With a couple of weeks of research and attempts to check out a place, I finally had a chance after to visit a location a trusted colleague recommended, walking on a cloudy, rainy day with a small yellow umbrella for 20 minutes just for the pursuit of ramen.
Having gotten there ~10 minutes early, I had come to find a group of high schoolers who had just gotten there taking pictures in front of the restaurant. As 5:30pm approached, a longer and longer line had started to form; how lucky am I for being 5th in line for a eight seater. Considering the only other place that had a line forming very quickly was also amazing, I waited with baited breath.
This restaurant Abutora (油虎) specializes in abura-soba (油そば) or mazesoba (まぜそば). Abura-soba is a type of brothless ramen with probably firm noodles. Like most ramen, it's components oil/fat (the abura/油 component) that contributes quite a bit to the flavor and mouthfeel, a sauce or taré (たれ) which brings in the seasoning, the noodles, which were quite firm and chewy in this case in order to pair quite nicely with this style of ramen, and a plethora of toppings. The toppings depicted here are chopped cha-shu (チャーシュー), green onions (ねぎ増し or negi-mashi), ground beef (そぼろ), seaweed (のり), bamboo shoots (メンマ), minced garlic, and ramen oil (ラー油). Some other toppings that it could come with are cheese (チーズ), flavored soft boiled ramen egg (味玉), onsen egg (温玉 or on-tama), nama tamago/raw egg (生玉子). If you're still not convinced this is ramen, a side of broth was serviced on the side.
Although seems like a lot to consider, the ordering thankfully is straightforward. I asked for the abura soba meat set (油そば、肉のせ) with the normal amount of noodles (nami mori or 並盛) and got the standard toppings. Because I'm a bit of a fatass, I also got a rice bowl with the soboro/ground beef (そぼろご飯)
Although not shown, a good amount of oil and sauce were sitting at the bottom. After a lot of mixing to coat the noodles with the sauce+oil+soboro, it's almost reminiscent of a bolognese from the color and consistency. In terms of the flavor, the oil coated the noodles quite nice while the strong shoyu taré was the intense punch of flavor I was looking for. The extra boost from the soboro adding more flavor and savoriness is quite satisfying. The green onions and nori are there to cut through some of any potentially heaviness and makes the dish easier to enjoy. I believe the cha-shu was torched a bit and while the texture was quite tender, the flavor was not as exciting as the other components of the dish. Finally, the additional topping of garlic and ramen oil (which was filled with tons of aromatics) was a nice beautiful extra kick. I should've asked for more ラー油... It might be the first time I wish I got the large portion of noodles (大盛り or ōmori). There was also a bottle of kewpie mayo that is offered on the side with the rest of the ramen and adds a nice creaminess that compliments the dish quite well, though I would recommend not adding it right away. Thankfully, the additional soboro rice bowl with one of my favorite components of the ramen was just extra credit. I'm so glad I got it.
I think while it's definitely a top tier ramen, I can't help but compare this directly with the Stamina Ramen from Gamushu. I think because the cha-shu didn't hold up to the array of flavors from the rest of the dish, I think an 8.5/10 is the score I'm settling on. Maybe if I got additional ラー油 and garlic, or was more selective with my toppings, it might go over the top. There is hope though! This place also has a tan tan mazesoba (タンタンまぜそば) that I want to try. Definitely worth walking in the rain for. Please check out their twitter before going though, to make sure they're actually open.
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