Recommended bowl: Kobe soul food

One of the most famous old-school shops in Kobe, considered ‘soul food’ for many people in the area. Kobe style tonsoku-shoyu soup is made in a pressure cooker using cabbage, onions, dried shiitake, pig trotters, skin and bones. No MSG. Noodles are homemade in a central kitchen, contain three kinds of wheat, and aged for one night. The original master Uchida-san grew up in Kumamoto Prefecture before training at the famous Kyoto shop Daiichi Asahi. He then opened Mokkosu in 1977. There are currently 14 Mokkosu branches in Japan, all in Hyōgo Prefecture. Five of the shops are directly owned and managed (including the Ōkurayama flagship), and another nine are franchised. Uchida-san's son now runs the company. Mokkosu means 'very strict' in Kumamoto dialect.