Love Men is located along Route 330, one of the main arteries of Okinawa, along with Route 58. When I got out of the car in the parking lot, I could smell the thick smell of dried niboshi even through my mask. My heart raced with anticipation. The entrance is located on the right side of the signboard below. The entrance to the restaurant is a little difficult to find.
As soon as I entered the restaurant, there was a ticket machine.
The first thing I did was to order the Lovemen’s standard back fat niboshi ramen. I was looking forward to seeing what a ramen specializing in niboshi would taste like.
This is the back fat niboshi ramen (large). This ramen is made from five to eight kinds of niboshi (dried sardines), including katakuchi, urume, horse mackerel, and ago, combined with a thick soy sauce. I took a sip of the soup first. The rich seafood broth flavor and soy sauce taste filled my mouth. Just by taking a sip, I could tell that this was pretty good. The thick, umami-rich soup was matched with extra-thick, hand-pulled noodles. The thick, hand-pulled noodles are a perfect match for the rich flavor of the soup. Although the soup was full of back fat, it was not greasy and adds depth to the rich flavor. This was a pretty good ramen! Although it was made with soy sauce sauce, it does not taste like soy sauce ramen, and I felt that it was a part of the niboshi ramen genre.
I wanted to try niboshi ramen again, so I went back another day to try it. That day, I ordered the “Special Niboshi Ramen”! At Love Men, if you enter the restaurant before 3:00 noon on weekdays, you can get “Nibo Meshi”, flavored egg, large bowl of noodles, or fried rice as a free gift. On this day, I ordered the fried rice as well.
This is the “Special Niboshi Ramen” and fried rice. You can choose between soy sauce and salt flavors, so I chose the soy sauce flavor. I immediately took a sip of the soup. The name “special thick soup! was not lost on me at all, the soup was quite rich in flavor. This was seriously a special thick soup! I think they use quite a lot of dried niboshi. Not only the umami and aroma of the dried niboshi, but also the miscellaneous flavors and acrid taste of the dried niboshi have been sparingly extracted to create a soup with an outstanding impact. It was so thick that those who prefer a lighter taste cannot finish it. It is a flavor that you will want to eat again and again.
About Love Men
The ramen is made with five to eight kinds of dried sardines, horse mackerel, urume, saury, tai, and agou, depending on the season. Niboshi ramen has a completely different flavor from pork ramen, soy sauce ramen, or miso ramen. I think this is a new genre of ramen. Love men is my go-to ramen store for ramen lovers with a rich taste!
- Address: Zip904-0022 Aichi 1-2-16, Ginowan city, Okinawa
- Open 11:00~21:30
- Telephone: 098-975-7793
- Closed: Thursday
- Parking: There is a parking lot in front and beside the store.
- Price: 750 yen ~ 1,000 yen
- Click here to see the Love Men on Twitter.
Love Men 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
