Shichimenchou らーめん

-the most creative ramen restaurant with thickest ramen broth in Taichung city

30th/10/2020 (First visit)
27.8°C Sunny

Wanna have a bowel of ramen with creativity and thick broth? Shichimenchou (七面鳥) is definitely the first option in Taichung City. The store is famous for its extremely thick, salty broth and creative flavours, which makes the public have lots both pros and cons towards the style of Shichimenchou. However, I am fascinated by this variety and creativity especially when anticipating the announcement of special flavours on their official Facebook page every day. Therefore, Shichimenchou becomes the first pin on my foodie map in Taiwan. Rumour said the owner, in the beginning, had tried to move to Taipei city where he wouldn’t be complained by neighbourhood due to the cooking smells and also able to stay closer to his wife. But finally, maybe for the local ramen fan (like me), he chose to continue his ramen career in Taichung.

Here is a warm remind: no booking and required queuing are essential. Besides, for maintaining the ramen quality, the serving speed is relatively slower than most Taiwanese restaurants. Usually, the time could be from at least 15 min to over 30 min during peak time. The limited or special flavours are always sold out early. It is so common to see people who have already been queuing before the restaurant is open. Therefore, I recommend that for those who have never eaten ramen with thick broth before and want to come as the first time, choosing off-peak time such as weekdays or before the restaurant closed could be a better choice. Once you become the believer in Shichimenchou (accept its ramen style), congratulation! it means you are going to enjoy the chef’s borderless creativity and the fusion of ramen and traditional Taiwanese street food.

Chicken paitan ramen (牡蠣雞白湯) with oysters was my first order at Shichimenchou. Compared with other restaurants, the broth with “normal thickness” here is much more intense. There were also lots of layers from seafood and chicken inside the broth. As a creamy soup lover, I immediately fell in love with it. Sous vide chicken is another characteristic of Shichimenchou, which I think is a good balance for the heavy broth and so do the red onion and the salad.

My friends ordered Jiro-style (二郎系) ramen, which is the must at Shichimenchou and I will introduce later, and Menya Gokkei-style thick chicken ramen (極雞). For Menya Gokkei-style thick chicken ramen, the chicken broth did surprise me. You can tell the thickness merely from its colloid look. From some angles, the soup was indeed shinning. The chicken used at Shichimenchou is turkey (btw Shichimenchou means turkey in Japanese), which is another factor making its broth unique. Interestingly, the colloid-gel-like hot broth would become solid when cooling down. For my friend’s ramen, a thin shield initially showed up on the top of the broth and my friend found it’s getting harder and harder to stir the soup, ha. If you are a big fan of turkey (or chicken), Menya Gokkei-style thick chicken ramen could be your best option. Personally, I prefer broth with multiple layers; therefore, this ramen is not the one on the top of my list when I visit Shichimenchou.

In the following part, I will show some special or limited flavours I have tried at Shichimenchou. Overall, the dining experiences were fantastic and full of adventure. The only small complaint would be the sous vide chicken pieces in takeaway during the lockdown because I found one to two pieces of sour chicken twice. Perhaps, the owner can pay more attention to the sous vide process in the future.

Alright~ Are you ready for a ramen journey?