Oreshiki Jun Tokyo Station

When in Tokyo, I make sure to visit the Ramen Street at Tokyo Station. My favourite ramen used to be Rokurinsha for their Tsukemen, but since my nephew is not a fan of Tsukemen, we decided to try another restaurant for their soup-based ramen

The Tokyo Station ramen street is famous and is packed with queues daily. There are a few particular restaurants which is extremely popular and you need to wait for at least 30 minutes to get a seat during peak hours. They have an official website where you can find out more about each of the different restaurants

As a fan of pork Tonkotsu broth, my nephew picked this restaurant, which also had a relatively shorter queue. Opened by the Setagaya Group of restaurants, Tonkotsu Ramen Oreshiki Jun opened in September 2013 at Tokyo Ramen Street

The outlet at Tokyo Station is not very spacious, just like most ramen restaurants in Japan. The layout of the restaurant allowed for the maximum number of guests at any one time. With the cooking counter pushed all to one side, around at least 12 customers can sit surround a centre island table. More tables and chairs are placed at the side walls, and spaces to fit another 16 customers

My nephew chose the traditional char siu tonkotsu ramen topped with onsen egg, black fungus, spring onions and mentaiko roe. The broth was thick and milky with a strong taste of pork collagen flavour, leaving a layer of oil on your lips. For pork lovers, this is the perfect thick broth, which has all the umami flavours of the pork bone. The thin ramen noodles were chewy and perfect to sip up with the thick broth. The char siew meat was soft to the bite with a light braised soy sauce flavour

My Tsukemen came later with the charred pork belly, onsen egg and dipping sauce. The dipping sauce was a much thicker version of the broth and a lot more salty, but it paired perfectly with the chewy noodles. The onsen egg coated the noodles with a layer of creamy yolk, which makes the combination of the sauce, egg and noodles more milky. I like the charred flavour of the pork belly with a nice balance of meat and fat ratio, and it tasted quite different from the usual char siew. The sauce was very different from the Rokurinsha version, but it was also an enjoyable version

Overall, I was glad we chose Oreshiki Jun, and, indeed, almost every ramen restaurant in Japan doesn’t fail in terms of flavours. The chewy noodles were different due to the flour used in their own noodles factory, and the broth was also invented through long boiling of bones and a combination of ingredients to get the deep porky flavours. My nephew feels that this is the best ramen he has had in Japan, but he hasn’t been to many ramen restaurants. Personally, it is not the best store, but it was a really good and enjoyable bowl of ramen

Address: Japan, 〒100-0005 Tokyo, Chiyoda City, Marunouchi, 1 Chome−9−1 東京駅一番街 地下一階 ラーメンストリート 内

Opening hours: 8 am to 10.30 pm