Ramen TOMO 赤坂麺処 友 (Tokyo, JAPAN) ★★★☆☆

Like we always do on a trip to Japan, we started things off with a nice bowl of ramen noodles first. Prior to this trip, I didn't know much about the Akasaka area, but I did my homework and was pleasantly surprised to learn that there are more than a dozen ramen shops within walking distance to our hotel. That should be very good news to my ramen-loving son. Since we're staying for a total of 10 days, I'd imagine we should have enough time to check out a few of these ramen shops and the plan was to kick things off with the closest one on the map, Ramen TOMO (赤坂麺処 友) famous for its umami-rich flying fish soup stock soy sauce ramen.

The kitchen in the middle was taking up a lot of space so not a ton of seats available on the counter table.

I knew you haven't had much to eat all day so daddy's going to make this quick, okay?

Special rich flying fish soup stock soy sauce ramen – This came with char siu slow-cooked in soy sauce, nori seaweed and fresh wakame seaweed, bamboo shoots and of course soft-boiled egg.

The broth came with great depth of flavors but it's a little more gluey than I first thought. Not sure if I liked that.

The soft-boiled egg cooked in soy sauce was perfectly done.

The char siu was pretty tender but I would probably like to see a bit more fat in there.

Rich chicken salt ramen – Little nugget decided that he wanted chicken broth instead. This was a totally different animal with a light yellowish broth which I thought tasted a little like Campbell chicken mushroom soup. But comparing the two broths, I actually like this one a little better bcuz it's more "pleasing" to my palate. When it comes to a ramen broth, it's a very personal thing. Trust me on that.

Anyways, this bowl of ramen came with super tender chicken breast slow-cooked in soy sauce, chicken meatballs, seaweed, bamboo shoot and dried chili. I've made sure that I ordered extra soft-boiled eggs. 

Everyone was hungrier than I thought so it didn't take very long before we all finished slurping our noodles. I think we still have time to explore the area. 

Food Rating: 5.5/10

Price: ￥￥￥

Address: 2-13-13 Akasaka, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 107-0052, Japan

Closest Metro Station: Akasaka

Tel: +81 3-6426-5120

Opening Hours: 11:00am - 9:30pm daily