Kiraku

«Kiraku» has been popular in Shibuya for a very long time. It’s one of those nice, old places where there aren’t really special dishes that get people strongly attached to the place but rather you feel like it’s your soul food after coming back a few times. I’d say it won’t be too impressive for most people for the first time, and this place is very tiny and is not very comfortable to be in (crowded too!), and yet, lots of fans keep coming back.
Not sure if you’d be a fan, but if you like Ramen and Gyoza in general and often hang out in Shibuya, I’d suggest you try it out at least once.

After a taxing day traveling through the city, we wanted to sample some Ramen local to Shibuya. Apparently, no other Ramen-​Ya in the area is more historic and emblematic of «Tokyo-​style» Ramen than Kiraku.
Attempting to find Kiraku via GPS was harder than I thought. This unassuming, no frills Ramen-​Ya was so polite it nearly camoflaged to the surrounding landscape… hence me passing by it and getting lost.
After being escorted to the eatery by a local, we were directed upstairs to a second story terrace. No coupon machine. Instead, a waitress with menus and a pulley system for having Ramen delivered up from the kitchen below.
We both ordered the Wontonmen Ramen [it has stuffed wontons in the soup along with the noodles, etc…] per the house’s recommendation.
The Broth: This broth was the business! DEEEEP, deep soy flavor tasted of hours in a simmering pot. Clearly, this broth has a lot to do with the restaurant sustaining it’s operation for nearly 70 years.
The Chashu: This was the most underwhelming, or at least novel, portion of my Tokyo Ramen experience. The pork was served thick, somewhat chewy and room-​temp/​cold. Might this just be a traditional way of serving the pork in Tokyo style?
The Egg: A hard-​boiled preparation served cut open.
The Noodle: Average size, quite chewy. Delicious addition of the meat filled wontons.
Kiraku had it’s high and low points; however, there is no taking away from the importance of this Ramen… I am grateful to have tried it.