In this segment of The Ramen Special, we’re dealing with something a little different. Mitsuyado Seimen is a tsukemen shop — tsukemen is a style of ramen where you dip fat wheat noodles (almost udon-like in consistency) into a savory vinegar-based broth. Dip and slurp and dip and slurp and uh~ you get the idea.

Mitsuyado Seimen is one of those places that you will never find unless somebody told you how to get there. We actually found the place by accident after finishing our TOEIC examinations (I got a perfect score LULZ): it was tucked in a quiet corner of Jupiter and Galaxy Streets in Bel-Air, Makati City (MAP).

When you walk into the shop, the first thing you’ll notice is the interior. Mitsuyado Seimen is kitted out to look like a street scene from Post-War Japan. There are (fake) storefronts and (fake) advertising and (fake) movie posters — all aged to look like the real deal.

The window overlooking the kitchen where the noodles are dished out is made to look like the takeaway counter of the neighborhood noodle joint. There is even a table for six built around a yatai (street cart) — which was how noodles used to be and is still sold in narrow alleys in Japan.

As for the food, you can never go wrong with the house special — tsukemen. The dipping broth is both tart and savory — very different from regular ramen broth. The noodles are served hot or cold according to personal preference. I always get it hot because I feel that the heat makes the noodles more amenable to being sauced 😀

Another house specialty is the Hakata Tonkotsu Ramen. Tonkotsu is a pork-based broth, made from boiling away soup bones for hours until the collagen from the bones melts away into the soup. This makes for some rich and savory broth — perfect for people who find regular noodle soup too dull and wimpy.

If I had any reservations about the place, it’s that tsukemen is not recommended for messy eaters ^^;; I nearly ruined a just-purchased hoodie from Uniqlo because I splashed broth all over myself >.> A quick trip to the bathroom to rinse it out helped, but prevention easily outweighs cure in this case.

Worth a second trip? Try twenty-second 😀 We’ve been there several times and it’s as fun and exciting and delicious as the first time. Slurp you there soon!