Muteppou Osaka

This ramen shop, with its main branch in Kizugawa City, Kyoto, was originally founded in the city of Nara in 1998. The famous Muteppou brand keeps shops in only 3 locations (Kyoto, Osaka and Tokyo), drawing fans from across Japan.

The biggest draw of this ramen is its rich, pork-bone based broth, whose lip-smacking, flavorful taste is sure to blow even first-time patrons away. The broth is made with nothing but high-quality, select pork bones and water, simmered from a 300-kg batch of bones into a painstakingly made, delicious soup with a flavor like none other. Each batch is made until the melted marrow seeps into the broth, infusing I with loads of extra collagen. If you want an even richer flavor, pick the extra-rich “kotteri” option made with extra fat. On the other end a “light” broth variety is available, or you can customize your bowl by altering the chewiness of the noodles, amount of scallions or more. Prepare your mouth for hand-selected medium-thick, slightly crimped noodles from Kyushu, a long-simmered house broth, and secret sauce-broiled char siu pork. To finish it all off, make each bowl your very own by adding pickled ginger, house-made garlic soy sauce or spicy takana mustard greens, grated sesame seeds for free.

For non-tonkotsu varieties, there’s the Japanese classic shoyu (soy sauce) ramen made with a delicious fish-based broth, or even the double-broth ramen made with a delicate ratio of 6-parts pork bone to 4-parts shoyu broth. Don’t forget the delicious side menu items, including Miyazaki gyoza, spare ribs, or the grilled char siu ricebowl (with special pork sauce, available in limited numbers on weekends and holidays).