Gashoken Mikage Branch

I went to a ramen restaurant called “Gashoken,” which I had always had in the corner of my memory as “a name to celebrate…” The specialty of this ramen shop is its pork bone soup, which is simmered for three whole days using the famous water from Nada-Gogo, one of the three major sake brewing areas in Japan.

As a sake lover by nature, I was attracted not only by the delicious ramen but also by the fact that the pork bone broth is made with the same water as sake. Now, how was the taste of the pork bone broth ramen from the restaurant?

The restaurant was crowded at lunch time on a weekend… What was the wait time and the line at Kobe Tonkotsu Ramen Gashoken Mikage Branch?

I arrived at Kobe Tonkotsu Ramen Gashoken Mikage Branch at around 12:30 p.m. on a weekend lunchtime. As I walked south from Mikage Station on the Hanshin Railway, the restaurant gradually became more and more visible at the intersection with National Route 43.

But as I got closer to the store, I could see the crowds of people gathering at the storefront, and was quite impatient. There are parking spaces for 17 cars in front of the store, but by the time I arrived, the lot was already full. There was a name book in front of the entrance, but it was very crowded with less than 30 customers left waiting to enter the restaurant.

I gave up and decided to write down my name on the name book and wait for my turn to come. However, there was a covered bench next to the entrance and a drink vending machine nearby, so the wait was not that painful. By the way, if you visit the restaurant by car, you can write down the license plate number of your car in the name book, and they will come to your car when it is your turn. In my experience, there has never been a restaurant where I have felt that the food was bad.

In the end, it took 25 minutes to enter the restaurant that day. The wait was not as long as I had initially expected. The restaurant has 14 counter seats and 6 tables for 4 people, for a total of 38 seats. Upon entering the restaurant, there is a touch-screen ticket vending machine on the right hand side, so purchase meal tickets here before taking your seat….

Shiro Gasho All on Top: When visiting Kobe Tonkotsu Ramen Gashoken, this is the first thing you should try! How does the store’s recommended “the Tonkotsu Ramen” taste?

This time I ordered the Shiro Gasho at Kobe Tonkotsu Ramen Gashoken Mikage Branch. I added the optional “All the toppings” for an extra 300 yen, and the total price was 1,300 yen (1,000 yen + 300 yen)…

When handing over the meal ticket to the waiter, there are three customizable options: (1) noodle hardness, (2) garlic, and (3) spicy sauce. Since this is my first visit to the restaurant, I set the noodle hardness to normal and the garlic and spicy sauce to “with”.

About three minutes after ordering, the Shiro Gasho with all the toppings arrived in front of me. I see that the additional toppings, two pieces of rare chashu pork, ajitama (seasoned egg), and kikurage mushrooms, come on a separate plate. When looking at the bowl, there is a black sauce with a high viscosity on top of the rare chashu pork. Is this the “spicy sauce”?

Putting the spicy sauce aside for the moment, let’s take a sip of the soup itself… Looking closely, there is a small amount of back fat floating in the soup, and when putting it in the mouth, it feels lightly thickened and has a mild texture, just like the soup of Iekei tonkotsu ramen. The soup has a rich pork flavor, but it is not at all thick, and the texture of the soup is very fine. Perhaps it is because of the use of Nada’s famous water, but the soup is free of any cloying taste. The taste is similar to that of Buta no Hoshi in Amagasaki, which also uses only pork bones and water to cook its soup, but I think that the flavor of Gashoken‘s soup is a little lighter…and the slight garlic flavor reminds me of Ippudo’s Shiromaru Motoaji.

The noodles are straight and very thin, reminiscent of Hakata tonkotsu ramen. However, the noodles have been aged well and have a firmness and stickiness that is unique to Gashoken. The fact that they were able to create originality with just one noodle was amazing. Frankly speaking, this noodle alone makes me want to come back and try it again.

Now, let me introduce not the toppings that I put on top of everything, but the spicy sauce on the chashu pork. It tastes sweet and spicy, which is different from Ichiran, which adds chili spice. The pork bone broth becomes richer and richer by adding not only spiciness but also sweetness. However, I only tried the spicy sauce by dissolving it in the soup with a spoon, and then wrapped it around a piece of chashu pork and ate it as it was. The default pork bone broth suited my taste very much…

I personally left the restaurant very satisfied with the Kobe Tonkotsu Ramen Gashoken Mikage’s Shiro Gasho. I don’t know what effect the famous Nada water actually has on the soup, but I was very impressed with the rich pork bone flavor and the fine, elegant taste of the soup. I envy those who live in Kobe so much that they can enjoy this ramen anytime. I’m curious to try the other ramen dishes, and I’ll be sure to repeat my visit if I ever go back to Kobe again.

Other ramen menu items at Kobe Tonkotsu Ramen Gashoken (prices include tax)

• Aka Gasho (garlic, raayu, chili): 1,150 yen
• Kuro Gasho (burnt garlic and chili oil) 1,150 yen
• Midori Gasho (basil and cheese): 1,150 yen

Kobe Tonkotsu Ramen Gashoken operates five stores in Hyogo Prefecture, including the Mukonoso Factory directly operated store and the Sannomiya Branch… To get to the Kobe Tonkotsu Ramen Gashoken Mikage Branch, a 7-minute walk from the nearest station, Mikage Station on the Hanshin Railway Line.

Kobe Tonkotsu Ramen Gashoken operates a total of five stores in Hyogo Prefecture, including the Mikage Branch, the Mukonoso Factory directly operated store, and the Sannomiya Branch. In addition to the orthodox tonkotsu ramen, they also offer a slightly different type of tonkotsu ramen with ma-yu and basil, so if you are interested in these dishes, please visit a store near you and try them for yourself. In particular, the Mikage Branch introduced this time is open 24 hours a day with no regular holidays! You can eat whenever you want, so it never hurts to check it out if you plan to go nearby.Now, here are the details of the restaurant…

P.S. If you are looking for delicious ramens in Hyogo, please stop by this article below…