jib71

or Chicago style ramen.

pudgym29

No, not for that reason.
I am making this response as a precondition for a reply I shall make in another Japan thread here on FlyerTalk.
There has been no activity on this thread since 2019. Guess what? Things, including ramen restaurants, have changed in Japan.
But essentially, I was mildly disconsolate about a poster who on that thread, had a quizzical occurance at Ippudo in NYC.

Quote:

Originally Posted by snowboardpunk

I'm hoping there's more than Ippudo, since I've lived in NYC and had it before. Not my favorite ramen spot. I did read that Sushi Kyotatsu is open in the north wing and have heard great things.

I have eaten at the Ippudo in Ebisu Tokyo; but I did not then have a camera. By the time of Japan Do #4 - Osaka; I did.
I was staying at a new hostel in Namba, and on the Saturday afternoon, when other FT'ers were off on a tour elsewhere, walked out of the hostel and occurred upon the Osaka branch of Ippudo.
I thought it was pretty good. It was sufficient for the evening's activities.
I'm going to be more explicit and annotate the English-language Japan ramen shack guides to which I link:

• Ramen Guide Japan
• Ramen Beast
• 5 AM Ramen
• Ramen Adventures
• Tokyo Ramen Hunter
• Friends In Ramen

And of course, you could also check a translation of a ramen rater like RAMENOID. He resides in Ibaraki prefecture, but travels through the cosmopolitan region. He composes one review each day, and he has a coterie of followers who read and respond to his reviews.

A Little Cow

I never understood the Ippudo Ramen fascination. I've eaten a lot of ramen around Japan, and it was the second worst I've had. Obviously "second worst" in Japan is still decent, but I was definitely disappointed. The Ippudos in the USA are not any better.Pick up a copy of Ramen Walker when you are in Japan and you can find some very nice places! Or just browse Tabelog...

ts.pub

Just adding that Ramen Beast has an app in the iPhone App Store (no clue if one exists for android). You can see what shops are near your current location or browse by types of ramen and various other categories. It even has brief reviews of the shops and and provides their recommended bowl for each shop. The app hasn't been updated in a while so it might have the absolute most recently opened shops but I would still recommend it as a good resource to quickly find where you could get a good bowl nearby.

Topcare

ding ding. :-)
I do find Brian's reviews funny and super in depth. https://m.youtube.com/user/brianramen

angra

I really like tabelog but for ramen, I always find Supleks a bit more reliable and specific

pesos

I can't imagine going to Ippudo NY for ramen. You go for the pork buns and shishito and atmosphere and your out-of-town friends and you tolerate the ramen lol. Ippudo in Japan was reserved for when I lived 50 meters from the one in Ebisu and was too lazy to go anywhere else.

There's nothing wrong with a nice tsukemen bowl at Afuri and plenty of other great places around just about every corner in Tokyo. For a nice salty straightforward bowl I'm partial to machida shouten in shibuya near tokyu hands (iekei style).

seigex

Last ramen I had in Tokyo was Zundou-ya near Kabukicho. Not my favorite of the ramenyas i've been to, but it was pretty good. I do remember the gyoza being pretty awesome at this place though.



Worst bowl of ramen I've had in Japan was at Yaro Ramen in Asakusabashi. The pork was good, but outside of that it was basically bean sprouts with very little soup. This place is known for their massive ramen bowls, but it was quite disappointing.



My favorite was, incidentally, a tiny shop I walked in to off the street as I was walking to the edo museum, that cost me 500 yen all in with beer. Unfortunately, I took no pictures of it and my Google timeline tracking is failing me trying to find it

HarryLime

Totally agree. Surprised to see so many people simply going to Ichiran and nowhere else. I won't call it the McDonalds of ramen, but it would be like coming to NYC and wanting a burger and only going to Shake Shack. It's fine, but it's also in like, airports.

pesos

Today it is, but 15 years ago I would wait in line for *the* shake shack XD

fmkgb

Any recommendations of vegetarian ramen in either Tokyo or Kyoto? Or is that strictly an American dish?

pesos

I usually take my veghead friends to Afuri; it's solid.

This came up on google just now:
https://jw-webmagazine.com/5-best-ve...-7fbbf75d3947/

fmkgb

Thank you. Fascinating that the one European location they have is in Lisbon, Portugal

AlwaysAisle

That looks like 二郎系ラーメン (Jiro-kei ramen or Jiro-type ramen), which is popular lately, especially among young people. Just like anything hyped or popular, Jiro-kei ramen is popular because of the media, not because of the taste. But it is popular enough that even I heard of Jiro-kei ramen. One thing about Jiro-kei ramen is a large amount of bean sprouts, sometimes cabbage. I think Jiro-kei ramen is popular among young people because of the large amount of bean sprouts that fill them up. Young people are looking for something cheap and fill them up. Also, obligatory for Jiro-kei ramen is チャーシュー (char siu or roast pork). Jiro-kei ramen usually use thick noodle and thick pork stock soup, which I think these two also help Jiro-kei ramen to be fulfilling.

Jiro-kei ramen is popular enough that now available at the frozen section of supermarkets.

seigex

I believe I went to this specific one because of a YouTube video I watched or something. I remember seeing it in some kind of challenge because of the sheer size of it, so I got caught up in the social media aspect of it too it seems. It was definitely not an impressive bowl of ramen though.