The noodles at Ginza Hachigo take inspiration from the owner-chef Yasushi Matsumura’s extensive French culinary experience. The result: a clear, golden ramen soup that could pass as a consomme, light yet complex in flavour. It’s made by boiling down Nagoya Cochin chicken, duck, scallops, dried tomatoes and shiitake mushrooms, konbu (seaweed), an heirloom green onion from Kyoto and surprisingly, cured ham. Where your standard bowl of ramen calls for tare, a sauce concentrate that acts like a seasoning, Matsumura eschews that for a sprinkling of French sea salt to round out the flavours. And it’s just phenomenal.
The bowl of noodles is then topped with bamboo shoots, slivers of green onion and slices of chashu pork, and finished with a fresh crack of black pepper. Those fatty pork pieces are cooked so perfectly that the fat just coats your palette with a sweet, creamy, savoury goodness. Be warned though, you’ll have to arrive early to get in line – but it’ll be one of the best bowls of ramen you’ll have in Tokyo. From ¥1,100