Saga Tokyo

Recommended bowl: Jiro inspiration

The menu here changes entirely from lunch to dinner, as does the shop name. At lunch it's called Anaya and after dark it becomes Pork Noodle Naito. At lunch most opt for the tsukemen, at night the specialty is giro ramen, aka Jiro-style ramen: thick chewy noodles, beansprouts and globs of pork back fat in a shoyu-tonkotsu soup. Anaya used to be owned by Onozato-san, the master of Seimen Rabo, a well-respected shop in Nishi Shinjuku. Onozato-san would run the lunch shift, and Kokubun-san worked the dinner and nighttime hours. Kokubun-san eventually took over the business and now does everything himself, including all prep and hand-making the fresh noodles. He closes the shop at 11pm, giving him just enough time to clean up and catch the last train back to his home in Chiba, a full two hours away. Less