Even though Shiga is the next prefecture over, I don’t often go there to have ramen, partially because the population density is low, so solid ramen restaurants are few and far between.A few weeks ago I drove down to Nagoya City in Aichi Prefecture to sell my car, so coming home rather late at night through Shiga, Matsuda-san and I craved some ramen to warm us up. For some reason, I had bookmarked Menya Johnny in Nagahama. They are open until midnight on Saturday and have some decent reviews, so we decided to stop in. While it doesn’t seem like much from the outside, they have a rather large menu of typical broths and varying toppings. (Unfortunately, I was so hungry and sad at selling my car, I forgot to take a picture of it.)

I opted for their Grilled Chashu Ramen for 1080￥ ($10 USD), which does seem pricey for a ramen in the middle of nowhere… until it arrived. These two slices of delicious-looking chashu may seem meager from the outset, but lifting them up, they are THICC. They have to be the largest, most mouth-watering pieces I have ever seen on a bowl of ramen and I was absolutely blown away by the soft, juicy, charred taste.

The rest of the bowl was a bit underwhelming, with the noodles a bit on the firm side with not much of a nice texture. The shoyu soup base was a nice medium thickness and had some fat added for flavor, though overall the aftertaste was a bit oily. The portion size was quite reasonable and a large size and kaedama are available for hungry eaters.

The thick chashu alone is worth the trip. The value also seems to match the price for a late night meal, so I expect to be back again.

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