Ryutenmon, Ebisu, Tokyo

eataku:

On day seven of my “Ask A Stranger” Tokyo Ramen Tour, I ended up staying closer to “home” than I originally expected. My meetings were all later in the afternoon and evening, so I was free for lunch and figured I’d go explore. To be honest, there were a bunch of ramen joints I wanted to hit in Ikebukuro that I had read about in magazine or heard about from friends, but that was not in keeping with the nature of this “tour”. So I went and asked another complete stranger for his ramen recommendation. This time it was the kindly, white-haired concierge who was waiting at his desk in the lobby of The Westin hwre I was staying.

“Have you ever eaten here in the hotel?”, he asked, which confused me as I didn’t know there was a restaurant that served ramen there. He explained that while not technically “ramen”, the Westin’s Chinese restaurant, Ryutenmon, had won all sorts of accolades for its tantanmen, a Japanese take on spicy dan dan noodles. Sold.

I took the elevator up to the second floor, got a nice corner table for one at Ryutenmon, and told waiter I didn’t even need a menu; I simply ordered the tantanmen…

It’s quite a beautiful dish with its bold blend of colors…

What you see here are noodles in a sesame soup, which I ordered cold instead of hot given it was another summer scorcher out that day, topped with chili oil, chopped scallion, minced pork and what I believe may have been shredded bok choy on top…

This tantanmen was not at all what I had in mind for lunch on that open afternoon, but it hit the spot. The nuttiness of the chilled sesame soup, the bite of the chili oil (which was hotter than expected and required an early afternoon beer for quenching), and the chewiness of the cold noodles, it all blended into a meal that I found to be the perfect way to start my day!

Ryutenmon

The Westin Tokyo

2nd Floor

1-4-1 Mita

Meguro-ku

153-0062

Japan

www.westin-tokyo.co.jp