Ramen Kai (らーめん 改); Premier Shellfish Ramen, Kuramae, Tokyo

So if you’ve been keeping up with me on Instagram or just check my site regularly, you may be aware that I’ve been selling various ingredients and utensil for home cooks to try their hand at making ramen themselves. What does that have anything to do with the shop you ask? Well it was just a way for me to promote my store, but also the reason why I came in the first place as this shop is close to where I get my ladles for my store. To be honest, this was already on my hit list to begin with as this is another Tabelog Top 100 Hyakumeiten shop that I’ve been meaning to write a review on and cross off my list. Located right near Kuramae station, Ramen Kai is one of the premier places to grab shellfish based ramen. Shop is situated just walking distance from Asakusa so if you’re thinking of grabbing some ramen before a bit of sightseeing, this is the restaurant for you.

So as you walk in, on the left is the ticket machine which they have translated in to English as they tend to attract a lot of foreign clientele. No need for me to translate thankfully so let me just make my recommendation of Shio Ramen and get on with it. As you can see from the photo below, I ordered the Shio Ramen with the Ajitama egg. Along with my Ajitama egg option, my ramen came adorned with a rosy pink pork chashu, some seaweed, a slice of takenoko bamboo shoot, and some Mitsuba which is a traditional Japanese herb.

First sip of the soup here might be a bit intense so brace yourself for a salty flavor bomb when you dig in. The shio tare seems to float on the surface a bit and intertwines with the aroma oil which leads to a pretty impactful first punch. However, it does simmer down once you let it settle and even more so when paired with the noodles so not to worry. And once that initial salty kick subdues you’ll start to uncover the complexities which hide in the broth making you second guess any previous clam based ramens you’ve had before. So the ramen uses a W soup (double soup), but not in the traditional sense of an animal + seafood broth, but rather uses a shellfish + niboshi dried fish stock which provides just as much flavor, but without the sort of deep richness you would get from say a pork or chicken broth. Combined with this double stock is their shio tare which brings out the natural umami of the seafood elements as well as a shellfish infused aroma oil which finishes the soup. Honestly the soup is pretty phenomenal and you won’t miss the animal stock one bit. The almost transparent soup glides down your throat and it tickles your umami sensations all the way through. The niboshi stock is quite light so you get the nice umami and flavors of the fish without the bitterness that comes with it. In exchange, the niboshi accents don’t hit quite as hard, but it makes up for it with the delicious Asari clams bringing in another level of flavor complexity. I thought the shellfish infused aroma oil was a nice touch as it's the first sort of flavor your tongue feels and it amplifies the rest of the seafood elements. Really top notch.

Next up is the noodles which are made in house and pair incredibly well with this soup. When I first looked at it, it kind of reminded me of a Kitakata style noodle since it was rather thick and spongey, but it was so much more. The noodles have a bouncier, chewier texture and while it does soak up the soup nicely, it also uses those ridges to cling to the exterior giving you a well balanced slurp and bite. I was a bit disappointed as it felt a bit short so it felt a bit limiting in that sense, but other than that, really well made noodles. The seaweed I thought was a nice touch in terms of toppings as it fell in the theme of a more seafood influenced bowl, but my favorite had to be the takenoko bamboo shoot which you rarely see in ramen. The crunchy, snappy texture of takenoko as opposed to a more traditional menma bamboo shoot meshed with the chewy noodles and gave a unique flavor addition to the bowl. I don’t think it would pair with any other soup, but it definitely worked well here. Rosy pink chashu was rather forgettable and I thought it was cut way too thin as by the time I got to it after a few sips of soup and couple slurps of noodles, it was already overcooking from the residual heat of the bowl. I don’t want to have to feel obligated to eat my chashu right away so I wished it was cut a bit thicker so I wouldn’t be faced with that dilemma. Ajitama egg was pretty good, but I have to admit, I wasn’t the biggest fan of the marinade. I think they may have added like a shellfish infused shoyu and it kind of felt like overkill at that point, probably best to skip it here.

Anyways, overall very creative and well balanced shellfish ramen that I think deserves more recognition than it gets. At least for me, it made me reconsider what shellfish based ramen can be like and I truly enjoyed this non animal stock soup. If you’re looking for something a bit out of the ordinary, I definitely recommend checking it out, and if you do, feel free to comment down below what you thought!