Yes, I do concur.
Besides, amongst the 8 Ramen shops (at time when I was there), they represent ramens from different regions (or styles) of Japan. On one trip, when I stayed at the nearby Courtyard, I dined over there more than twice!

BTW, the other train station that has lots of Ramen shops is Kyoto Station. Ramen Alley was inside the station building (where you will find a department store, a hotel and what not...)

Do you remember if the Tokyo Station Ramen Street restaurants were cash-only?

Cash or Suica

Hmm…will my digital Suica on the iPhone work?

lol of course. Not much different than using your physical or mobile Suica on a vending machine

I recall I used Suica card.
I think the kiosk might take cash as well (unsure about this)

We checked out the new Yaechika subterranean complex starting at the Eastern end walking through towards Tokyo Station and the Ramen Street area.

It was Obon time, not a usual weekday, and this may have contributed to my own impression.

Walking through the artificial alleys was uncomfortable for me, felt voyeuristic, but that’s something I’d certainly feel differently about if I went to eat and stayed there rather than passing through and being nosey (MrLapLap had been keen to check it out). Each of the Ramen concessions generates its own smell, some were pleasant to me, some were tolerable, and there were also some deeply unpleasant funks which would spread out and insist upon themselves past their origin Ramen Ya. Perhaps there are folks for whom imbibing the scent of a neighbouring assertive soup stock whilst slurping the contents of a differently flavoured bowl is an enhancement to the experience. Aroma is important but to each of us in a way that non est disputandum.
The other part of the discomfort was the unavoidability of market realities. On one side of an alley the counter would be ripe with a full row of bottoms below the curved backs of engaged patrons, quickly replenished from bulging queues of others waiting to take their places. On the other side of the aisle just the emptiness of naked stools, the plight of the underused employees behind the counter creating a melancholy that hung in the air along with the spurned funk.

We’d already eaten by the time we saw the Tokyo Ramen Street area. We gave our daughter the decision of where to have dinner and she chose the Yaechika Sushiro. There’s a ticket system at the door so you don’t have to physically queue and we waited about 15 minutes for a table. For the price it was excellent.

CORRECTION - This is about Tokyo Ramen Yokocho in the Yaechika complex just across from Tokyo Ramen Street in the connected main Tokyo Station basement area.

Whatever you do, don’t visit Ramen Nagi! It’s stores are mostly wall-in-a-hole kinda places and I don’t want the lines to get longer :cool:

Are there any websites that list which ramen restaurants will accept Suica or credit cards? It seems like all the ramen restaurants in Tokyo Station accept Suica, which is good.

https://tabelog.com/en/tokyo/rstLst/...QrcodePayment=


https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...4eb1a07f7.jpeg

ETA
I also suggest slecting “no reservations” when searching Tabelog for Ramen.

Tsukemenn (dipping sauce ramen, つけ麵), was this a fad or is this here to stay?

Just like any food, not just ramen, I had some very good tsukemenn and I had some tsukemenn I found not to be memorable. I have nothing again tsukemenn, but most likely I will not go out of my way to seek tsukemenn. If I am in the mood for ramen, I will likely look for a ramen place nearby, and I will not specifically look for tsukemenn place. If the tsukemenn place happened to be right nearby, then I have no problem getting tsukemen.

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...59c0f583b0.jpg

How do you define fad? It's been round since the early 60s so I don't see it up and disappearing. I'm a fan, especially in summer.

Perhaps the question should be "How do you define 'here'?"
AlwaysAisle's profile says that they are in SFO. Wikipedia states that Tsukemen became popular in Los Angeles since 2013 but not in other areas... I think it's possible that different cities in the US will come up with their own take on Tsukemen. I look forward to the Chicago deep dish version.

It's a fad that's here to stay.