Excellent tiny ramen shop with only counter seats. Small menu.

The BEST Ramen in the world🙌🔥🔥🔥

A small counter-only shop where the system is to buy your meal ticket first and then line up along the shop. The sliding doors have numbers written on them, and when it's your turn, they call out "First customer in line, please come in through door #〇~". After waiting about 20 minutes, what I had here was… ･Ramen (regular) 1000 yen ･Rice (small) 150 yen My husband, who ordered his noodles firm, was served first, and chee's regular came a little later. The soup is light yet rich, with just the right saltiness ヽ(ﾟ∀ﾟ)ﾉ Yumm♡ The ajitama is a little firmer than soft-boiled, a nice balance where the yolk doesn't melt into the soup. The chashu is big and delicious too! The rice costs extra but comes with kappa (cucumber pickles), and the rice quality isn't bad, so it's acceptable in these times. Of course it went perfectly with the soup♡ They lend out parasols for people waiting outside, and the inside, which I'd assumed would be hot, had good AC, so it was comfortable. The staff were kind, and there were customers with two kids around elementary school age. It's such a perfect shop, but the one thing that didn't agree with chee was the spinach…. I like iekei spinach, but I'd prefer it more wilted; here the fibers stay in my mouth and I can't swallow them along with the noodles (´・ω・｀) My husband apparently didn't mind, so I think it's a problem with chee's chewing power…. When I heard the person behind me in line say "no spinach" when giving their preferences, I thought "What!? You're skipping the spinach at an iekei!?", but now chee is torn between going without spinach next time or trying again since it might have been a one-off lol Thank you for the meal!

+2

[ラーメンチョップ]@Nishi-Tokyo ▷Mini ramen ¥700- ▷Kyabecha ¥180- A street-front shop along the road. Counter only, and the staff have a really upbeat vibe. They tell you which door to enter depending on which seat you'll take. The mini ramen is 0.5 portion of noodles. Since I was doing back-to-back meals I'd planned to go small, so I'm really grateful they properly offer it! I wonder if the noodles are from Sakai Seimen. It kind of felt like it. The soup is close to 武蔵家. But on top of that, I can taste a chicken-bone character like tori paitan. I think "sweet and creamy" gets the idea across. The chashu is thick and on the moist side. Very much my type! The kyabecha is dressed with sesame and sauce and it's tasty. Makes you want rice.

+2

Meal ticket system / cash only. You buy a ticket from the machine on the right inside the shop, then line up, and when it's your turn you enter through the door with your number tag on it. For business hours, I recommend checking their official social media beforehand. Having lived in Kanagawa Prefecture as a student, I thought it was hard to find truly delicious iekei in Tokyo, but the ramen here is a truly classic yet carefully made, one-of-a-kind exquisite iekei. From the "ラーメンチョップ" sign you might mistake it for a Ramen Shop-style place, but inside it's a very orthodox, well-balanced iekei. I usually eat mine "katame/koime" + garlic, but here the soup is so delicious there are days I don't even want to add garlic. At this shop I usually just get everything normal. The kyabecha seems to be made to order, and you can luxuriously enjoy the crunchy cabbage and chunky chashu. They probably use good rice too—it isn't dry like you often get at chain iekei shops, but fluffy and sweet. On top of that, they're generous with flavorful nori, and since I don't want to mess with the soup's flavor, I put doubanjiang and garlic on the rice, wrap it in the delicious nori, and enjoy it with the soup—a whole week's fatigue just blows away! If you're ordering rice, I also recommend extra nori. The owner's wife, who runs their social media, also has a very bright and sincere personality. Even when busy, the energetic service and warm consideration for customers come through, and it's a ramen shop I really want to support. I once saw a reply on their social media saying "Children are very welcome, children are treasures." I don't have kids yet myself, but I remembered friends raising kids lamenting that "it's hard to go to counter-only ramen shops," and thought an iekei that welcomes parents and kids is truly wonderful. It seems they even have a kids' ramen! So kind… I'd also like to touch on the price: while quite a few iekei shops in Tokyo "have soup made in a factory and delivered (central kitchen)," here they use plenty of bones in the shop and carefully simmer the soup for hours before opening. Amid recent inflation and soaring gas prices, they keep things so fair that I worry, "This much effort in a ramen at this price…?" Even family members who never liked iekei say "I didn't know iekei could be this delicious!" and always want to go. Personally, the quality is such that I'd definitely keep coming even if it cost more. I'll keep coming back. Rooting for you!