A few years ago, I used to teach English at a research facility near the Matsushiro area of Tsukuba. I always traveled on a small road to this facility that had an old-looking love hotel on the left side of the road. A year into this job, I started noticing construction going on next to the love hotel. When construction was finished, I saw that it was a new ramen restaurant and I decided to give it a try some day soon. After a few months, the job ended, and I wasn't able to try this new ramen place. Four years later, my wife and I are parking at this ramen shop, and we are excited to give Japanese Soup Noodle Language a try.
Japanese Soup Noodle Language
Yeah, I thought the same thing too. "What kind of name is that?" In Japanese, the name of this place is called Tsukuba Ramen Onimonogatari. Oni is demon, so demon language or demon story? Even my wife was super confused by the name. This place has a long English name so I am calling it Ramen Language from now on.
Ramen Language is located in the Enokido area of Tsukuba. It is right by the 408 intersection next to a love hotel called Hotel Plus. There is plenty of parking but the restaurant itself is pretty small.
Inside
My wife and I visited Ramen Language on a Tuesday night for dinner. When we walked in, Ramen Language had Japanese hip hop playing on the overhead speakers, signed autographs all over the walls, and all the stools at the counter were taken. We had to wait till a stool opened up. Ramen Language has a pretty simple design. A ramen counter with stools, a small wooden bench to wait at, and they have a ticket vending machine like all other ramen places do. That is where we headed first.
The Menu
Let's go over the ramen menu. Unfortunately, it is all in Japanese. Not to worry, I will help translate.
The first top white buttons are the specials for that day. They were all sold out so I have no idea what the specials are.
The next three rows of buttons are the chicken and water ramen. (Yeah, that is the name of it in Japanese. This place needs to work on naming things.) The first row is the chicken and water soy sauce base, the second row is the salt base, and the third row is noko which means rich. So it is more creamy. The buttons that go to the right of the row are as follows, chicken and water ramen with agitamago (egg), with chicken breast, with chashu, and finally the last button is an assortment platter.
The next two rows are all about tsukemen. You have the tanrei tsukemen and the chicken-based tsukeme. All the other buttons in both rows are the different sizes you can order.
The bottom buttons are all extra toppings and rice bowls.
Chicken and Water Special Assortment (Rich Soup)
My wife wanted to try the most expensive ramen on the menu. It sounded like a fun ramen dish. She ordered the rich chicken and water ramen with the assorted dishes of different meats and spices. When my wife's ramen was ready and put in front of her, it looked very fancy. I immediately thought about Hachi to Cho Ramen back in Ami town. But this ramen place has been around longer so I think these guys may have started the fancy ramen trend in Southern Ibaraki.
Anyway, my wife let me try a little bit of her ramen. The soup was rich and creamy which was nice. What caught my attention were the noodles, they were small and thin. They almost reminded me of soumen noodles that Japanese people eat during the summer. The assortment of meats was delicious and fun. The chicken was great and we got to try it with the different spices on the assortment dish. The chashu was delicious but small. All and all, it was a tasty ramen.
Tanrei Tsukemen
Now we come to my tsukemen. I am sure you are wondering the same thing I was. "What's Tanrei?" Tanrei ramen is a soy sauce ramen that is usually a clear transparent soup. It is supposed to have a light taste so it is easier to eat. This soup was definitely on the light side but it did have a lot of oil in it. What was weird was that it worked well with those thin noodles I wrote about earlier. The oily light broth went perfectly with those thin soumen-looking noodles. I absolutely loved it and couldn't stop slurping. My ramen also came with chicken and chashu, both very tasty. This ramen confused me but in a good way. The only thing I don't like is the soup bowl. I don't need that fancy deep bowl making it hard to get the last pieces of chicken and noodles. Also, a little less oil might be nice but otherwise, I did love my tanrei tsukemen.
Ramen Language was a very delicious and interesting experience. The young staff behind the ramen counter were super serious, dishing out fancy-looking ramen while a Japanese hip-hop song was blasting overhead. I hope to come back soon and try their other menu items.
So if you are in the mood for ramen or tsukemen, and are around the Enokido area of Tsukuba, why not give Japanese Soup Noodle Language a try? Who knows, you might see me there, slurping on some delicious noodles while bopping my head to the hip-hop music.
Enjoy!
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