Kisshokichi - Kobe Beef Ramen (神戸牛らーめん 吉祥吉)

This week's ramen adventure brings me to Kobe, where I happen to be doing some regional visits.

The first thing that come to mind for Kobe is of course, Kobe beef.

And something came to my mind... are there any ramen shops that offers Kobe beef ramen?

I did some search on the internet, and I found one in the Sanchika underground mall, near the Sannomiya station of Kobe!

There is a trend of having "ramen avenues" inside shopping or underground mall over Japan. The Sanchika underground mall opened its "Ramen Road (麺ロード)" in Nov 2011. It is not that big with only 4 shops, but they are said to be the selected ones from Kobe.

Sanchika Men Road

The stall offering Kobe Beef Ramen is called Kisshokichi (吉祥吉). Kisshokichi is a restaurant that offers Kobe beef are reasonable prices. It has 6 restaurants in Kobe serving Kobe beef is different styles such as steak, shabu-shabu and buns, and this ramen concept is a new addition in the group.

I order the Kobe Beef Ramen (850 yen), the standard recommendation of the stall.

So, where are the Kobe beef elements in this ramen? It is used in 3 parts:

- Soup. The soup is made from Kobe beef bones. High-end beef bouillon! 

- Slices of Kobe beef 

- Minced spicy kobe beef miso

The soup and ingredients has relatively strong flavours, so I think spring onions and bean sprouts are added to balance the tastes.

It was an interesting bowl of ramen because the tastes are beef-based, rather than the usual pork, chicken or seafood flavours. However, it is hard to tell that  the grade of the beef or how "kobe beef" made the ramen exceptional. Overall, it is not bad but not exceptionally great.

If you happen to be in Kobe and would like to try something different, this will be something interesting!