I didn’t have very much time to venture out to eat lots and enjoy Tokyo while travelling for work – but this bowl of ramen at Ichiran Ramen was one of the highlights of meals I’ve had. I now go to the Hong Kong Ichiran outpost in Causeway Bay whenever I crave for a good ramen.
A thick, super rich pork broth with perfectly cooked al dente noodles, I choose white onions garnish and garlic with the spiciest option. I sat and slurped my noodles loudly à la Tampopo one of my favourite food films and finished fairly quickly. Everyone is given a cubicle and you don’t even see the service staff, your bowl of piping hot soup noodles miraculously appears infront of you within minutes once you’re seated. Ichiran ramen is a chain store, but it seems like so many people, including locals swear by how good it is.
They use the vending machine format here – and of course if you don’t read any Japanese, it’s abit of an adventure. The Kanji characters are derived from Mandarin so I could have blindly made my way through it – but fortunately I also had a Japanese friend doing the legwork.
So, the logistics of getting your seat in a cubicle (numbers below) Green light indicates vacant so you can enter to take your seat at the specific allocated number. They also do take away box sets which if I had the luggage space would have taken my parents some.
The best part? Craving noodles to slurp in the cold Tokyo winter? This place is open 24 hours!!
1 Chome-22-7 Jinnan, Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan
