There is ramen, and there is really good ramen. The ramen at Moeyo Mensuke is one of them. According to my older daughter, the duck ramen here, somewhat near the Umeda station, was the best on her entire trip.
The Kishu duck ramen (紀州鴨そば) uses duck from the Kii Peninsula, south of Osaka in Wakayama. They have quite specific provenence for their eggs, ramen noodles, and shoyu for the shoyu broth. There was a short line when we arrived but it wasn’t too bad, so we ended up waiting about 20 minutes to get in.
Afterwards, we went to the Osaka Castle. Its actually one of the worst sights to be in. To clarify, outside in the grounds it was totally fine. But the castle was extremely crowded and didn’t have much to see. The history and background of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, as the unifier of Japan, was covered quite extensively in the castle.
That looks like a place to visit on our next trip to Osaka as I’m a big fan of duck ramen.
If you are in Tokyo and like the duck style, Manchiken Chukka Soba has an “aburi soba” version with dry noodle coated in scallion duck fat with charshu duck, roasted duck thigh and foie that is excellent. Shio broth and tsukemen versions are also available but aren’t quite as good.
That looks like it’s worth the plane ticket. Though I’d probably get a few other things. You know, as long as I’m there. Do you remember what the other broth choices are?
