Shiosoba Jiku is a shio (salt) ramen specialist tucked into a residential pocket of Takaido-Higashi in Suginami, about a 12-minute walk from Takaido Station on the Keio Inokashira Line. It opened in 2023, was named a Bib Gourmand in the MICHELIN Guide Tokyo 2025, and kept the listing in the 2026 edition — two years running. The kitchen uses no chicken and no pork: the clear salt broth is built entirely from seafood dashi, centred on kombu (kelp) and niboshi (dried sardines).
What kind of shop it is
The shop is run by Masashi Wada, a former tempura chef. Both the MICHELIN Guide's own listing and a Yahoo! News Expert report describe how a bowl of shio soba he ate while touring the Seto Inland Sea on his late father's motorcycle set him on a self-taught path into ramen. He makes the noodles himself in an in-house noodle workshop on the second floor: straight noodles cut from "Soryoku", a domestic wheat blend led by the Hokkaido variety Yumechikara.
The broth is made without chemical seasonings: kombu and niboshi are cold-steeped from the previous day, then drawn out for about two hours before opening while the pot is held just short of a boil. "We work with seafood dashi only — no chicken, no pork," Wada explained to the magazine Otona no Shumatsu (February 2026 issue).
Seating is a single V-shaped counter, so the room is compact. Despite the location well away from the station, several local outlets report that a queue often forms before opening.
What to order
The signature bowl is the tokusei shio soba (special salt soba, ¥1,450 as of July 2026): clear salt broth topped with three kinds of meat — including pork shoulder chashu and low-temperature-cooked Oyama chicken — a chicken tsukune (meatball) studded with soft cartilage, and menma (fermented bamboo shoots). An ajitama (seasoned soft-boiled egg) is not part of the bowl; it is ordered separately as a ¥150 topping. A plain shio soba and extra toppings are also available, but prices are revised from time to time, so check the board in the shop.
The other pillar of the menu is the ura-shoyu soba — a "hidden", off-menu-style soy sauce bowl served on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays only. If soy sauce is what you came for, line your visit up with one of those days.
Tips for visiting
The shop serves lunch only, 11:30–15:00, and closes as soon as the broth or noodles run out. It is closed on Mondays (open when Monday is a public holiday). With a short service window and a sell-out finish, arriving around opening time is the surest approach.
It is roughly a 12-minute walk from Takaido Station, and there is no dedicated car park — use a nearby coin parking lot if you drive.
Temporary closures, limited menus and changes to opening hours are announced on the shop's official Instagram (@sio.soba.jiku). Check there before you set out.