tokyo noodle guide
get slurpin', people
I had big (food related) plans for my trip to Japan. With over 90 google maps saves in Tokyo alone, I was ready to dine on a wide array of incredible Japanese dishes.
Then… we got to Tokyo. We had our first meal: ramen. I had to start with a quintessential Tokyo meal, and it felt right. Yeah, once we started slurping noodles from that first steaming hot, richly flavourful bowl, we made ramen a total priority. We still ate loads of other dishes, but Japanese noodle supremacy had a chokehold on us and we INDULGED.
Not just in your classic bowls of ramen, but also in thickkkk udon noodles and something I’ve never had before: tsukemen. Now, you can simply go to Tokyo and hop into any ramen/noodle serving shop that calls your name, blindly order from the screen, and be in noodle slurping bliss. But, if you’re like me, and want to ensure you get a nice variety of kinds in, let me break it down for you in this noodle guide.
Ramen
There are many, many kinds of ramen out there, and I won’t pretend to be an expert. I will, however, break down some of the kinds you’ll see in Tokyo!
Tonkotsu: Tonkotsu is my personal favourite ramen! The broth is made by simmering pork bones over the course of many hours and results in a creamy (often milk-like in appearance), rich, yet still light enough broth. The perfect balance.
Shoyu: Admittedly, a kind I am less familiar with. Shoyu broth is less creamy than tonkotsu, and seasoned with soy sauce. This results in a dark brown colour that has a simple but deep flavour.
Shio: A simple salt based ramen that is light and on the subtle side of things.
Miso: Miso is thiccck. I tend not to order it for that reason, but Dan loves a rich ramen so has a preference for it. Fermented bean paste is utilized, (but it does not taste fermented) and has a deep umami flavour.
Then, a different, we’ll say presenting ramen than you may be used to:
Tsukemen: Dipping ramen! I highly recommend getting it in Tokyo, I’ve never seen it outside of Japan and it seems fairly popular here. Basically you get a plate of noodles with an accompanying small bowl of thick broth. You pick those noodles up, dip them in the broth and slurp it up.
Udon
Okay, I am no udon expert. In fact, I’ve rarely had it before coming to Japan, but I have fallen in LOVE. Udon is a thick, fat noodle that, when done well, has a satisfying bite. Udon comes in many forms; here’s what I saw:
Kake udon: Udon is served in hot broth.
Tsuke udon: Choose hot or cold udon and dip it in broth.
Kamatama udon: Udon with cracked egg on top that you then add soy sauce to to amp up the flavour.
Bukkake udon: Served without broth and with accompanying sauce to pour on.
Curry Udon: Udon with Japanese curry.
Soy sauce udon: You get your noodles sans broth and pour soy sauce on to your liking.
All of these come with a variety of different toppings such as tempura, meat, or options like butter and cod roe.
So where did I go to slurp up these delicious, delicious noods?
Ichiran Ramen
Ichiran is one of the most well known ramen chains out there. They specialize in one thing: tonkotsu. I won’t go into all the details, since I break down their unique system here. All you need to know: yes, it’s a chain… but it’s worth the hype!!! It was the first place we tried, and we became obsessed with ramen thereafter. The broth was piping hot, deeply flavourful, and had a great spice to it based on my customization. Divine.
Ramen Tatsunoya Shinjuku
I highly recommend going here to try tsukemen; it’s what they’re known for and they do a great job. There will likely be a bit of a queue. The line seemed long when we arrived around 6:00pm (honestly, lines are common in Tokyo- restaurants have limited seating, but people tend to get in, eat, and get out quickly), but it moved very fast! They also have you order/pay (they’ll bring you inside to order from a screen) while you’re waiting in line, so food comes in quick when you do get sat, and you can leave soon as you’re done eating. Such a brilliant system.
Anyways, I will admit that I do prefer ramen in broth. I am just a soup girl- but I have zero regrets trying this. The broth served alongside my generous heap of noodles was indeed thick, rich and clung to the noodles perfectly. It was unique in flavour to any ramen broth I’ve had before, so it was a nice change of pace.
I suspect they used dried mushrooms to get the flavour; it doesn’t taste mushroomy per say, but has that deep, earthy flavour you get when cooking with them. It was umami to the max, and I really enjoyed it. Excellent chashu pork as well! Dan got their brothy ramen, and spoke highly of it.
Hakata Furyu Shimbashi
This an another ramen chain we chose more out of convenience and proximity, but it ended up being my fiance’s favourite meal of the Japan trip (so far), so this worked out very well! Japan does chains WELL, what can I say?
Anyways, they specialize in tonkotsu but get rather fancy with it: offering miso, spicy miso and tonkotsu with black garlic oil. Honestly the garlic is what sold me, I love garlic, and Dan REALLY loves garlic. This restaurant has incredible value, with two free refills of noodles, minced garlic to freely add, as well as a sort of spicy pickled veg situation. We were able to really customize our bowls which was nice… though I went a little too ham and kind of dominated the original flavour (oops).
The tonkotsu broth was creamy and had a nice punch of garlic from the oil. You get to choose your noodle doneness here, and I have a preference for a firmer nood- which they did real well. Dan got the spicy miso with garlic oil and his was incrediblyyy packed with rich flavour. So! Good! Oh also the chashu was incredible with a sort of smokey flavour that we hadn’t quite tasted yet.
Ramen Afro Beats
This spot definitely felt the trendiest, and came at a higher price point, but it is WORTH IT. They offer tori paitan ramen, which uses chicken in the broth instead of pork- which honestly was a nice change. Their ramen comes with two generous slices of chashu, and the more decked out versions include paprika espuma (sort of a foamy paprika situation) and most orange yolked egg I have EVER seen.
I kept it simply with the tori paitan- no egg or foam for me. This was incredible. The broth was quite light, but still packed full of flavour. It was ridiculously hot, so be careful, but that’s what I WANT. Slurping up perfectly cooked, delicious noodles with a light, foamy topped broth: what could be better? Oh yeah, having the best chashu pork of the trip to top it off. The pork was the most bacony in flavour, yet felt… the healthiest? I don’t know, but it slapped. It also had a light dusting of paprika which worked, and I was liberal in using the provided black pepper. Delicious.
Dan quite liked his version with paprika too. If paprikash and chicken soup had a ramen love child- this would be it! If you love a paprika, this ramen shop is the place for you! They also serve a gorgeous looking shoyu if you want to give it a try!
Sanuki Udon Taniya
It’s funny… this is the only udon spot we went to in Tokyo, and though I genuinely loved it, I thought I enjoyed the ramen spots more. Yet. I have been craving the udon here for days. My mouth is quite literally watering at this moment just thinking about it. I want to eat here again. My desire for udon is reaching new heights.
Yeah, I really recommend it here. They make their noodles in house, the interior is cozy, the service impeccable, and we were the only (obvious) foreigners when we dined here. You GUYS. Sometimes I hear people talking about noodles being bouncy, and I never understood what they meant until I came here. These were some of the most incredible noodles I have EVER had. The bite was impeccable, with that BOUNCE! Even though mine weren’t in broth, with each slurp I got steaming hot, udon perfection.
We ordered two kinds: kake udon topped with tempura shrimp and tempura egg and the soy sauce udon, which came topped with grated mountain yam, raw egg and beef.
The kake udon was fantastic. The broth simple, but satisfyingly salty. Though, the star of the show (besides the noodles) was the shrimp tempura. The shrimp was the meatiest I’ve EVER had and the tempura was incredible. We came to really regret not ordering more tempura on the side. We got karaage (Japanese fried chicken) instead, which was ridiculously juicy, tender and fully slapped, but man… that tempura!!! Dream.
I got the udon with yam because I’ve been loving the grated yam. As you can see, it’s not what you expect, and almost has a fluffiness to it. That, mixed with the scrumptious egg (the eggs here are the best) made for a thick, rich sauce for my udon. It was so friggin’ good, especially with a liberal pouring of soy sauce.
Visit this place. Incredible noodles. Incredible fried things. Incredible flavour.
Okay, after a mere ten days in Tokyo, I think it’s safe to say that getting noodle based food for dinner five nights is a fair share- I DID have other things on the list after all! Even so, I thought I’d get sick of ramen… but nope, I still crave it and I’m grateful that my Japan trip is continuing so I can keep on eating it. Though, I’m excited to share my other eats with you guys, as I’ve had a good variety of incredible bites. So stay TUNED!!