Ootsu Ramen

Rating: Very good
Meal:  Lunch for 2
Price:  1920 yen
Payment: Cash only
Dishes: Two 6-3-1 ramen bowls, 1 small, 1 medium
English Menu: No
Smoking: Probably not

Yay I'm back home in Japan!  For my first meal out after getting back my wife and I drove a bit further down the road towards our old home in Kurihama.  On the way there we spied a ramen restaurant with a decently sized parking lot (hard to find) next to it.  It was Ootsu Ramen, which advertises as a Yokohama style tonkotsu ramen shop.  There seems to be a link between this place and Kami Buta in Yokosuka, but I'm not sure what it is.  They are not identical for sure.

Their main deal seems to be the 6-3-1 ramen bowl which comes with 6 pieces of seaweed nori, 3 slices of chashu pork and 1 soysauce egg.  My wife got the small and I got the medium.  I should have gotten the small.  We ordered our noodles "katame-de" (aka hard) and waited as they cooked everything up.

The broth was tasty, rich but not as overwhelming as Kami Buta's.  They don't do the huge amounts of beansprouts and cabbage (or raw garlic) either.  But they did have some tasty sauces and freshly grated ginger to put in if you wanted.  The pork wasn't as thick, tender or fatty as Kami Buta either, a bit chewy for my taste, but my wife preferred it.  The noodles were great, thick and chewy.

Over all it was a very delicious bowl of ramen and a great first meal back home.