Taka Ramen

Tokyo-trained Taka ladles lunch-only ramen on the top floor of Toko Dun Yong, four flights up with the Geldersekade below.

Taka came to the Netherlands in 2008 for an office job, decided the local ramen situation was unacceptable, and went back to Tokyo to train for three years before returning in 2012 to sell bowls from a stall at Waterlooplein. The stall became a counter on the top floor of Toko Dun Yong, then moved to a spot in the Jordaan for a stretch, before Taka came back for good to that same top floor of the Asian department store on the Stormsteeg, where you climb past crockery and kitchenware to a plain room with a view over the Geldersekade. The menu is short and daytime only: shouyu, miso and a properly spicy tan tan men at €16.95, a halal chicken bowl, a seafood bowl, and street food on the side, tori gyoza, karaage, takoyaki, yakisoba. Everything is made by the man himself, to his own exacting standard and nobody else's, which is exactly what you taste. Specials rotate, and a tsukemen with a fish, pork and chicken dipping broth turns up often enough to be worth asking about. Your Little Black Book has called Taka possibly the best ramen chef in the country; we would not go that far, but at these prices, with this view, the Saturday queue makes sense. A second branch runs near Gelderlandplein; this floor is the original.

Daily 12:00-16:00, lunch only, no reservations. Come on a weekday before 13:00 or the small room fills; the €7.50 tori gyoza are the side order to keep, and ask about the tsukemen special before committing to a bowl.

Photo: Taka Ramen