Zenya (ぜんや) Niiza

Recommended bowl: Top-class for shio

The master of Zenya, Iikura-san, worked as a government official in Japan’s Ministry of International Trade and Industry for many years before resigning from his post to become a ramen chef. He is entirely self-taught. At Zenya, Iikura-san presides over a massive pot of boiling soup containing chicken, carrots, onions and other vegetables. Most ramen chefs prepare their soup stock before service hours, discarding the boiled ingredients so that they have a pure soup to work with in the kitchen. But Iikura-san keeps it earthy. He ladles each bowl directly from his cauldron of simmering, chunky ingredients.

These earthy optics are carried through in the homey flavors. The master has taken a down-home chicken vegetable soup and transposed it into a highly refined bowl of Japanese shio ramen. Iikura-san says he scoured the world for his preferred variety of salt to use as the base of his tare, eventually settling on an obscure Chinese brand. The dish includes yellow, eggy noodles and simple toppings of spinach, menma, sliced negi and chashu. It’s masterfully light and deceptively subtle. Very satisfying. The shop’s gyoza also comes recommended.

Zenya is regularly ranked among the 10 best shio ramen shops in the Kanto area. Despite the remote location – all the way out in Saitama, which technically isn’t even Tokyo – the shop regularly attracts a line. Less