Gotanda ramen shop Menya Sign (麺屋 彩音) has made substantial waves in Tokyo. They're even Michelin recommended.
Menya Sign - The Shoyu
The house special is shoyu (soy sauce seasoned) ramen. They use 4 types of shoyu (soy sauce) from Gunma Prefecture.
As a seasoning, it's salty and sweet and comes with a slightly sour aftertaste. These 4 soy sauces steer a 100% chicken soup (Nagoya Cochin & Daisen breeds).
There's plenty of chiyu (chicken oil) too. It gives the soup a syrupy chicken finish. The ramen pictured is with all toppings. There's egg, negi (spring onions), menma (bamboo shoots), dumplings, chicken slices and pork slices. More on them below.
The Shio
This is actually my preferred bowl here. Shio (salt) replaces shoyu for the base. But they also use a bit of white shoyu and several types of sake. This lends some acidity to the soup.
The same wonderful chicken flavors come out to play. But there's also some fish throw into the mix. In addition, there's another aroma oil accompanying the chicken oil. It's part vegetables, sesame oil and olive oil.
The shio ramen simply has more going on and more flavor depth in my opinion.
In both bowls, the low temperature-cooked meat toppings are top-notch. The chicken breast is seasoned with spices. The pork loin is seasoned with shoyu and shio. These cuts remind me of ramen shop Sakurai in Mitaka, Tokyo.
Lastly, noodle group Mikayawa Seimen makes the thin noodles. In the shio ramen, the noodles include flecks of whole wheat flour.
Summary
In brief, Michelin recommended ramen shop Menya Sign is one of the best options for ramen in Gotanda. The same could be said for Tokyo as a whole.
They have ramen-sake pairing - something I have yet to try there!
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