Tsukemen at Ramen Rikido in Gifu

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1. Generally considered to be the best ramen shop in Gifu city and even Gifu prefecture, [Rikido](https://youtu.be/256A2HqG-CE) flashes across every ramen nerd’s social media from time to time and makes everyone pause, because of the unusual noodles that are served there.

   Rikido standard tsukemen comes with 2 types of thin and flat noodles, one standard type with refined wheat and one made with whole wheat, which gives it a dark color and some clearly visible specks. As an addition, you can order their so called hirauchimen, which are super wide flat noodles. This way, you end up with 3 types of noodles next to your bowl of tsukemen dipping soup.

   The dipping soup itself is another highlight. It is a clear style of dipping soup, loosely related to the Taishoken style of tsukemen soups. However, the flavor is way more concentrated, sharp and rich. It’s as if you cross a Taishoken style tsukemen soup in terms of flavor with the wild and over the top punch of a Jiro style soup.

   One last thing to note is that you should absolutely get extra chashu. Again, the chashu reminds me more of a Jiro style chashu than anything else. Think cut chunks of almost overbraised, close to falling apart when you try to pick it up, and strongly seasoned to be enjoyable just by itself.

   All in all, every single element of this dish is extraordinary and justifies a visit. But all three combined, probably make it one of my favorite ramen dishes in Japan.

   If you want to see a bit more of this shop and their tsukemen dish, check out this 5 minute video: https://youtu.be/256A2HqG-CE