Men’ya takakura-nijo

This place is really stellar! We stumbled upon it and tried it despite the Unilocal reviews here — couldn’t be happier that we did! It’s really wonderful, cozy, and authentic. There’s only about 8 – 10 seats in the whole restaurant, so it’s very homey and you literally sit around the kitchen where the ramen and ingredients are made fresh.
The waitstaff there was super helpful, and spoke enough English to help us order from the machine, because we were clearly having a few problems (as it’s all in Japanese!). For reference, if you’re trying to order Ramen, order from the first row on the machine and use the blue buttons. From left to right there is plain Ramen, egg Ramen, pork Ramen, and then pork & egg ramen. We got the pork & egg ramen and it was great. Insert yen into the machine before hand and then press your order, and finish with the button in the lower right corner. Hand the little tickets like it printed out to the guy over the counter and they will make your food right there.
As for our pork & egg ramen — YES there’s a lot of flavor and YES the pork is fatty — get over it, this is how ramen is supposed to be!
Definitely would come back here again!

Distinctively fishy, love it or hate it.

If you’re allergic to flavor, then stay away.
This was by far the most flavorful bowl of ramen we had on our vacation to Kyoto. We ate at several other highly rated ramen shops around town, many of which were appallingly overrated, but Takakura Nijo was the only restaurant we made the effort to dine at twice during our entire trip.
The pork ramen here is a must. Toppings are fairly basic but fundamental:
— Ito togarashi (dried red pepper strands)
— Scallions
— Menma
— Chashu
— Nitamago (flavored soft-​boiled egg)
That pork. Oh. My. Bacon. We watched in awe as beautiful, fat-​streaked slices of chashu were grilled over a charcoal flame. Every bite of this pork was marbled with that distinctly smoky, complex flavor that you only achieve with charcoal. If you appreciate a rich bowl of ramen, then you’ll love this. Conversely, if you’re a fat-​phobic weirdo, then move along to the next generic ramen shop that serves dry and flavorless lean pork.
Next, the noodles. Thick, chewy, slurp-​worthy goodness. I hate nothing more than finding thin, straight Chinese noodles in my ramen, so this was a definite plus. Love this style of noodle.
The egg. That deep, dark orange yolk is as gorgeous as any shrine we saw on our trip. If only all eggs were this delicious…
And the broth. So rich, bordering on creamy, with a seafood undertone. Perhaps a tad high on the saltiness scale, but it was nothing a cup of this shop’s complimentary chilled tea couldn’t correct.
The shop itself is small but homey, and the workers are extremely nice and helpful. You order using the ramen ticket machine, which is unfortunately all in Japanese, so just be prepared to show them pictures to help them direct you to the right options. (FYI, the ramen we ordered is the 4^th blue button from the top left; I believe it’s the most expensive option in the top row.)

Went here at 6pm (right when they opened) and were excited based on reviews read on Google. The space is small and the pork (which is overly fatty) is cooked on a charcoal grill that blows smoke into your face as your eat. We both got the pork ramen and the broth was quite fishy for our liking but the noodles were chewy, long and delicious. ²⁄₅.