Nishida Sho-ten Midtown

🍜4 / 5ramen rating

Service: 5

Atmosphere: 5

Spend: $20–30

“Visited Nishida-shoten in the evening, which finally allowed me to sample some of their alcohol selections. But even more interesting was the special they were running: a bowl of “Mega Jiro”. Of course, I could not resist giving it a try. It is indeed “mega”. Tons of moyashi bean sprouts, cabbage, raw garlic and hunks of chashu pork. The soup had the familiar Jiro porky tang, leaning much more tang than pork. Surprisingly the ample servings of raw garlic were tamed by the karame tang from the shoyu tare, which pleasantly made the garlic a complementary jab rather than a knockout punch. The noodles were the thicker of the two varieties usually served at Nishida shoten but not the even thicker multigrain variety usually found in a Jiro bowl. Still, loved that they didn’t skimp on the cabbage as many Jiro offerings around town (and in Japan) have recently been wont to do.”