A Victory of Flavors

First of all, we are sorry. We really fucked up. We haven’t updated this blog within a week. You good readers and hungry international students deserve better. In order to amend our mistake, we are going to update even more often within the next two weeks to catch up. However, this next joint we introduce to you should be more than suffice to satisfy your needs.

Welcome to 大勝軒 (Taishôken)!

Location: 3.5

Wait Time: 5 (Wasn't many people around 5 ) 

Atmosphere: 4.5

Price: 3.5 (Normal boardline expansive)

Taste: 4.5

First of all, the name. It means fuckin’ absolute victory. With a name like that, you know the noodles will not do less then break your sophisticated food palettes into pieces and then force you to reshape you paradigm on what is considered good food. Whoever opened this store must had balls of steel to call a place fuckin’ absolute victory in the clusterfuck ramen underworld that is known as Tokyo. Do not believe the calm appearances and docile nature of most ramenya-san. Underneath, these chiefs of talents are mutherF$%^ing badasses who dish out all of their arsenal and mastery into that perfect bowl of harmonizing and mesmerizing noodles that will take you to another world without need of LSE.

The founder or Taishoken is no other than Yamagishi Kazuo. If you don’t know who he is then you should pack your bags and go back to wherever you are from which produced such an uneducated individual in the art, culture and history of ramen. But luckily you have us, so that the ramen police of Tokyo doesn’t have to deport your ass. Yamagishi Kazuo, you ready for this, invented Tsukemen. Let’s say that again, Yamagishi Kazuo invented Tsukemen. Ghandi was a great man, but let’s face it, he didn’t invited a type of food that inspired a generation of poor international students. Stories goes, Yamagish’s father die in the war so he came to Tokyo and opened his first ramen shop. While most of us will probably claim that we ate real ramen at the tender age of 17, dude opened a ramen shop. Of corse like all badasses, he made his shop a success. Apparently, Yamagishi originally made Tsukemen as a food that he ate himself. Badass! But his smart apprentice with a lot of good sense convinced him to offer the noodle to his costumers. And BANG! Tsukemen has become the staple in the Tokyo ramen underworld, just as weed has become the staple in the party rocking world of an american college student.

The Takadanobaba Tashoken is located away from the glittering lights and drunken hordes of Waseda student that is known as Takananobaba rotary. It is one of many chains in Tokyo that is located next to Tokyo Braille Library. Even the building is bad ass. It is decorated with chain. Very Kinky. Look up the Tokyo Braille Library when finding this place. I know ya'll have smartphones and laptops. USE THEM!!

The interior of the shop is clean, modern and slick. It screams, "I am a ramen-ya". There are two items on the menu. Tsukemen and ramen. I'm sorry, if you were thinking of coming here and then order some ramen please stop reading now and commit yourself to a life of ramen-abstinence. Because that's just wrong man, that's just so shamefully wrong. It's like you walked into a KFC and ask for a burger or walked into a Starbuck and asked for bubble tea. You just don't do that kind of shit.

In terms of price, this places is not on the cheap side. It's going to be cost you about 700 Yen. So considering that it's around Takananobaba station and that you'll probably won't have a clue on how to find this place just like how you couldn't find Waldo when you were a kid and had that douche-bag of a friend find it first and then stole your first love's heart, you should probably save this place for dinner or if you have 3 period free.

Regardless of the price, the portions are generous. Don't come here and ruin the secret noodles after you have stuffed yourselves with five onigiris. Come on a purify and empty stomach. The sizes start at chyoumori, (medium) and then oomori (large) and its all the same price. But gentlemen, if you want to impress the ladies and order the oomori, be aware. That's a shit load of noodles that you might not finish and running the risk of your lady walking out on you and never talking to you cause you can't even finish a bowl of noodles.

 For those of you uneducated in the art of ramen. You dip your noodles into the soup and the you slurp the shit out of it. Believe it or not, adding air to your noodles brings out the harmonizing soup flavor. It should look something like this.

Now on to the flavor. Yamagishi was right in naming his shop Fuckin' Absolute Victory, because the Noodle just won a Fuckin' Absolute Victory in my mouth! It might appear salty at first but as you persist, the flavors magically balance each other out. And if you are a fan of takoyaki and I really don't know why you are here if you don't like takoyaki, the flavor of the Tsukemen is like someone just took one hundred takoyaki balls and squeezed the living juice out of it and make this heavenly tasting soup. If you ever bitched that 6 takoyaki costed you 300 yen. Then come here and I promise it will satisfy your cravings.

To finish off the post, here is a food porn pictures of the add on meat we got for 300 Yen. Yeah. I know.

THE VERDICT


This place is the bomb. You are not only eating noodles, but you are taking part in history. Highly recommended for when you have a lot of free time. Not recommended for lunch time. 4 beards out of 5.