Ramentary - Ippudo, Kobe

Ippudo is a chain of ramen shops out of the Hakata area, with outposts in Tokyo and as far off as New York (I heard it's really expensive, though). We had one near Waseda when I was a student, but the lines were always long as we preferred Kokuran (RIP) anyway. It's one of the better chains in my experience, but I haven't been to one since my days as a study abroad student because there's so many other ramen joints I want to try.

This branch of Ippudo is located outside of Motomachi station in Kobe, about a 2 minute walk opposite Chinatown.

Pictured below is the Akamaru kasane aji version of their ramen. It's one of their spicy versions, but doesn't approach the spice levels offered by ramen-ya that specialize in it. You can see the pork, green onions, bamboo, seaweed, and mentaiko (spicy cod roe) floating around in a bowl that I polished off in about 4 minutes :) I'm not sure what the black oil was made with, but it tasted of burnt garlic. I love garlic in my ramen.

Some what disappointing, and not pictured, was the fried rice. Though well-seasoned and not too oily, there was no meat anywhere in the 500 yen dish. I expect more than rice and frozen veggie bits, no matter how well made the yakimeshi may be.