Ramen Jiro Tochigi Kaido Branch

TARO (Tsukemen Aji Ramen JirO)…I was curious to know what kind of menu there is at Ramen Jiro, so I visited the restaurant that serves TARO, Ramen Jiro Tochigi Kaido Branch. I am not sure which Jiro restaurant started this TARO menu, but when I looked it up on the Internet, I could only find the Tochigi Kaido Branch and Sapporo Branch where TARO is available (and the Sapporo restaurant seems to treat it as a back-up menu).

So it was inevitable for me to go to the Tochigi Kaido branch, which is the only place where I can eat TARO for sure. What kind of restaurant was it? And what did TARO taste like? I will tell you slowly from now on, so please continue reading this article to the end…

郊外店の恐ろしさを再認識…ラーメン二郎 栃木街道店はこんなお店

Reconfirming the horror of suburban restaurants…Ramen Jiro Tochigi Kaido Branch is a restaurant like this…

Ramen Jiro Tochigi Kaido Branch is located in Mibu-cho, in the southern part of Tochigi Prefecture. I actually went to the restaurant, and to tell the truth, there is nothing to be found in this area. You may be thinking, “Why is Jiro in such a place?” I thought. The location is much worse than Ramen Jiro Maebashi Chiyodacho Branch, and to be honest, it doesn’t seem like a place that would attract many customers.

So on this particular day, I arrived at the restaurant 25 minutes before opening time, thinking that I would be fine if I arrived 15 minutes before the opening time. However, as I got closer to the restaurant, I realized that I had been naive. First of all, I saw from a distance that there were many cars parked around the restaurant. I thought to myself, “What the hell is this?” A few seconds later, my head was filled with the sound of despair, “Oh no….” Almost all of the 20 parking spaces on the premises of Ramen Jiro Tochigi Kaido Branch were already occupied (there is also a second parking lot on the other side of the road), and when I arrived at the restaurant, there were more than 20 customers in front of me from the storefront. By the time the store opened, the line was so long that it was impossible to count.

In the end, it took a little less than 50 minutes after the opening time before I was finally seated. It was a result of recognizing again the horror of a popular restaurant located in the suburbs. Incidentally, Ramen Jiro Tochigi Kaido Branch has only 10 seats at the L-shaped counter. Compared to other Jiro restaurants, there were more female customers (about 30% of the total?), which was impressive.

It wasn’t tsukemen… The TARO I had at Ramen Jiro Tochigi Kaido Branch was more like the popular menu item at that famous restaurant!

Let me introduce to you the target of my visit, TARO at Ramen Jiro Tochigi Kaido Branch. The price is 850 yen for the ramen and 120 yen for the TARO option, for a total of 970 yen…

After waiting for less than 10 minutes, TARO appeared in front of me like this. For a moment, I was confused and thought, “Hey, isn’t TARO tsukemen?” But then I thought about it and realized that it was “Tsukemen Aji” and not “Tsukemen”. By the way, the call that day was “as is”. In other words, this is the true form of TARO.

Let’s start with the soup… A thick layer of fat on the surface of the soup like this is a promise of Jiro. However, the color of the soup is definitely a little different. When putting it in the mouth, the strong pork flavor is replaced by the stimulation of hot chili peppers and the aroma of sesame oil… In my image, this TARO is like hot raayu soba (sesame oil buckwheat noodles). The aroma of this sesame oil is a nice stimulant and makes me want to throw noodle and vegetables into my mouth one after another. This whole ramen is supposed to be quite greasy, but I didn’t get sick to my stomach at all, even though I ate it all the way through.

Well, the noodles are not buckwheat noodles, but the usual Jiro noodles. But I wonder if they are a bit thinner than the noodles of a typical Jiro (the amount of noodles is about the standard of Jiro)… I wonder if this is due to the influence of Hachioji Yaen Kaido Branch 2, the owner’s training place. The noodles were soft, but not too soft. I think it is just the right amount of boiling to enjoy the fluffy and sticky texture of the noodles.

The other main ingredient, the pork, was four pieces even though it was a normal ramen. The meat is firm and firm, just like Jiro’s pork! It was enough to satisfy me even if I did not add more meat. Even if you don’t add more meat, you will be satisfied.

In my mind, TARO at Ramen Jiro Tochigi Kaido Branch was more like “raayu soba” than “tsukemen,” and I finished it in a few minutes, remembering such famous restaurants as Minatoya 2. Although it does not have a strong pork flavor, it is very easy to eat, and I can understand why there are so many repeat customers, even female customers. It would be a shame to let this dish remain only at the Tochigi Kaido Branch. If this TARO were to spread nationwide, the number of female Jiro fans would increase dramatically….

Other menu items at Ramen Jiro Tochigi Kaido Branch (prices include tax)

• Ramen noodles with pork 1,050 yen
• Raw egg 80 yen
• 5 quails 120 yen
• Japanese ginger 100 yen
• Bonito kun 100 yen
• Sasashi Chinese noodles 100 yen
• Spicy Rakkyo from Iwashita 100 yen

Visiting by car is strongly recommended, especially at night… Access to Ramen Jiro Tochigi Kaido Branch is an 18-minute walk from the nearest station, Mibu Station on the Tobu Utsunomiya Line.

I strongly recommend that you visit Ramen Jiro Tochigi Kaido Branch by car, especially at night. It is an 18-minute walk from the nearest station, but there are few streetlights, so it is pitch-dark around the restaurant. Well, it does not seem to be a dangerous area, but you can get lost even if you rely on google map at night. So, if you don’t have your own car or other transportation, please consider visiting during daytime hours.

Now, here are the details of the restaurant…