Mixed martial artist now adds ramen making to his skill mix at Men Zin Saito.

Tokyo’s Akihabara neighborhood is Japan’s biggest mecca for anime, electronics, and video game specialty shops. That also means that Akihabara has a lot of casual restaurants ready to serve visitors from around the country and around who just dropped some serious cash on their hobbies and so are looking for a tasty, reasonably priced meal.

And yet, in the eyes and stomach of our Japanese-language reporter P.K. Sanjun, Akihabara doesn’t have that many great ramen restaurants. By his estimation, there are four really good ones in the area: Aoshima Ramen, Ponta, Hotate Biyori, and Kyushu Jangara. Those four almost always have lines of customers out front, and it’s been that way for years. The other ramen restaurants in Akihabara fail to really captivate noodle fans in large numbers, though, P.K. says.

▼ The line for Kyushu Jangara

So P.K. was startled when, on a recent ambling stroll through Akihabara, he came across a line some 20-people long waiting to get into a ramen restaurant he’d never seen or heard of before, called Men Zin Saito. His second surprise came when he looked at the banner hanging by the restaurant’s entrance, which has a picture of professional mixed martial arts fighter Yutaka Saito.

This isn’t just some celebrity endorsement deal for Saito. His most recent bout was last July, but his ramen restaurant opened in December, and he takes a very hands-on approach to its operations, as P.K. would soon learn.

Having already eaten lunch on the day he found Men Zin Saito, P.K. put the place on his to-eat list and circled back on a later date. Oddly enough, this time there was only a single person waiting to get in ahead of him. This still meant that every seat in the place was already taken by other customers though, so P.K. had faith that he was in for something special and patiently waited to be seated.

Men Zin Saito’s logo contains Saito’s name written in hiragana script (さいとう), but in a stylized rendering that resembles a bull’s horns. As you might be able to guess from this, their specialty is beef stock ramen, which is comparatively rare as far as ramen broth bases go.

The menu is simple, with the only options being beef tanmen (noodles in broth with vegetables), beef mazesoba (noodles with dipping sauce), and rice. P.K.’s decision was especially simple since they were sold out of mazesoba when he stopped by, so he ordered the beef tanmen (seen on the left in the photo above) for 1,000 yen (US$6.90) and a bowl of rice for 200 yen more.

On display inside the restaurant is Saito’s belt from when he won the first Rizin Featherweight Championship, but the even bigger treat for fans is that Saito himself actually works in the kitchen, preparing customers’ ramen! P.K. isn’t sure if the fighter is also a cook every day, but on this day he was whipping up ramen with gusto, gregariously greeting customers with “Welcome!” as they came in and sending them off with an equally enthusiastic “Thank you very much!” as they finished their food and went home.

After a short wait, a server placed P.K.’s ramen in front of him. It looked at once rough, rustic, and very, very tasty. To P.K., it had the appearance of macho ramen made by a macho guy.

Starting with a sip of the broth, it was full of beefy umami. It’s a bold flavor, one P.K. found perfectly matched with the thick, chewy noodles. The stir-fried vegetable toppings may not win any awards for being photogenic, but they taste great, which is what really counts.

There’s a touch of sourness at the end of the flavor profile, which isn’t unusual with extra-rich ramen like this. Some people might prefer a cleaner finish, but there are also ramen fans who love that little twist for the taste buds, and P.K. found that Men Zin Saito’s broth makes for an excellent pairing with rice, so he was glad he added a bowl of grains as a side order.

P.K. doesn’t know why Men Zin Saito’s line was so much longer the first time he saw it, but considering he still had to wait for a seat before he could get in, the place has clearly found fans, and it just might end up becoming Akihabara’s fifth ramen hot spot, P.K. thinks, making now a great opportunity to beat the bigger crowds that might be coming soon.

Restaurant information
Men Zin Saito Saito / 麺ZINさいとう
Address: Tokyo-to, Chiyoda-ku, Kanda Sakumacho 3-1
東京都千代田区神田佐久間町3-1
Open 11 a.m.-4 p.m.
Closed Mondays

Photos © SoraNews24
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