Recommended bowl: Housemade noodles

This small shop down a side alley in west Ikebukuro offers a few different simple bowls. The draw here are the handmade noodles, cranked out daily on a noodle machine in the small kitchen space. Normal go-tos are the ramen or tsukemen served with a double soup of animal bones and fish. Also popular is the 'B men,’ or aburasoba. Ramen served without soup. Chili oil and vinegar on the counter to add to taste. Usually only open for lunch, from 10:30am-3pm. One month of the year in August, the shop hours change to 6pm-9:30pm, a change to escape the summer heat, perhaps. Not a shop that wins awards, but one that Ikebukuro ramen heads know about and frequent on a regular basis.