The world famous ramen joint Mensho Tokyo with branches from Bangkok to San Francisco reopened last week after a brief renovation period. The return features warm tone fixtures reflecting their comforting noodles and belly-warming broth. 

 

 

A staple among BKK ramen fans since 2018, Mensho Tokyo was bound for a little reboot. Out with the drab black marble and in with the bright red walls. The venue boasts daily made fresh noodles, and now customers get to see the prep process up close and personal sans the plexiglass barrier between the kitchen and the dining area.

 

It's not just the interior that’s getting an upgrade, Mensho Tokyo is known for pushing the boundaries of your run-of-the-mill shio and tonkotsu. With more than 1,000 ramen recipes in their roster, BKK can now get a taste of some local specials and international favorites.

 

 

Amongst the new BKK additions is the GKO, short for Garlic Knock Out (B390), a bowl which created quite the buzz in other branches using their signature Tori Paitan base—a rich broth made from 8 hour boiled chicken—and fusing it with five kinds of garlic. 

 

Since garlic is already one of the staples in Thai food, the fresh cloves, caramelized bits, deep fried crisp, down to the black garlic oil will fare well with our palates. Though the broth is milky and flavorful, it actually isn’t too intense and only has a slight kick from the spicy gobo chips. 

 

As usual, they’ve maintained the quality of their pork chashu—a juicy jumbo size and generous cut. This time around their noodles are thinner but maintain that bouncy, squiggly al dente cook that we all know and love. 

 

How much will you pay for a bowl of ramen? If you’re willing to loosen up the purse string, Mensho Tokyo has released an exclusive Phuket Lobster (B1000) bowl which only has 10 servings per day. Apart from the lobster tail, you’ll find benja chicken chashu, spinach, red mustard microgreens which will all be topped with some ebi mayo and the umami parmigiano regguani. 

 

 

Now, we all know that Mensho Tokyo has a cult-like following for their shoyu broth. With this new launch, they’ve installed a truffle shoyu option (B330)—dousing the housemade hosomen (a thinner version of the noodles) in a blend of niboshi, shoyu, and chicken broth. To top it off, you’ll get the smoked pork shoulder chashu cut and a dollop of truffle paste.

 

These are just some of the menu highlights; for the full menu visit Mensho Tokyo.