mari2982
After finishing my errands in Mizuho Town, I decided to make a sudden visit to Menya Ippo, a ramen restaurant I had been wanting to try for a while. Since it was my first visit, I decided to go with the most popular item on the menu strategy. I arrived at 11:30 AM and found that the parking lot was spacious enough for 21 cars. The restaurant itself was quite large for a ramen shop, with counter seats, table seats, and a raised seating area, totaling 46 seats. The female staff greeted me with a loud voice, which created a nice atmosphere. Initially, I was worried because there were only three other customers, but soon more people started coming in.
Unlike other ramen shops, there was no ticket machine here, so I had to order directly from the staff. Looking at the menu, I noticed that the prices were a bit on the higher side, with standard ramen priced at 700 yen or more, and tsukemen (dipping noodles) at 900 yen. There were various types of noodles available, such as Hokkaido miso, Shinshu miso, Edomae miso, Ise miso, and Sendai tsukemen. The most popular choice was the Hokkaido miso ramen with miso-marinated seared chashu (1,040 yen), so I decided to stick to my plan and ordered it with firm noodles.
After a wait of about 5-6 minutes, my bowl of ramen arrived. It came with three slices of chashu, two fried potatoes, minced meat, and bean sprouts. The soup was quite rich and had a hint of sweetness, but I found it a bit too salty for my taste. The noodles were medium-thick curly noodles, similar to what I used to eat in Sapporo, but they weren't exactly to my liking. The miso-marinated seared chashu, on the other hand, was quite good and made me want to eat it with rice. As for the fried potatoes, I had never seen them in Sapporo before, so I personally found them to be a bit out of place. I felt that removing them from the dish and lowering the price might be a better option, but that's just my opinion. The minced meat and bean sprouts were tasty, but I wished there was a bit more of them.
Overall, I didn't find Menya Ippo to be particularly appealing aside from the chashu. Perhaps my taste for miso ramen has changed, or maybe I just didn't feel the urge to visit again. However, if my family wanted to have miso ramen, I might consider coming back here since the parking lot and interior were spacious, with a raised seating area as well. Thank you for the meal.