Typically serving a single one-hour course, Junmugi treats TABLEALL guests to a special extended course, including a drink, appetizer plate, cold ramen, hot ramen, wagyu beef bowl, and shaved ice. It fuses ramen into an intimate Japanese dining style called kappo, in which the chef engages with and serves guests across a counter. The cold ramen with its thin noodles specially developed by the chef is typically only available at pop-up events, so take this opportunity to savor something very few have had the chance to.

The exquisite appetizer is a bowl of savory steamed egg custard called chawanmushi. The key to the sumptuous flavor of this dish is the dashi, and at Junmugi, that dashi is the same one used for the ramen. The toppings vary, but one of the luxurious possibilities is sea urchin, and the dish is accompanied by other seasonal delicacies like yellowtail, maguro, beet, and Salisbury steak using Saga Prefecture beef and eggplant.

The feature of Junmugi’s cold-soup ramen is the thin noodles. Slippery yet al dente and mouth-filling, they are accompanied by a range of toppings to echo the season, like ikura salmon roe, squid, blood clam, tsurumurasaki greens or spaghetti squash. A so-called “vegetable sommelier”, Yajima incorporates these unique toppings effortlessly. The light, refreshing soup is based on dashi extracted from niboshi sardines and other dried stock ingredients. The final flavor of the soup is determined by the tare, which the chef brews over two weeks to a month using six to eight types of soy sauce.

The hot ramen soup is a chicken and pork broth base balanced out with stock from an array of dried ingredients. It is mellow and smooth but with a clean finish. It arrives topped with tender pieces of umami-rich chashu pork belly prepared sous-vide. Or you might be lucky to partake in the occasional dumpling. The finishing touch is a herb called rock chive from Murakami Farm that imparts flavor somewhere between garlic and onion. The transparent soup wraps itself around the hand-kneaded medium-thick noodles, releasing delicious, rich flavor each time you bite down to devour the springy strands. While you often need to rush for the maximum enjoyment of ramen noodles before they expand and go mushy, Junmugi’s noodles stay taut and al dente until the last sip of soup.

For dessert, allow yourself to get lost in the fluffy, dreamy texture of just-shaved ice using pure ice and topped with premium fig syrup and specially made condensed milk or other seasonal concoctions. Chef Yajima makes all her own syrups using beet sugar and ingredients that are gentle on guests’ tummies.

INGREDIENTS
In addition to the all-important flour varieties used to make the ramen noodles, including Setokirara from Yamaguchi, Kitahonami and Haruyokoi from Hokkaido, and pearl barley, Yajima sources premium ingredients from across the Japanese archipelago. The menu is formulated after taking stock of the daily deliveries. A trusted fishmonger supplies seafood, and Miyazaki Prefecture Ozaki-gyu and champion beef from Saga Prefecture are delivered regularly to the restaurant. Organic vegetables are grown and supplied by an artisan producer in Kobuchizawa, Yamanashi Prefecture.