Ramen MATSUI: The Next Great Disciple; Shinjuku Gyoenmae, Tokyo

I first started reviewing and writing about ramen shops way back in 2018 and one of the shops that inspired me to do so was Shibasakitei located out towards Tsutsujigaoka station. I visited a handful of high ranking ramen shops before, but it wasn’t until I had a bowl at Shibasakitei did I feel like I experienced a proper shokunin ramen experience. Since then I’ve gone and had multiple bowls at the main HQ as well as all of their branch locations (Shibasakitei+ in Umegaoka and Nanachome Shokudo in Soshigaya) and I’ve never been disappointed. And of course, over these last 5 years, a number of former disciples have graduated and moved on to start their own joint, many of whom have found success as well. The newest to do so is the master here at Ramen MATSUI, who was once the manager of the Umegaoka location. MATSUI opened in May of this year and has had lines out the door since their first day of service. I waited it out for a few months to see if the queues would get more manageable, but it never did so I made my way there and endured their hour long wait.

When you arrive, the line will form opposite the shop along the main road. You’ll end up making your order at the ticket machine before you sit, so hang tight and wait at the back of the queue. I had about 10 people in front of me and it ended up being about 45 minutes before I got to my seat. As you can see from the photo, no English on this ticket machine so I’ll go ahead and translate here. Starting with the top row is the Tokusei, all topping version of their 4 main ramen varieties. Orange is the Shoyu ramen, light blue is Shio, yellow is Niboshi, and the dark blue is their summer time limited hiyashi, cold ramen. Below the main tokusei buttons are the other topping options which are extra chashu on the top left, wonton on the right, ajitama soft boiled egg on the bottom left, and ramen as is to the right of that. Colors of the button indicated the ramen variety as described above. The fifth row of buttons are the rice options which are duck chashu over rice, pork chashu over rice, spicy menma over rice, and regular rice. Sixth row are the extra toppings of egg, duck, pork chashu, wontons, and menma. Next row are appetizers which look to be unavailable for the foreseeable future and the final row are the drinks of beer, sake, red wine, white wine, coke, and oolong tea. My order on this visit was the Tokusei Shio Ramen.

First off, this is without a doubt the most gorgeous bowl I’ve had so far in 2023. The golden soup becomes a canvas for the beautiful noodle fold which helps support the plentiful toppings included in the Tokusei option. Broth for this soup is comprised of Rausu Kombu, Shinjiko Shijimi clams, and Hokkaido scallops to bring forth an incredibly decadent flavor profile which is heightened by their carefully crafted Shio tare. Tare uses a Shiro Shoyu as base and layers it with a multitude of different salts to ensure you get the best out of each broth component. The balance here is what makes this bowl amazing as there's no animal products used in the broth. Despite it’s lack of animal richness, this has a ton of depth and honestly just outclasses the majority of seafood only soups I've had. I would even go as far as to say this ranks in my top ten all time here in Tokyo. It’s hard to argue the meticulous care and craftsmanship that went in to this bowl and I haven’t even gotten to the noodles and toppings!

With that said, the noodles are probably the weakest part of this bowl which is saying a lot since I doubt this is made in house. And by weak, I mean it was the part that stood out the least since, let’s face it, it still outranks most ramen shops in Tokyo. Strands here have the familiar bounce and springiness of the Shibasakitei bowls and I would guess the recipes are quite similar. I did enjoy the tensile strength these strands had and the slurpability was definitely on point; anything thinner would have faded in to the background of the soup and any thicker it would interfere with it’s delicate balance. Portion size is also quite large and a couple of guests besides me definitely had a hard time powering through at the end so pretty good bang for your buck as well.

Not like it really needs to prove it’s worth though if I’m being completely honest because just look at this collection of toppings. First off, the extra couple bucks for the Tokusei more than makes up for it with the inclusion of these scallop sashimi. My god was this delicious and it beautifully paired with and accentuate the flavors of the dried scallops in the soup. Next up is the sous vide chashu which was cooked to a perfect rosy pink finish. Pork had a very light flavor and added the right touch of meatiness to this bowl. The bit of komatsuna mustard greens provided some much needed earthiness to the dish and the thinly sliced lime was the perfect acidic accent to the soup. Wontons were plump and juicy with a pretty thin skin. I like my skins as thin as possible and this was a bit too thick for my liking, but I still enjoyed it nonetheless. Egg was cooked to a custardy finish so no oozing yolk this time. I actually thought this was the right choice here as a creamy yolk would have interfered with the soup a bit too much. I quite liked the structural integrity of these eggs and enjoyed it both as is and with the soup.

Not much more to say here besides, go. I can’t imagine the lines here staying shorter than an hour for long and this will likely be a hot spot given it’s location near Shinjuku National Park. Summers can get quite brutal as you’re waiting directly in the sun so be sure to bring some water and a sunbrella if you have it. If you do make it out, let me know what you thought in the comment section below!