Menya Seishin serves chuka soba — Japanese-style ramen in soy sauce or salt broth — from the ground floor of an apartment building in Higashi-Nakano, Nakano City, a two-minute walk from Ochiai Station on the Tokyo Metro Tozai Line. It opened on 11 November 2024. In the 26th TRY Ramen Awards 2025–2026 (published by Kodansha BC on 21 October 2025), it took first place in the TRY New Shop Award — the overall ranking for shops that opened during that period — and also placed first in both the new-shop shoyu (soy sauce) and shio (salt) categories.
The shop
Owner Masahiro Takano honed his cooking across French, Italian and kappo izakaya kitchens, and has experience in French cuisine, according to the outlets that have covered the shop. In ramen, he was manager at Kameido Niboshi Chuka Soba Tsukihi from 2020 and at Kita-Senju Niboshi Chuka Soba Karen from 2022, before opening his own shop in 2024.
Seating is six counter seats plus one table for four, as of Tabelog Magazine's coverage. Service centres on a short lunch shift, and water is self-service, per Sanpo no Tatsujin.
What to order
The noodles are made to order by Kanno Seimen from 100% domestic mochi wheat: a flat, thick cut (size 8, 3.75 mm wide), 150 g per serving, boiled for three and a half minutes, then hand-crimped (te-momi) just before serving to give them an irregular wave.
The broth is a "double soup" of animal and seafood stocks — Choshu Kurokashiwa, a branded chicken from Yamaguchi Prefecture, with pork bones, aromatic vegetables, katsuobushi and urume-bushi (dried fish flakes), niboshi (dried sardines), kombu and shiitake. Reports put the ingredient count at 20 to 30. The shoyu tare blends several soy sauces including kiage shoyu (unpasteurised soy sauce); Sanpo no Tatsujin reports six varieties and Otona no Shumatsu seven, so the mix may have changed over time. The shio tare blends nine salts over a niboshi-forward broth, per Otona no Shumatsu.
Three kinds of chashu top the bowl: two pork, one chicken. Iwachu pork shoulder and Bairi pork belly are marinated in tare for over a day, then cooked the same day for about 90 minutes over charcoal in a hanging-pot oven; the chicken chashu is cooked at low temperature. The same charcoal-grilled pork appears on the Sumibi Tsurushi Yakibuta Don rice bowl (¥500). A kombu-water tsukemen (dipping noodles) is also on the menu.
Planning your visit
Hours are 11:00 to 16:00 (last order), with occasional evening service from 18:00 to 21:00 (last order). Closing days are irregular, and both opening days and hours are announced on the shop's social media (per Sanpo no Tatsujin, updated January 2026). Check X (@ramen_seishin) or Instagram (@rohisamanokata) for the day you plan to visit.
On prices, media coverage lists the tokusei hand-crimped chuka soba in shoyu at ¥1,550, the standard bowl from ¥1,150 and the kombu-water tsukemen from ¥1,350. These have been revised since opening and we could not confirm official figures as of July 2026, so treat them as a guide and check the shop's social media.
With six counter seats, one table and a short lunch-focused shift, it is worth allowing plenty of time.