Ramen Jiro Sengawa (ラーメン二郎仙川): The Dark Shoyu Jiro; Sengawa, Tokyo

Ramen Jiro Sengawa is one of the first branch locations opening back in 1995, second after Meguro and has consistently been one of the popular shops for OG Jiro heads. It’s a bit hard to explain if you aren’t familiar with the culture of Jiro, but what makes Sengawa so special is their use of Karame (Jiro’s rendition of the shoyu tare) that makes their bowls look almost black in comparison to other Jiro locations. It’s actually become so notorious that it has been given the nickname “Sengawa Black”, a play on the “Toyama Black” ramen style which is popular up in northern Japan. With Jirorians (Jiro heads), many have what they call their home Jiro, a location they consider their favorite/one they hit the most often. If you took a poll for which shop is home to most Jirorians, I can guarantee Sengawa ranks in the top 5. Sengawa’s long history and consistent output of high quality bowls has made them one of the legendary locations and one that I definitely recommend any Jiro fans to hit. Sengawa is only open for dinners, Monday-Saturday from 17:00- when they run out of soup. Queues are absurdly long here so plan accordingly if you’re planning a visit (the photo above was me going an hour before opening and I wasn’t even first, lol). Also, be sure to buy your tickets inside before getting in line as they’ll tell you inside if they can serve you or not and you don’t want to be waiting outside for an hour only for them to tell you they’ve run out.

I forgot to take a photo of the menu, but Sengawa Jiro offers the simple OG Jiro menu of Ramen, Buta-Iri Ramen (extra pork chashu), Oomori Ramen (large ramen), and Oomori Buta-Iri Ramen (large with extra chashu). They also have half size ramen which is at the very top left corner in white. Once you grab your ticket, hang tight in the back of the line and the master will call you in when a seat opens up. Sometimes, when you’re at the head of the line, he’ll ask you to flash your ticket so he knows how much noodles to start cooking so have your ticket ready in hand. When your ramen is ready the master will ask, “Ninnikuwa?”, which is the signal for the which toppings you want and how much. Yasai (vegetables consisting of blanched cabbage and bean sprouts), Ninniku (pressed garlic), Abura (pork fat), and Karame (seasoning sauce) are all free of charge and when the chef asks what you’d like, you call out which toppings you would like and how much of each. If you say each topping, you will get an average amount of those toppings. If you want a little extra of a certain topping, you can say “Mashi” after which ever topping you want more of. “Mashi-Mashi” will be even more of said topping. So for instance, if you wanted no garlic, extra vegetables, and normal pork fat and seasoning sauce, you would say “Yasai mashi, abura, karame”. If you want extra of all the toppings you can say “Zen-Mashi”, or everything extra. I opted to order the Sho Ramen with four slices of pork char siu and asked for “Yasai, Ninniku, Abura” for a bit extra of veggies, garlic and pork fat.

Order for the day was a regular bowl of ramen and my call for the day was just ninniku (garlic). I opted not to get Abura (back fat) and Karame (seasoning) since I had heard about how gnarly the “Sengawa Black” can get, but it doesn’t feel like a Jiro unless I got the garlic. However, I later learned that Sengawa is famous for a shop specific call of “Kara-Kara” which is double extra karame, a popular option to counteract how sweet the Sengawa Black soup is. One sip and I understood why this was so popular because it is surprising how sweet the soup is as it hits your taste buds. I almost chuckled because of how shockingly different it tasted to other Jiro locations. Broth itself is on the low end of the emulsification spectrum which lends itself to absorb the tare a bit easier than an emulsified soup where the tare will sometimes have a distinct separation due to how different in consistency the two are. Sengawa’s soup is quite thin so it has a mellowed, consistent flavor profile of pork bone and a sweet, mirin infused shoyu tare. I would definitely say it’s an acquired taste as it since it is starkly different from other Jiros, but I can also see how addicting this can be to Jiro heads.

My favorite part of the bowl was definitely the noodles which seemed like a hybrid of the old school, reverse cut style noodles and the more modern, straight flat noodles. I attribute it to probably a lower hydration dough, but sheeted and cut like a normal portion of noodles leading to its flat, but dense strands. Since the noodles are so dense, it really feels rigid when slurping and gives it the feel of a semi curly noodles despite it’s straight look. I thought the noodles soaked up a good amount of soup and since it had a slightly slippery exterior texture, wasn’t the greatest in terms of cling, but the aromatic wheat flour notes of the noodles more than made up for it in terms of flavor. Each bite was incredibly satisfying and the texture contrast with the crisp bean sprouts and cabbage had my mouth dancing in joy. Would have been nice if it was slightly longer though as the heavy, dense strands were giving my hands cramps as I tried to lift them from the soup and it would have been much easier just slurping a longer noodle up.

Only let down was the pork chashu which is a bit unfair in my opinion as it focuses on the roots of Jiro serving a rather dry slice to balance between the oily, fat laden soup. Usually, if it is dry, I like for the slices to really soak in the soup, but for whatever reason, it just wasn’t happening on this day. Somewhat generous on the portion size as I was treated with 3 decent chunks, but it is far from the most generous Jiro. Price point is a pretty accurate representation of the amount of food you’ll get (for a Jiro, obviously).

All in all, I honestly need to make a second trip to try the “Kara Kara” version, but as is I thought it was a solid bowl. Would it crack my personal top 5 Jiro list? Probably not, but I can appreciate it for what it is and can understand why so many die hards swear by this location. Sengawa Jiro is located just a brisk 5 minute walk from Sengawa station on the Keio line so a quick trip if you’re coming from Shinjuku.