Hongdae ramen restaurant: tonkotsu with garlic and rice at Shomendo

Hi, it's Oh Yes 🍩🍩🍩! Today I'm introducing a place that's become my all-time favorite ramen in Hongdae. The menu here has literally only two items. Focusing on just tonkotsu ramen and shrimp ramen really shows how serious they are about ramen!

My partner and I love ramen so much that we're always hunting down ramen spots to try, and after eating here, this place kept popping into my head. If I go back to Hongdae, this is somewhere I'd definitely want to visit again — that's how satisfying it was.

Where is Shomendo, and how far is it from Hongik University Station?

Shomendo is located in Yeonnam-dong, near Hongdae. It's about a 7-minute walk from Exit 3 of Hongik University Station!

How to order at Shomendo: only tonkotsu ramen and shrimp ramen

You order right at the kiosk as soon as you walk in!

There are exactly two menu items: Hakata tonkotsu ramen and shrimp tonkotsu ramen.

You can add ajitama (soft-boiled seasoned egg), seaweed, and a bowl of rice, and gyoza is available as a side. You can also choose the salt level of the broth — we went with the basic 'normal' option!

And apparently the Hakata tonkotsu ramen comes with up to two free noodle refills!

Inside Shomendo: 15 counter seats and an open kitchen

The whole restaurant is set up as counter seating with an open kitchen, so you can watch the ramen being made right in front of you. Three owners were running the place together, and all three looked completely focused on their ramen — you could tell they were serious about it!

Once you sit down, a tray comes out with pickled radish, nakumiso, garlic, and spicy takana (mustard greens). I'd never seen nakumiso or spicy takana at a ramen shop before, so that was a fun surprise.

There was also a small plate and various seasonings set up in front of each seat.

There was even a note on how to enjoy Hakata ramen the best way.

• ① First, try the ramen plain
• ② Add garlic
• ③ Eat spicy takana together with rice

That's the step-by-step way to eat it, apparently!

The seating was all counter-style, arranged in a circle, with room for about 15 people. Even though we visited an hour before closing, plenty of people kept coming in for ramen.

Hakata tonkotsu ramen at Shomendo: how did it taste?

The ramen gets placed up on a shelf for you, and once you're done eating, you put the bowl back up on the same shelf.

We each added an ajitama. It doesn't come mixed into the ramen — they serve it separately on a small plate.

The basic Hakata tonkotsu ramen came with chashu (braised pork), half an ajitama, seaweed, and kikurage (wood ear mushroom).

The chashu was cooked so tender that the texture went really well with the noodles, and the ajitama was soft-boiled with a moist, silky yolk that I loved.

The broth had that rich, savory tonkotsu flavor done properly, but it wasn't so heavy or greasy that it wore you down — it was the kind of taste that kept pulling you back in the more you ate.

The broth really clung to the noodles, so eating a bite of noodles followed by a spoonful of broth was just so good!

At first I ate it without adding anything, then partway through I tried adding garlic — the garlic aroma gave the broth a whole different character, and it was delicious.

At the end, we mixed the leftover tonkotsu broth with a bowl of rice and scraped up every last bit. Mixing in the rice made the richness of the broth come through even more.

What makes Shomendo's tonkotsu broth different from other ramen shops?

Shomendo's tonkotsu broth was a bit different from the tonkotsu ramen I usually eat — rich and savory, but with a real, noticeable depth to the broth itself. We love ramen and have eaten our way through quite a lot of shops, and with Shomendo I definitely felt like 'this place has its own tonkotsu flavor.'

Even after getting home, I kept thinking, 'ah, that Shomendo ramen was really good.' Personally, out of all the tonkotsu ramen I've had, this is one I'd rank among the best.