A note on the words: Koenji is a scruffy, bar-dense neighborhood on the west side of Tokyo. The shop is written with three characters for black and read Mikuro. Gari is the pickled ginger served with sushi. Yodare-dori is a Sichuan cold chicken dish whose name means drool chicken, and mala is the numbing-and-hot combination of Sichuan pepper and chili. Menma is fermented bamboo shoot, ajitama a soft-boiled egg steeped in soy, and chashu the braised pork laid on ramen. Abura soba is ramen without soup, dressed with sauce and oil at the bottom of the bowl and mixed at the table. Machi-chuka is the everyday neighborhood Chinese restaurant, and neo machi-chuka the newer, more inventive take on it. Aka-Boshi, the red star, is what drinkers call Sapporo Lager. Prices are as of this writing (August 2026).
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Mikuro on Tabelog (English) — opening hours, payment details and the Japanese address are kept up to date there, not here.
You can book a table at Mikuro on AutoReserve (English)!
Hello, this is Hangover Meshi. A friend who lives in Koenji brought me here. Written with three characters for black, and read Mikuro! A nice bit of naming lol Apparently it is both very unusual and very good, so I turned up at the appointed hour.
A noodle-and-drink shop on the second floor. It looks like a Chinese restaurant, but noodles are the selling point.
Inside it is small — a counter and about two tables.
You take your own hot towel from beside the entrance, and for beer you say a word to the staff and go and fetch it yourself^^
The wall is covered in mahjong tiles lol An entertaining sort of space. Stylish, even.
All sorts of good-looking things on the menu, so let us order whatever we feel like eating!
First, an Aka-Boshi I fetched myself^^
Whatever else happens, beer comes first.
It looks delicious, does it not. Gari, tomato and cilantro lol lol lol And of course it works beautifully.
The dressing is what makes it. I have gone straight in with an extraordinary drinking snack. Really good.
Look at the volume. Yodare-dori does seem to arrive piled high wherever you order it^^
The heat is dialed back and sits just right. Moist chicken and mala sauce, and how well it goes with beer.
Meltingly soft and so sweet! The fresh scent of green chili rides on top. Not hot at all.
Mapo tofu made with ground lamb. Sweetness and heat performing together.
Basically the everything-on approach to a ramen shop’s good drinking snacks.
The chashu is tender and delicious, the menma properly seasoned — what more could you want!
Sweet little round pan-fried gyoza. A plump, thick wrapper with a juicy filling inside.
It bursts when you bite, so take care not to send it flying lol
And to finish, since noodles are what the place is known for, we shared a Mikuro abura soba.
You are told to mix it thoroughly, and mixed it looks like this. There is a fair amount of sauce in there and it is slightly salty lol Less a closing bowl of noodles than another drinking snack lol
Ah, that was good! An entertaining Koenji izakaya with entertaining staff and an entertaining room. Everything is delicious and the portions are generous. Neo machi-chuka, you might call it. Is Koenji full of interesting shops like this? A good place, and one that made me want to learn a bit more about what Koenji has to offer^^ I shall talk someone into coming back with me.
Mikuro (izakaya / Koenji Station, Shin-Koenji Station, Higashi-Koenji Station)
Tabelog dinner rating ★★★☆☆ 3.6
I ate here and paid for it myself. Nothing on this site is a comped meal.
One more for the road?
