Menya Hashimoto, Nakano: Three Slabs of Chashu and a Tonkotsu Broth That Earns Them

The first thing you notice at 麺屋はし本 is not the broth. It is the chashu. Three large, thick slices — each one a serious piece of pork — arranged across the top of the bowl. They arrive before you look at anything else. Menya Hashimoto Nakano ramen is built around this visual fact, and the bowl does not disappoint what it promises: press lightly with chopsticks, and the pork breaks apart. The tonkotsu fish broth underneath is the reason the whole thing works.

The Broth Behind Menya Hashimoto Nakano Ramen

Tonkotsu and fish broth is a combination with a hundred versions in Tokyo. The question is always balance. Too much pork bone and the bowl becomes heavy; too much fish and the pork loses its point. The broth at Menya Hashimoto Nakano ramen stays calibrated — slightly rich, but not cloying. The fish element rounds the back of the broth without competing with the chashu. This is a bowl where every component has been assigned a role and is doing it.

Menya Hashimoto Nakano ramen does not try to be the loudest bowl in the neighbourhood. It tries to be the most complete one. The broth is the foundation; the chashu is the reason you come back. Everything else — the soft-boiled egg, the menma, the nori — is there to give you somewhere to go between bites of pork.

The Three-Chashu Bowl

The three chashu slices are large-format and thick-cut. They are also soft: a light press with chopsticks is enough to separate the meat, which means the pork has been cooked correctly — slow enough to break down the connective tissue without losing the form. On the side: a soft-boiled egg, menma bamboo shoots, nori, and green onion. The toppings are not decorative. They are there to punctuate the bowl between bites of pork.

Take a photograph before you eat. Not because this is a bowl designed for photographs, but because once you start, you will forget you were going to.

Getting to Menya Hashimoto Nakano Ramen

Menya Hashimoto Nakano ramen is about nine minutes on foot from the station’s north exit — further than most of the ramen options in the neighbourhood, and worth the walk. The distance keeps the line manageable. Counter seating, as is standard in this part of Nakano. No Japanese required; the staff accommodate international visitors.

Lunch and dinner service run Tuesday through Friday; Saturday and holidays are lunch only. Wednesday and Sunday are closed. Walk-in at opening is the reliable approach, particularly on Saturday when the lunch window is short.

Who This Is For

If you want the most visually satisfying bowl in Nakano’s ramen range, this is it. The chashu is the reason regulars come back — people who have eaten everything else on the street and return specifically for the pork. For first-time visitors, the combination of an approachable tonkotsu base with the spectacle of three chashu slices gives you something concrete to describe when someone asks what you ate. Menya Hashimoto Nakano ramen is the bowl with the immediate answer.

For visitors moving between multiple ramen stops in a single day, the nine-minute walk from the station also functions as a natural break — enough distance to reset the palate before the next bowl. Menya Hashimoto Nakano ramen is, in that sense, a destination rather than a convenience stop, and it earns the extra walk without question.

For the full ramen picture in this neighbourhood, the Nakano food guide covers the neighbourhood’s shops. For the wider area on foot, the Nakano area guide connects the streets. When the ramen roundup publishes, the first link will update to the full guide.

Store Information

● Name
麺屋はし本 (Menya Hashimoto)

● Address
東京都中野区新井1-25-4 中野ニューハウジング 1F

● Access
Nakano Station (JR Chuo Line / Tokyo Metro Tozai Line)
Approx. 9 min walk from North Exit

● Hours
Mon / Tue / Thu / Fri: 11:30–16:00 / 17:00–20:00
Sat / Holidays: 11:30–15:00

● Closed
Wednesday and Sunday

● Price
味玉らーめん ¥1,150 / 特製らーめん ¥1,250

SAO and HIRO

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The Japan Voyage is a logbook by us, SAO and HIRO, charting the true "depth" of Tokyo as residents. We go beyond typical tourist spots to uncover, from our perspective, the authentic local gourmet scenes and the real passion driving the culture (including anime and manga).