Menya Joroku - Osaka famous Takaida style Tamari Shoyu ramen
Chuka Soba
Menya Joroku
Menya Joroku
One of the more popular Osaka ramen restaurants especially around Namba district, famed for their Takaida Style Tamari Shyou ramen which is the Chuka Soba -Takaida Style-.
Chuka Soba - Chashu
Menya Joroku
Chuka Soba - Seasoned Egg
Menya Joroku
Chuka Soba - Noodles
Menya Joroku
Chuka Soba + Seasoned Egg (¥750 + ¥100)
The signature dish of Menya Joroku, Chuka Soba -Takaida Style-. Heard some much of this dark ramen while researching for Osaka’s best ramen restaurant.
Broth: Contrary to its appearance, it is not as salty as one might think but actually quite rich and complex flavour with a subtle sweetness that comes from the chicken stock and dark tamari shoyu (made of minimal or no wheat). Plus there’s the additional peppery kick from the abundant of black pepper. In short, I will say the broth is rich, intense and robust.
Chashu: They used mainly thin lean meat cut with a bit of fat, not my favourite type of cut/ratio, but it is a-ok for this bowl of ramen.
Seasoned Egg: Not the best, seems like only half of the yolk is runny. A bit inconsistent, as my wife’s bowl of ramen (photos below) have a slightly higher ratio of runny yolk.
Noodle: Flat shape and medium thickness.
Overall: Even though the seasoned egg is inconsistent, chashu might not be the best that I like, but I really like the rich, intense, and robust broth. It is both a unique broth and also pushing the intensity to the limit without making people feel it is too much that leads to the cloying feeling. So definitely a great job on this front. As a bowl when combined with all the variables, the pros definitely more than the cons, more like it carries a bit of the cons to make it blends in.
If only they could make the seasoned egg with full runny yolk consistently, it will be an easy 3.75/5. Although I wish to also say they could use more ratio/cut of fatty meat for their chashu, but I got a feeling it would alter their recipe taste of aiming for a lighter profile with all these intense and robust flavours in it.
Rating: 3.5/5
Samma Shoyu
Menya Joroku
Samma Shoyu - Seasoned Egg
Menya Joroku
Samma Shoyu - Noodles
Menya Joroku
Sanma Shoyu + Seasoned Egg (¥800 + ¥100)
The wife is having this bowl, so the review and scoring will be from her. Although I did try a couple spoonful of the broth and noodles to have a rough gauge. I believe the Sanma Shoyu is a seasonal bowl, as sanma fish’s best season is in autumn which is the time we visited Menya Joroku.
Broth: Interesting and unique take with the combination of chicken stock and sanma (rich and oily) fish stock, which gives impart sweet and flavourful umami taste mainly from the rich and oiliness (in a good way) from the sanma fish and also the lighter version of tamari shoyu used for this broth.
But from what she mentioned, after a while, it will start to feel too cloying because of the very rich taste. Even though this broth is of a lighter profile, but the taste may be too rich for some, and thus leads to cloying feeling halfway through.
Chashu: They used a thin lean meat cut, with no bits of fatty part for this bowl.
Seasoned Egg: Much better for this bowl of ramen, we got a higher ratio of runny yolk. Although we only have 2 bowls of ramen as a data point, I will say kind of inconsistent quality for their seasoned eggs?
Noodle: Flat shape and medium thickness.
Rating: 3.25/5
English Menu
Menya Joroku
Japanese Menu
Menya Joroku
Draining the noodles
Menya Joroku
Draining the noodles
Menya Joroku
Slicing the chashu
Menya Joroku
Meat slicing machine
Menya Joroku
Interior (shot from the waiting area)
Menya Joroku
Interior
Menya Joroku
Interior
Menya Joroku
Signboard
Menya Joroku
Overall
With all things said, I will recommend to try Menya Joroku. They are also located centrally in Namba, which most of the people will have some part of their itinerary to visit Namba anyways, so no excuse of not coming to try it.
We came around the opening time (11.35am), we waited for around 30 minutes from the waiting area to get seated at the counter seats.
Shop Front
Menya Joroku
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Address: 大阪府 大阪市中央区 難波千日前 6-16
Opening Hours: 11.30am-3pm, 6pm-9pm Daily, close on Wednesday.
First Sunday of every month 7am-10am, 11.30am-3pm.
Payment Method: Cash
Website: http://jouroku.blog.fc2.com/
Tabelog: https://tabelog.com/en/osaka/A2701/A270202/27084754/
(Last visited: November 2019)