[Tokyo] ”Gowa Gowa” at Koroba Bettei (自家製麺頃場別邸) in Koiwa

Gotou (自家製麺ご藤) is one of the ramen shop that I had wanted to visit. Finally, I visited there. But they have changed their name to “Ramen Koroba Bettei (自家製麺頃場別邸)”. They do their business in the daytime at motsuyaki restaurant “Koroba Bettei (頃場別邸)”. Koroba bettei is open from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. They have 5 seats only.

The manager and chef trained at Urota (自家製麺うろた) close to JR Fukushima station in Fukushima prefecture. So, Koroba Bettei serve characteristic ramen similar to Urota. I think it’s a ramen that people either love or hate. Truthfully speaking, I don’t like it :p Why I tried to post about this shop ? Because almost all reviews about this ramen were posted by person who love this ramen very much.

They call their noodles “Gowa Gowa ゴワゴワ”. Gowa Gowa means stiff, rough and so on in Japanese. This is the menu. Only it. They have niboshi soup ramen only. And another, rice, toppings. And though it don’t have the name, they have aedama (和え玉, 200 yen), too. Aedama is seasoned kaedama. They don’t have ticket vending machine. We order and pay in advance because the manager work by himself and he is very busy. Ramen have three sizes. Normal (200g / 900 yen), Large (300g / 1000 yen) and Special (400g / 1100 yen)

So… this is the ramen. I had normal size. Large roast pork, much green onion, and clear soup. Everything is my delight. Beautiful. This is ideal appearance of ramen for me.

Though it had abundant extract of soup, it didn’t have any bitterness. It had refreshing tastes. Good.

And this roast pork was so soft and juicy. The soup soaked into the roast pork. Delicious. The left thing is pork’s back fat. And another, it had laver and menma (bamboo shoot). I love everything except….

This noodle 🙁 It’s curly and thick noodles. As you see, it’s quite firm. They boil their noodles far shorter than normal. It’s similar to “Barikata” and “Harigane” of Hakata ramen. I was surprised at this noodle. Though I don’t think it don’t go with the sophisticated soup at all, there’re many people who love this combo. Men next to me enjoyed it.

I want to have this soup with narrow and soft noodles. But the manager is proud of this combo and actually there’re many fans of this ramen. And the manager said to me it go with the red ginger. And I tried. It wasn’t bad. But I didn’t need it. I think it went with garlic better than it. If you need, they serve grated ginger without charge.