shops will inevitably make their ranking list putting the Jiros in order from favorite to least favorite.

Now I’ve been eating Jiro for quite a while now and over the years I’ve come across hundreds of these reviews and Jiro rankings. The top is always pretty subjective rotating between the Honten, Hibarigaoka, Hachioji Yaenkaido, or whichever is the one they frequented most (in vicinity). However, when it came to the bottom of the list, without a doubt, the overwhelming majority put this Ramen Jiro Shinjuku Otakibashi location dead last, even scoring the worst of the 42 shops on Ramendb. And honestly, I have to agree. By no means am I saying this is a terrible ramen shop, it’s actually pretty decent for the price you’re paying, but if I had to choose which one to go or recommend, this wouldn’t even be in the conversation. The only reason why I’m writing this now is so I can have my own 42 reviews for the Ramen Jiros up for everyone to see. So if you’re not too keen on hearing about my least favorite Jiro, now is your chance to find a different review to read. Well, without further ado, I present to you Ramen Jiro Otakibashi.

As you may have already guessed, no English menu here. Had to awkwardly snap this photo from an angle, but starting from the top, awkwardly, is the Ajitsuke Tamago hard boiled egg topping, menma topping, and all the way to the right is beer with appetizer and Dai Jiro which is extra large everything. Second row is the regular Ramen, Butairi Ramen with extra pork chashu, and the Butairi W Ramen with double pork chashu. Third row is the large ramen with the same amount of pork chashu as the corresponding small above it and the fourth row is Gaku Wari Jiro which is reduced price for students. If you’d like to try the tsukemen option, hand a 100 yen to the staff when you give them your ticket and ask for tsukemen.

One difference of note about this location, they got rid of the famous “Mashi” and “Mashi Mashi” call for their free toppings and is now “Sukuname” for some, and “Oome” for a lot. If you don’t know about the topping system, I recommend reading this review on the original Mita Honten. They do have all the toppings of Yasai (vegetables), Abura (pork back fat), Karame (tare seasoning sauce), and Ninniku (garlic, if you order as is, no garlic will come with the bowl).

Order for the night was Ramen with the hard boiled egg added on as topping and my call was Abura, Ninniku Oome for extra pork back fat and garlic. Fair warning, this meal came after a night of drinking and I not only had dinner, but also a good 3-4 pints just an hour earlier. Not quite sure what got in to me, but as I was in the Shinjuku area, I was determined to grab a bowl before calling it for the evening.

To say I struggled would be an understatement, and not for the reason you might be thinking… that it’s a bad idea to grab a bowl of Jiro after heavy beer consumption. Otakibashi is actually quite tame in that department, ranking among the lowest in portion size. What actually caused my struggle was the fact that this bowl was on the complete opposite end of the spectrum from my ideal Jiro. The soup is aggressively emulsified which you can probably tell by the photo and I prefer a lighter, thinner soup. Noodles are short and thick, almost cut to a square shape. I prefer my strands long and curly with a bit more texture. These two alone were really killing my buzzed Jiro vibe, but if I were to take it at face value, it really wasn’t that bad. Jiro isn’t limited to one concrete recipe and it can really range in emulsification levels and noodle consistency. It just so happened that this shop served a variety of Jiro I’m not too fond of, but for an emulsified soup, I thought it was quite solid. Noodles could be a bit thicker in my opinion, but I can see how difficult that would be to make with it already being so busy and space limited.

Pork chashu though really needs work. The cut was way too tough and I had a hard time gnawing through my slices. It also wasn’t seasoned enough in my opinion and could have soaked in the karame marinade for another hour or two. As for everything else, I thought the abura was passable and made a great dressing for the yasai steamed vegetables which had a pleasantly good ratio of bean sprouts to cabbage. Hard boiled egg however was a hard pass. I’ve now realized the only egg I prefer on a Jiro is raw and used for dipping and I vow never to order it again (although I know I’ll see it on the menu at a different location and the intrigue will get the best of me).

Like I said in the beginning, this location ranks right there at the bottom for me. It’s nothing special and if it weren’t for the fact that they have a tsukemen option I would probably never come back. However, as some of you may know, I’m trying to not only eat at every Jiro, but also every menu item so I’ll be back to try their Tsukemen soon. Pray for me that it is at least on the same level, if not better than their ramen.