Ramen Nagi @ Tokyo

Ramen in Japan is a salaryman’s lunch – no fuss, everything in a bowl, fills you up. Despite the recent trend to luxe up the humble fare, the best ramens are still those that are hidden among the lanes.

In 2004, Ramen Nagi started running from a small corner of Shinjuku Kabukicho Golden Street. It is a small space with 8 seats of 4 tsubo, and it is rented once a week. Word of mouth spreads and increases business days once a week and twice a week, and before long, there are more than 100 people in line. And finally after a year of studying what the people liked, Founder/Chef Ikuta Satoshi 生田悟志 decided that a strong dried sardine based ramen is the one.

While they didn’t invent the genre, but they definitely popularise the niboshi ramen that originally comes from Aomori. And while the Honkan may be the Mecca for the fans, I chose this less crowded location near our next meeting place to get a bowl of the deliciousness.

Unbelievable Niboshi Ramen すごい煮干ラーメン

Yes, the word “amazing” is part of the name of this bowl of ramen. It uses more than 20 types of niboshi (dried sardines) that was carefully selected from all over Japan to make the super deep soup. Each bowl of soup contains more than 60g of the finest dried anchovies.

For toppings, huge chunks of negi (spring onions) are a nice contrast to the rich soup. The big pork chashu slices are as soft as silk. There even are dried sardines placed decoratively on top. They drive home the point that this is niboshi ramen. Their signature red sauce in the middle adds another layer of flavour – both sweetness and a jolt of heat.

Menma (Seasoned Bamboo Shoots) is a classic Japanese ramen topping which my Princess always orders more. Slightly crunchy and extremely flavourful, however it was drowned in all those strong flavours in the soup.

While they give you two types of noodles in the Honkan, the branch only serve one type of noodle. (Either that or they have forgotten.) The thin and curly ramen noodles were made by themselves, obviously not in the store anymore since the volume of business makes it impossible. The noodles were chewy and cooked al dente, which is not what most Singaporeans are used to. So you have to ask them to cook the noodles softer.

My surprise was the egg which was not marinated in a thick soy sauce marinade; it helped to bring out the flavours and complexity of the heavy and full bodied soup. Scoop some soup and bite into the egg, followed by a big gulp of soup, you will see what I meant.

The soup is phenomenal and has the perfect balance of bitterness, umami, and savouriness that makes it super addicting. Overall I went away incredibly impressed with the ramen at Nagi. Which makes one what to shout, “すごい煮干ラーメン” (Amazing dried sardines ramen)

Ramen Nagi Nishi-Shinjuku 7-chome すごい煮干ラーメン凪 西新宿7丁目店
Oomori building 1F, 7-13-7, Nishishinjuku, Shinjuku-ku,Tokyo
東京都新宿区西新宿7-13-7 大森ビル 1F ＜アクセス＞JR「新宿駅西口」 徒歩7分 東京メトロ丸の内線「西新宿駅」1番出口 徒歩3分
Tel : +81 (0)3-3365-0296

Visited Jul 2023