King-ken Otemachi Head Shop

Of all the restaurants serving Hiroshima’s local B-grade gourmet Shirunashi Tantanmen (soupless dandan noodles), Kingken, specializing in Shirunashi Tantanmen, is probably the most well-known nationwide. According to the restaurant’s website, as of December 2023, there are 13 Kingken restaurants not only in Hiroshima, but also in Tokyo, Osaka, Fukuoka, and other cities. The restaurant has opened more stores in Tokyo than in its home base of Hiroshima, and may be especially familiar to B-class gourmet lovers in Tokyo.

The main branch of Kingken is located in Otemachi, near Peace Memorial Park, and during my stay in Hiroshima, I visited the Otemachi Head Shop to try their Shirunashi Tantanmen. What kind of taste would the Shirunashi Tantanmen have at such a popular restaurant that has expanded out of Hiroshima and into the whole country? I was looking forward to visiting the restaurant…

Kingken Otemachi Head Shop is clean, but a bit cramped… this is the kind of restaurant I went to.

I arrived at Kingken Otemachi Head Shop around 12:00 p.m., but it was just before the customers had arrived, and there were a few empty seats. I purchased a meal ticket from the ticket machine right after entering the restaurant, and sat down at the seat guided to me by the waiter.

The restaurant has seating for 23 customers at the counter only, but I felt a little cramped because of the narrow space between the seats next to me. It is not that I was carrying a large baggage. The space itself is not so small, and the atmosphere is casual and clean, but… when I let my guard down and relax a little, I could easily hit my elbow against the person next to me. Well, it is not a restaurant where one would stay for a long time, so it can’t be helped.

What does Shirunashi Tantanmen at Kingken Otemachi Head Shop, a local B-Grade gourmet dish from Hiroshima that is spreading nationwide, taste like?

As one would expect from a restaurant that claims to specialize in ” Shirunashi Tantanmen,” the menu at Kingken Otemachi Head Shop…

Except for toppings and side dishes, there is only one Shirunashi Tantanmen menu. You can choose the spiciness from 0 to 4 spiciness, and the standard spiciness seems to be 2 spiciness.

I handed my meal ticket to the waiter and waited at the counter for about 5 minutes.

The appearance is simple, but the aroma of pepper wafting from this bowl is quite refreshing. In fact, the moment you enter the restaurant, you may notice the aroma of “Oh? The aroma of the pepper is so strong that you will notice it as soon as you enter the restaurant.

I did not ask for an onsen tamago (hot spring egg) or white rice this time, but I followed this guidance and stirred them more than 30 times…

Let’s try it… It’s not as spicy as I thought it would be. Yes, this Shirunashi Tantanmen 2 spicy has a strong aroma, but it is not that spicy. The spiciness of this Shirunashi Tantanmen 2 spicy is different from that of Kisaku’s Shirunashi Tantanmen, which is spicy and numbing by default… Well, each person has his or her own sensitivity to spiciness, so people who do not like spicy food should be careful. However, it can be said that the spiciness is much more acceptable than Kisaku’s Shirunashi Tantanmen.

The sauce used to flavor the noodles also has a mild taste. I heard that homemade sesame paste is used in the sauce, which may have played a role in making the sauce less stimulating and mellow. The less stimulating the sauce is, the more I wanted to add more pepper…

I sprinkled the pepper on top of the pepper paste provided at the table. I can’t get enough of this aroma…

Yes, the noodles on the other hand were medium thin noodles with a light curl and were cooked quite hard and chewy. You might say that the noodles have not absorbed much water yet. There may be pros and cons to this degree of boiling, but personally, I like the chewiness of the noodles because it is exciting in a different way. The noodles were not chattering, so it was easy to mix them without them sticking or tangling with each other…

The Shirunashi Tantanmen at King Ken’s Otemachi main store was much more familiar and spicier than I had imagined at first, but the aroma of the pepper was very strong, and I felt that I was sure to be addicted to it. Kisaku, the original Shirunashi Tantanmen restaurant we had visited earlier in Hiroshima, has a very unique atmosphere and is a bit far from the downtown area, so it is more accessible, especially for tourists from outside of the prefecture who want to experience shirunashi tantanmen for the first time! If you are a tourist from outside of the prefecture and want to try soupless tantanmen for the first time, you may want to try Kingken, which is more conveniently located.

You can order it from Amazon or Rakuten… To get to the Otemachi main branch of King Ken, which specializes in shirunashi tananmen, walk 2 minutes from the nearest station, Chuden-mae Station on the Hiroshima Electric Railway Line.

You can order Shirunashi Tantanmen from Kingken’s Shirunashi Tantanmen specialty shops on Amazon and Rakuten. You can use chopped green onion and minced pork to recreate the taste of the restaurant, or you can develop your own Shirunashi Tantanmen by topping it with your favorite ingredients. You can also develop your own original Shirunashi Tantanmen by topping it with your favorite ingredients. Please note, however, that the expiration date is only 13 days from the date of manufacture.

Now, here are the details of the restaurant…