2023-02-09 | Recommendations

Kawasaki’s Soul Food: Ie-Kei Ramen, Tantanmen and Seafood Tsukemen

Hi Everyone! My name is Goto, I’m a curator here at /slash Kawasaki. I’m also a bit of a ramen fiend!

Kawasaki is actually a well-known ramen hotspot in Japan and there are 10 ramen shops just a short walk from our hotel. There are three popular shops, in particular, I’d like you to try them when you stay with us here. And trust me, I know what’s good because I eat ramen twice a week! 

These three spots are less than three minutes from our hotel so they are perfect after a night of drinking or on a cold or rainy day when you want to stick around the hotel.

1. Ganso Nyuu Tantan Sakaba Kawasaki-Ten

This restaurant serves its own take on a popular style of ramen called tantanmen. This Kawasaki soul food spot features a spicy chicken soup base with medium-thick noodles. The whole thing is topped up with a silken-egg.

This location is special since it also serves alcohol and appetizers so you can enjoy it like an izakaya if you feel like hanging out and drinking.

Tantanmen 830yen

There are also five levels of spiciness you can choose from:
not spicy, regular, medium spice, very spicy, insanely spicy
(or in Japanese: karami nashi, futsuu, chuukara, ookara, mechakara)
It’s actually pretty spicy, so I recommend starting with medium spice even if you like spicy food.

I was worried I wouldn’t be able to eat the whole thing the first time I ate here. I was surprised when they brought out my bowl… It’s a pretty serious bowl of ramen. There’s lots of ground meat in it and you can also request for an ana-aki renge or chinese spoon with tiny holes in it, so that you can eat the toppings without drinking the soup.

My favorite topping is kikurage, or Chinese wood ear mushroom which adds a unique crunchy texture. I also recommend getting a side of rice (you can also get extra toppings on topi of your rice too) so you can finish off your ramen broth as a rice soup.

Restaurant Information:
Ganso Nyuu Tantan Sakaba Kawasaki Ten
Kanagawa-Ken, Kawasaki-ku, Isago 2-11-20, Kase Biru 133 2F

Restaurant Hours: 
【Weekdays】17:00〜24:00 (LO 23:00)
【Friday】17:00〜27:00 (LO 02:00)
【Saturday】Lunch 11:30〜15:00 Dinner 17:00〜03:00 (LO 02:00)
【Sunday】Lunch 11:30〜15:00 Dinner 17:00〜24:00 (LO 23:00)

2. Yokohama Ie-Kei Ramen Ginya Kawasaki Ginryu Gai-Ten (Open 24 Hours)

My next recommendation is Ginya. This is a Yokohama Ie-Kei Style Ramen that’s really, really fatty. It’s open 24 hours a day, which means if you’re like me you might get cravings to eat it in the middle of the night…

Ie-Kei Ramen was invented in 1974 in Yokohama. It features a soy sauce pork broth and thick, straight noodles. Most of the shops that serve Ie-Kei Ramen have the Chinese character for home pronounced ie, or ya in their name. That’s where the name Ie-Kei Ramen comes from.

Aji-Tama Ramen 850yen

I ordered Ginya’s most classic dish: ramen with a soft-boiled egg, spinach and seaweed. Rice is free with an order of any ramen, so you can eat to your heart’s content. The rice is so good when you put the soft-boiled egg on it or other toppings. Be careful, it’s really easy to eat too much…

Also you can choose different-sized noodles, like super thin noodles and choose how long you like your noodles are cooked, which is standard for Hakata-style ramen, but very rare for Ie-Kei Ramen. There are seven different ways you can get your noodles cooked: 
Barely cooked, extremely hard, very hard, hard, regular, soft and super soft
(or, in Japanese: Kona-otoshi, Harigane, Barikata, Katame, Futsuu, Yawame, Bariyawame)

Restaurant Information:
Yokohama Ie-Kei Ramen Ginya Kawaskai Ginryu-Gai Ten
Kanagawa-Ken, Kawasaki-shi, Kawasaki-ku, Isago 2-3-1
Open 24-Hours.

3. Tsukemen Senmonten Mita Seimeijo

This shop is famous for super thick noodles in a rich pork and seafood broth, but my favorite is a light salt based broth dipping noodle tsukemen made from fish (snapper). Good news for folks that are hungry– regular, medium and large sizes at this shop are all the same price. They also have regular tsukemen, pork backfat tsukemen, and seasonal dishes that change regularly.

Tsukemen is a type of ramen where the noodles are shocked with water to stop the cooking process (so that they’re perfectly al dente), transferred to another bowl and eaten with a dipping sauce called tsukedare. Tsukedare is much thicker and stronger tasting than your typical ramen broth. Most tsukemen shops provide a weaker chicken and pork bone broth to add to your dipping sauce so that you can finish your meal off with a nice hot soup.

Sea bream dashi salt tsukemen 880yen

I recommend getting warm noodles (ask for atsumori) with vegetable toppings and mitamori set toppings (bamboo shoots, softboiled egg, chashu pork and nori seaweed). Be sure to ask for n soup-wari at the end (weakened broth) so you can enjoy your tsukemen down to the last drop.

Restaurant Information:

Tsukemen Senmonten Mita Seimeijo Kawasaki Ten
210-0007 Kanagawa-ken, Kawasaki, Kawasaki-ku, Ekimae Honchou 2-11 To-Biru 1F
Open From: 10:00〜03:00 (Last Order 02:30)

Which of these three super popular ramen joints would you like to try? Personally, I hope you get the chance to try all three of these Kawasaki soul food joints. You’ll be able to call yourself a true Japanese ramen gourmand!

If there are any other restaurants you’ve been eyeing, just let our front staff know and we are more than happy to assist with directions, a reservation, or other restaurant tips!

Find out other great restaurants via our exclusive hotel food map:
slash kawasaki food map


Only 5-min from Kawasaki Station, slash kawasaki offers guests an incredible hotel experience using digital technology. All rooms are equipped with a giant projector screen.

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