Foodies are crazy over Japanese noodle soup. (Photo : Getty Images)
The Japanese noodle house, in its two weeks of operations, sold 400 bowls of noodle soup in less than 4 hours. The owner of the establishment couldn't believe that many from Shanghai liked thick beef broth.
Sonoda Nobuhiro, co-owner and chef of Nagi, said, "We've learned that Shanghainese love noodles, but we didn't know the love could be as thick as our noodle soup."
The restaurant has the capacity of serving 400 bowls of ramen in a day. The restaurant opens at 10 a.m. and customers had already started ordering.
By 2:40 p.m., they had to put a sign at the door saying, "Sorry, noodles sold out."
Their tonkatsu broth, or pork bone broth, simmers for 20 hours to achieve the rich flavor of their broth. This is the base for all of their soups.
"We sell a similar amount of noodles at our Shinjuku store. It took us around 10 years to achieve that," said Nobuhiro.
Nobuhiro and Ikuta Satoshi, the restaurant's founders, had to battle stiff competition in Japan, where 80,000 ramen stores try to get a share of the market.
In 2013, Satoshi was voted as best ramen and champion for Tokyo Ramen of the Year Award. He competed against 30,000 ramen chefs. This was seven years after they founded their small ramen shop.
"When Ikuta first started the business, the noodles weren't really good. But Ikuta listens and improves every day," says Nobuhiro.
The two started in humble kitchens that, according to them, was "so small that you either befriend your colleagues or go mad."
The secret to their soup base is using three times the number of pork in water a third less than what is normally used.
"The rich, pork flavor explodes in the mouth like a bomb," says Nobuhiro.
Specialties of the restaurant are classic white pork or "Original King", red "Spicy King", squid ink or "Dark King" and basil and Parmesan cheese also known as "Green King."
They also offer a "special king" that will change on a regular basis.
