Recommended bowl: Tokyo backfat style

Open for over 40 years, Benkei serves Tokyo-style tonkotsu shoyu soup with pork back fat. The soup is made from pork bones, pork meat and pig heads, along with chicken, onions, garlic and ginger, all boiled for seven hours. The noodles are supplied by Kaikarou Seimen. Popular toppings include thinly sliced pork belly chashu or diced negi. Owner Nishikawa-san ran a yatai (street cart) for 10 years before opening Benkei. Nishikawa-san's policy has always been that a bowl of ramen should cost the same as the starting fare of a Tokyo taxi. His brand now has multiple branches in Tokyo, but this is the flagship.