A note on the words: chuka soba is the older name for ramen, used by shops that make the clear, soy-based Tokyo style. Dashi is the broth Japanese cooking is built on; honkarebushi is its most laborious form of bonito — skipjack that has been smoked, then mold-ripened and dried over months until it is hard as wood, and Makurazaki in Kagoshima is the town that makes it. Niboshi are dried sardines. Kaeshi is the concentrated soy seasoning poured into the bowl before the broth. Chashu is the braised or seared pork (here also chicken) laid on top; menma is fermented bamboo shoot, hime-takenoko the young whole shoot, and kikurage the wood ear mushroom. The seasoned egg (ajitama) is soft-boiled and marinated in soy. Tsukemen is ramen served cold and dry with a bowl of concentrated broth to dip into, and ochazuke is rice with tea or broth poured over it, eaten to close a meal. A highball is whisky with soda. Prices are as of this writing (August 2026).
Honkare Chuka Soba Gyorai on Tabelog (English) — opening hours, payment details and the Japanese address are kept up to date there, not here.
Ramen people, thank you for waiting. It is time for Hangover Meshi.
This time I was in the mood for ramen for no particular reason, so on the way home I stopped at Korakuen station (Kasuga may in fact be slightly closer). There is a famous ramen shop nearby, Honkare Chuka Soba Gyorai! Something I have noticed lately is that around six or seven in the evening even famous ramen shops are surprisingly easy to get into.
Gyorai is known for drawing its dashi one bowl at a time, extracting honkarebushi from Makurazaki in a coffee siphon. Gyorai means torpedo, which is an interesting name, and apparently it comes from wanting people to taste a seafood dashi that hits you like one.
Stepping inside, there were several seats free. Six to seven really does seem to be the window.
This being my first time at Gyorai, I ordered the special chuka soba. Looking forward to it!
Now, I was shown to a table at the back, and looking closely…
They really are drawing the dashi in a siphon!
I mean, that is what the shop does, so of course they are, but seeing it is still a bit of a shock.
I went for the special, and the special comes with two slices of seared pork chashu, two of seared chicken chashu, one seasoned egg, and three toppings of your choice. I asked for menma, bamboo shoot and wood ear. Being able to choose the toppings is lovely. It makes you want to come back and try the others.
On a whim I added the chili paste topping as well.
A highball is more or less the default by now. Surely.
Waiting a while over the highball, the ramen arrived!
A soup extracted in that siphon I had been watching, from two-year-aged honkarebushi from Makurazaki. The smell of the fish is wonderful! The clear color of the soy sauce is beautiful too.
The dashi is a double soup: thick-shaved bonito and mackerel layered with dried sardines on the seafood side, joined by an animal stock taken from chicken and pork trotter. The scent of the dried fish stands in front and the depth of the chicken quietly supports it from behind, two layers, with a dark soy kaeshi drawing the whole thing tight. Not heavy at all — a soup you want to drink to the end.
This has to be good for a hangover.
The noodles are thin, made to order from stone-milled wholemeal Haru-yo-Koi wheat from Hokkaido. Lift them and a faint toasted wheat scent rises; the bite is firm and clean in the way low-hydration noodles are, and they carry the clear soup well! And the toppings are interesting too, because they come on a separate plate.
Having had a mouthful each of the soup and the noodles, and despite the trouble they took to plate the toppings separately…
I somehow ended up putting all of it in.
Menma with the savor of fermentation, and fresh hime-takenoko whose tips carry a scent. The textures are good. The seared pork and chicken chashu are irresistible too, toasted on the outside and melting within.
Dissolving the chili paste in a little at a time is the other pleasure here.
The clear seafood broth switches over to hot-and-savory in an instant. Faint at first, and as you build the heat it works properly as a ramen to drink a highball alongside. Before I knew it I had drunk a good deal of the soup. Delicious!
Soup drawn in a siphon. It is unique to look at, which is fun! A seafood soup with a tremendous aroma and a gentleness that lets you finish the bowl, so I think it is absolutely right for a hangover. There is tsukemen on the menu, and even a closing bowl of ochazuke (which I would probably never finish), so if the chance comes again I may try them. The aroma alone is worth one visit.
May you meet something delicious today too!
Honkare Chuka Soba Gyorai (Ramen / Kasuga Station, Korakuen Station, Suidobashi Station)
Tabelog dinner rating ★★★☆☆ 3.9
I ate here and paid for it myself. Nothing on this site is a comped meal.
One more for the road?
