Recommended bowl: Elite chicken & shoyu

Master Toya-san was a simple ramen geek before becoming a master — he used to eat about 600 bowls per year. First he started making ramen at home. Then he trained at the shop Kanade in Tokyo for 3.5 years, then at Hachi No Ashiha in Nagoya for 1.5 years, then another shop, Maruwa in Nagoya, for six months. Finally he opened Ajisai in 2015.

The noodles are housemade, using a Yamato noodle machine. The noodles are straight Hirauchi-style, and slightly flat. The soup is chicken based. The chicken chashu is marinated with yuzu; the pork chashu is smoked. The shoyu tare contains raw, unpasteurized shoyu. Chiyu (chicken oil) on the top. No MSG. Now one of the highest ranked shops not only in Nagoya but in all of Aichi prefecture. Elite level.