Love ramen? Like rainbows? Well then this is the perfect ramen shop for you! A few months ago, I was driving toward Ami Town when I saw a rainbow colored beetle (the car not the bug) across from the Family Mart close to Kasumigaura High School. I kept wondering what was the deal with that car and I brought it up to a coworker of mine. The coworker informed me that the car was part of a new ramen restaurant that just recently opened and they served noodles that were all the colors of a rainbow. This piqued my interest and when I told the wife about it, she said we had to check it out. So this week during dinner time, we headed on over to Café To Mayotte Ramen in Tsuchiura for some rainbow ramen.
Café To Mayotte Ramen
The place has a strange name. Translated it means the café to be lost in ramen...I think. You can't miss the brightly colored rainbow beetle but the restaurant looks like a regular Japanese two story house. The parking is kind of limited so be aware of that. I think there were about 4 or 5 spaces available. Once you walk inside the restaurant, you can tell that the place was recently built. Everything looks brand new. From the counter, to the tables, everything was clean and new. At the entrance, like most ramen restaurants, there is a ramen ticket vending machine where you select your order and present your ticket to the staff.
The Menu
The menu is very colorful. I decided to go with the six colored tsukemen and my wife decided on the shio (salt) ramen. We also ordered the chashu rice bowl as a side because when we read up on the place, a reviewer said that the six colored tsukemen might not be enough to fill up a guy like me. We gave our tickets to the staff and waited for our ramen.
The Colorful Noodles
While waiting, we checked out an explanation about the ramen I ordered. Apparently, all the different colored ramen noodles have different flavors. The yellow noodles are pumpkin flavored, the orange noodles are tomato flavored, the red noodles are beets flavored, the purple noodles are sweet potato flavored, the blue noodles are butterfly pea flavored (this is a type of flower not the bug) and finally the green noodles are spinach flavored. The wife and I were scared and excited. After reading all that and checking out the restaurant, our ramen arrived.
Shio Ramen
I don't dislike salt ramen but it isn't my favorite. I am more of a miso and tonkotsu guy. My wife likes salt ramen and according to her, the salt ramen was great. She really enjoyed it. She liked and was curious about the small round rainbow looking thing on the ramen. We both tried it and we believe it is a small mochi (rick cake). She let me try the rest of her ramen and I think the noodles were really good and so was the chashu. I was really impressed by how great the chashu tasted. Speaking of chashu.
Chashu Rice Bowl
The chashu rice bowl is a great side! The cooked chashu was delicious. It was soft and flavorful with that excellent chashu taste we all know and love. It wasn't a big bowl or anything like that but it was a perfect side to our ramen. Next, came my rainbow delight.
6 Colored Tsukmen
My ramen was as colorful as the menu made it out to be. I am not a big fan of tomatoes so I decided to get the tomato flavored noodles out of the way first. I dipped my noodles into the broth and found that the tomato flavor was very faint. I tasted the broth more than the noodles. The broth was sour and a little thick. It wasn't super oily like a lot of ramen broths are. The wife said that this ramen was probably healthier than other usual ramen. I then tried the sweet potato flavored noodles and found the flavor to be very faint as well. Every different colored noodle I tried had a faint flavor of what was advertised on the menu. I decided to just mix the noodles up and try them together. This is what I recommend doing instead of dipping each type of noodle by itself. The flavors really came out when I mixed them for some reason. I really could taste all the different vegetable flavors when they were mixed together. The wife agreed when I let her try some of it. After I had finished my noodles, the staff asked if I would like some soup in the broth so that I can easily drink it. I said sure and when they came back with my broth it was easier and tastier to drink. So I drank all my broth with glee.
The wife and I were finished with our ramen and we were both very full. We thanked the staff for the lovely ramen, checked out the rainbow beetle one last time and headed home.
I will say that this was an interesting ramen experience. This isn't my number one ramen but I did enjoy it. The price wasn't that bad either. I think my wife and I spent a total of 2000 yen for our meal. We were also given free coffee after our ramen which was nice. I do recommend giving the six colored tsukemen a chance at least once. It is a fun ramen to try and don't forget to order some extra chashu. I really did enjoy the chashu at this place. It was so soft and delicious. The texture of it still brings on fond memories. I wish I had ordered more. So if you are craving adventure and ramen, come on down to Tsuchiura and give Café To Mayotte Ramen a chance. Who knows, you might see me there, dipping my brightly colored noodles into that nice ramen broth while enjoying awesome chasu. Enjoy! For more information on Cafe To Mayotte Tsuchiura, check out their Facebook page:
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