Ramen Aokiji is located on Prefectural Road 85, along the Okinawa Loop Route, a major regional road. The exterior of the restaurant looks like this, giving the impression of a delicious ramen shop.
Upon entering the restaurant, there was a meal ticket machine at the entrance. Here you buy a meal ticket and place your order. Tsukemen (noodles with dipping sauce), garlic ramen, and other limited-time-only ramen are available. It is hard to decide what to eat.
However, since this is the second branch of the famous Tsukemen restaurant Jibei, I have to try Tsukemen first.
The restaurant has only L-shaped counter seats. There are about eight seats. It seems to be quite crowded at lunch time.
Now this is Aokiji’s second generation thick seafood tsukemen (large) for 940 yen. The noodles were very beautiful and shining in appearance. The dipping sauce looked quite rich in flavor.
First, I tried the taste of the noodles themselves without dipping them in anything. The noodles were medium-thick and had a smooth texture, but it wes firm and chewy. It was very satisfying to eat. They were firm like Sanuki udon noodles.
The rich taste of the dipping sauce was as good as the satisfying noodles. The dipping sauce was rich and thick with coarse fishmeal. When I dipped the noodle halfway into the dipping sauce and ate it all at once, the seafood flavor and sourness spread in my mouth at once. This was a very rich tsukemen. Although the seafood flavor was rich, I did not feel the smell of the sea. I think it was a seafood-pork bone type tsukemen in the same vein as Jibei. The bamboo shoots were soft with no smell, and the chashu pork was delicious.
As the restaurant’s recipe for tsukemen suggests, it is best to dip about half of the noodle in the dipping sauce. If you dip the entire noodle in the dipping sauce, the taste will be too strong.
Adding the split soup to the leftover dipping sauce was refreshing and quite tasty. It became a soup that gently regulated my stomach after eating.
On another day, I went to eat “Benkei,” a junky ramen with lots of garlic
This is the rumored Benkei. The appearance is as impressive as the name “Benkei. It looks like Jiro-style ramen, with a mountain of bean sprouts and pig oil sprinkled on top like snow. First, I took a sip of the soup. The aroma of garlic and the rich flavor of pork bone soy sauce spread in my mouth. This was a very addictive flavor. If you like this ramen, you will probably be addicted to its junky taste.
The noodles were medium-thick and as satisfying as the rich broth. The texture of the bean sprouts and noodles was good, and the aroma of coarsely chopped garlic that came in from time to time was irresistible. It was a ramen with a rich flavor that made you want to eat more and more of it. The pig oil was not greasy at all, and it further deepened the rich flavor of the broth. This is a ramen that you will become addicted to.
When I used to visit my friend in Tsubame-Sanjo City, Niigata, I once had a local ramen called “Dai abura soba”. That noodle was also full of pig oil, just like this ramen. It is a gutsy and addictive ramen that is like a combination of Jiro-style ramen and Dai abura soba. You should definitely try this ramen at least once.
About Aokiji in Okinawa city
Aokiji is the second branch of the famous Tsukemen restaurant Jibei, and its Tsukemen is thick and tasty, and even offers junky ramen that is a combination of Jiro-style ramen and Dai abura soba. I feel that after a couple of weeks or so I will probably want to eat it again. Totally unrelated, but when I heard “Jinbei” and “Aokiji” I thought it was as if I were a One Piece fan. I’ll be back for that janky ramen!
- Address: Zip904-2155 Mihara 3-9-1, Okinawa city, Okinawa
- Open 11:30~15:00, 18:30~21:30
- Telephone: 098-989-6757
- Closed: No regular holidays
- Parking: 4 parking spaces are available next to the restaurant.
- Price: 790 yen ~ 1,040 yen
- Click here to follow Ramen Aokiji on Twitter
The Ramen Aokiji is here ↓
If you want to know delicious restaurants of Soki soba or cuisine
Since you are coming to Okinawa traveling a lot, you would like to know the delicious restaurants of Soki soba and Okinawa cuisine. The book I refer to is "Pia Okinawa Food Book". Not only Okinawa soba and ramen, but also a variety of delicious Okinawa restaurants such as steak, Italian, Chinese, cafe etc are covered. There are also many pictures, and recent Okinawa delicious shops are introduced. "Okinawa shop 77 popular bloggers choose to pick" is an electronic book, but very interesting shops are introduced. A restaurant I do not even know about is included and it is helpful.
※If you click on the image you can buy it directly from Amazon
