Shibuya City, Tokyo, Japan｜Maruichi Shibuya

This tsukemen place is criminally underrated. Sure, it’s got “salarymen” vibes but that shouldn’t bother anyone. What matters is that this place has a glorious tsukemen, with a thick and rich broth that thins out the longer you dip the noodles in it. The grilled pork is sweet and smoky and wow, the noodles are chewy bouncy. Such a delight! And for Pete’s sake, get those seasoned soft boiled eggs. Order through a vending machine and while there is no service to speak of, you just hand over your ticket and the meal will be served in about 10 minutes. Portions are huge. My only complaint is that only water is served, no other drinks are sold here so eat and have a soda later at Lawsons.

Very basic looking shop, with salarymen drinking vibes that turned me away at first. Turns out, everyone was busy slurping huge bowls of noodles. Initially the yellow noodles (ramen) tasted too alkaline, but it gets better as you go through the food. If I have to fault it, it's the confusing ordering system for non Japanese speakers, and nobody warned me that "normal" would pass as "large" in many places. Recommended: the grilled char siew is excellent, much better than the one in the soup Edit: another customer had a point - the dipping soup is not hot enough. So take this review as 4.5 pts

The taste of char siu is a bit unaccustomed