The restaurant is located in the back alley of Shinjuku Gyoen, just one stop away from Tokyo Metro Shinjuku Station.
The sophisticated exterior appearance is reminiscent of a Spanish style bar. The stylish wooden counter overlooks an open kitchen where owner-chef, Seiichiro Shiina, stands with his business partner. In the back, there are also table seats and counter seats that face the wall. Chef Shiina has an extensive culinary background having worked at Italian, French, and Mexican restaurants. He was one of the founding members of a popular ramen restaurant, Seimenka Kaguraya, located in Suidobashi. In pursuit of his next challenge, chef Shiina opened Menjuku Shiina in July 2018.
The restaurant offers four main ramen bowls: shio (salt) soba, shoyu (soy sauce) soba, tori paitan (creamy chicken broth) soba, and tsuke (dipping) soba (dipping noodles). Ramen soup is divided into two types – chintan (clear soup) and paitan (cloudy soup) – where the former soup is used for shio soba and shoyu soba while the latter is for tori paitan soba and tsuke soba.
Noodles are supplied by Taisei Shokuhin, a leading manufacturer and wholesaler of ramen noodles, established in 1917. The other unique characteristic of this restaurant is categorizing the type of ramen noodle used: shio soba and shoyu soba use thin noodles; tori paitan soba uses medium-thin flat noodles; and tsuke soba uses a thicker straight noodle.
The most popular bowl is shio soba. The golden clear soup has a light yet profound taste, like an elegant Western soup. Tare (specialty sauce) for the soup is primarily a mixture of three different kinds of salt: Seto Inland Sea salt, Sicilian rock salt, and Hakata salt. The three salts are blended with such ingredients as kelp, clams, dried sardines, dried bonito, dried shiitake mushrooms, scallops, and dried squid. Tare is slowly simmered with Eren Water Purifier to extract the umami. The soup stock is a combination of honbinos shellfish and seasonal vegetables, these are centered on daisen chicken and soshuko chicken. Toppings consists of mizuna (mustard greens), negi, hosaki menma, and roast chicken.
あっさり系ですが、出汁がしっかり取れていて実は濃厚なラーメンです。新宿御苑界隈では一番だど思います。 Quote from Google Map Review
Photographers:shiinamenjuku
