Chicken Ramen With a Spicy Twist!

One Monday evening, we were in Mito and getting our car fixed by the best mechanic in Central Ibaraki. We call him Shu-chan and his garage is right on the highway entrance to the Joban expressway. After this genius mechanic fixed our car, we visited my wife's parents and they told us they wanted to go out for some ramen. I told them about a new place that opened up in Hitachinaka and that is how we found ourselves at Noko Niwatori Sayu Ramen Yuzuha.

Noko Niwatori Sayu Ramen Yuzuha

Ramen Yuzuha is located in the Sotono area of Hitachinaka City. It is right next to a kaarage place and across the street from a 24-hour sweets shop, which I wrote about on the old Ibaraki Eats page. If you are coming from Katsuta Station, it is quite a hike. Driving or biking is a better option. There is parking in front of Ramen Yuzuha and across the street.
My wife, her parents, and I drove to Yuzuha and parked in front of the ramen place. We walked in and were ready to slurp some ramen noodles.

Inside

Walking into Yuzuha, the first thought I had was that everything looked new. The other thought I had was, "No ticket vending machine, that is quite rare." You give your order to the staff like a regular restaurant. Yuzuha has a counter area and a few booth tables around the restaurant. It can fit a good number of customers.
The staff escorted us to our table, and we looked at the menu. The menu, mainly the chicken ramen, is posted on the wall next to the table. You can order it as a regular ramen or tsukemen style. There is also a maze soba section, spicy miso ramen, and gyoza.
We called over he staff and ordered our ramen.

Spicy Miso Ramen

I am sure you are thinking that this was my order, but it was actually my father-in-law's order. I was shocked he ordered a spicy ramen because he usually doesn't eat anything spicy. He took one sip of the soup and had a few coughs. But after that initial sip, he was fine for the rest of the meal. He enjoyed the ramen and told me it was a tasty soup base. He let me have a sip, and I had a coughing fit as well. The soup was very tasty, and that spicy kick was a fun added bonus to the ramen.

Chicken Ramen

This was Mrs. Ibaraki Eats' order. It brought a side dish of chashu and chicken. The ramen presentation was beautiful and the chicken and chashu were very appetizing. My wife slurped some noodles and gave it a thumbs up. She especially liked the chicken slices. They were very soft and went perfectly with the chicken soup base. As for me, I thought the thin noodles were good for the soup base but I thought the soup was lacking a little flavor. There was a smooth nice chicken ramen soup taste in this ramen, but it was very light. Other than that, this ramen was pretty good.

Chicken Ramen Tsukemen Style

This was my order and it looked delicious. I tried the soup at first and I have to say that it had a bit more flavor than Mrs. Ibaraki Eats' ramen. It was a bit saltier but it had more of a heavy flavor of chicken. I dipped some noodles into my ramen and slurped. After slurping, I felt at peace. This was a surprisingly light and smooth chicken ramen. It felt like I had a young harp player playing smooth music while I slurped on these noodles. It was a pleasant and relaxing experience. Everything changed when I put in the spicy miso paste.

Spicy Time!

I decided to change things up and ordered a side of spicy miso paste which brought negi and ground beef. I poured in all of my spicy miso paste and the soup went from yellow to orange. It looked just like my father-in-law's ramen. I slurped up some noodles and weirdly had a longer coughing fit than when I tried my father-in-law's ramen. It had quite a spicy kick to it. The moment I slurped those spicy noodles, I felt like my gentle harp playing musician slammed her harp on the floor, took out an electric guitar, and started playing heavy metal. It wasn't a bad thing, but it was surprising. I let my wife have a taste and she also had a coughing fit. We both really liked how this ramen was able to just change from gentle to heavy metal in an instant. It was a nice surprise and quite tasty.

After we finished our ramen, my father-in-law paid for us all, because he never lets us pay, and we all headed back to my wife's parents' house.
Yuzuha was a fun and delicious adventure in Hitachinaka. I hope we can go back soon when we are back in Hitachinaka.

So if you are in the mood for some chicken ramen and happen to be around Hitachinaka, why not give Ramen Yuzuha a chance? Who knows? You might see us there. My wife will be enjoying some light and tasty ramen while I am coughing at the level of spice in my chicken ramen.
Enjoy!

For more information on Ramen Yuzuha, check out their Instagram page:
https://www.instagram.com/yzh.ramen?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y%3D