Menya Sanda

Menya Sanda opened in July 2017, a short walk north of AEON Mall Kyoto Gojo and well away from the Ichijoji ramen strip. The owner had spent seven years cooking at Ippudo and Ginjo Ramen Kubota before going independent, and a year after opening the shop took first place in the Kyoto new-shop category of the Ramen Walker GP.

The tsukemen is the reason to come. The dipping soup is a chicken paitan made from chicken and water, thick enough to read as potage, and the house-made noodles are thick and chewy, tinted brown by roasted wheat germ. The topping is pale, tender chicken chashu with menma; there is burnt-garlic oil on the counter if you want to change the flavour halfway. When the noodles are gone, ask for soup-wari, which thins the dip with a fish-flavoured stock, or finish it with rice. The menu also has ramen, tantanmen, curry ramen and, in summer, a chilled tantan tsukemen.

There are ten seats, mostly at the counter, and you order at the ticket machine just inside the door. In 2026 a regular tsukemen was 1,100 yen and a large one 1,200 yen, with all toppings (extra chashu, menma and a soft-boiled egg) for 350 yen; prices change, so check on the day. Lunch runs to 15:00 and dinner to 21:30 (last orders), every day. Expect a few people waiting outside around opening at 11:00; 2026 visitors who came mid-afternoon or in the evening mostly had a short wait or none.