Shiotetsu is a small ramen shop along a busy street in Echizen, Fukui. Coming back from Fukui City at night, I was hungry for dinner and this seemed to fit the bill. Parking was limited up front until I saw the large parking lot behind. Seats inside the restaurant are reasonably plentiful with some group seating and a few counter spaces. Their menu consists of a few variations of primarily Shio Salt and Miso Ramen with a wide variety of sides like Gyoza, Rice, Fried Chicken, and the like.

I tried their most popular ramen, a Shio Dragon Ramen with Garlic Ramen noodles for only 670￥ ($6 USD) for a regular. As a huge fan of garlic in ramen, I was deeply intrigued so I ordered the larger size at only 795￥. What arrived shortly thereafter really impressed me with the sheer value of size for the price, the smell of savory umami and garlic hitting me.

I think a lot more ramen shops should do this! The noodles were a bit firm, but had a really unbelievable amount of garlic flavor imbedded within each strand. If you love garlic, you’ll be in heaven! The salt broth was good and light, but rather greasy so it was not particularly memorable. There was only a sliver of chashu, but it was good. Perhaps next time I’ll order a larger grilled portion.

Maybe their Dragon Ramen is so named because you are going to breathe some major garlic breath after eating it! But I loved it!

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While I don’t live near Fukui City, I go there often enough to try many of their ramen shops and sometimes, I am quite surprised. Spoiler alert: Teru-no-Suke Ramen is one such restaurant that I really enjoyed recently. For us single diners, they have a few “single booths” that are comfortable, wide, and offer a nice view of the street. Overall, the decor seemed quite clean and modern, leading to a good first impression.

Their menu had six total variations: Black, Red, White, Chinese-style, and Black and White varieties of Tsukemen “dipping-style” ramen. Their Black is what they recommended, so as my first time, I always try to go for the shop favorite. At 850￥ for the regular and 1000￥ ($9 USD) for the large, the bigger size was my choice this time, along with an unusual curry rice side for 190￥ more. Their Black is so named because of the charred garlic oil-based broth, combined with tonkotsu. This should give it a creamy savoriness from the pork bone soup with a salty, rich, and deep garlic taste.

And that it did. I was actually surprised at the strong, flavorful broth, with the black part of the soup the oil and the remainder tonkotsu. A quick taste of the black only revealed an incredibly savory, garlicky, and slight bitter flavor. Mixed together and the broth was sublime, a bit on the heavy and oily side, but amazingly delicious.

The rest of the dish was also amazing, as the plentiful, thick, and soft noodles soaked up and carried all the broth flavor. The bamboo shoots were firm, but soaked in a bit of flavor. The chashu was also quite flavorful and would be worth ordering an additional topping of it next time.

The only minor downside was the egg which was salty and tasty, but a bit overdone.

And lest I forget, the unusual (for a ramen restaurant) curry and rice side dish. While small, at only 190￥ it was well worth the price, as it was chunky, slightly spicy, and quite good to complement the richness of the ramen. Though it is slightly sweet so it’s similar to what you may have eaten at other Japanese curry restaurants.

As you can see, I quite loved their ramen and I will definitely leave it on my list to try again in the future.

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Shiotetsu (塩てつ) in Echizen, Fukui

Menya Teru-no-Suke (麵屋輝之介) in Fukui City, Fukui