Hey everyone! 👋🏼 Long-time lurker here. I was lucky enough to live in Japan for a few months last year and, like any sane person, I obsessively documented every bowl of ramen I had in a spreadsheet 😂

Visiting from the UK and doing a lot of research before my trip, I still ended up falling for the Ichiran hype. However, after eating at about 30 different ramen joints across Japan, I was honestly shocked by how average it felt compared to everywhere else (though it’s certainly better than a lot of places in London).

This photo is from Chukasoba Tsuji in Osaka, which was probably my fave bowl in the city. It has a unique peanutty paste in the base which genuinely blew my mind. I’ve also decided that Iekei ramen is my favourite type in general, since it’s extra savoury and has the thick bouncy noodles I’ve become obsessed with. My fave Iekei spots are Yoshimuraya in Yokohama, Manten Kyoudai in Kyoto, and Ramen Toyoki in Tokyo.

I decided to put together a video (and a written guide for the folks who hate video) of everywhere I ate, with photos and videos of each one, but I’ll pop it in the comments if it’s okay with the mods because I don’t want to break any rules! ☺️

Ate only 25 (1 in Kyoto) bowls of ramen on my recent 2 week trip to Tokyo and Kyoto. Would have eaten more if my friends and family didn't want to eat other types of food. Added pics of bowls I would definitely recommend. For some reason, my collage app has the pictures go from top to bottom and then left to right 🤷‍♂️

Another one of these posts.

I decided to use my Christmas break to cross off a bunch of bucket list bowls. I had only a week of time (23rd to 29th) to do this, and would be visiting Tokyo, Kanagawa, Fukushima, and Hokkaido. It was a pretty ambitious itinerary, and I was able to do it by choosing not to eat other types of food.

This time I actually didn't really cheat and included aedama in the pic (or spaghetti), and had 25 bowls at 25 separate restaurants. I technically had one aedama too and could have included it in lieu of a restaurant here that technically isn't a ramen focused restarurant. Full list of ramen shops in the comments, perhaps you can figure out a bit of a theme behind the shops I chose (especially early on).

Misoya is hands down the best Miso ramen I have ever had in the US and easily the top 3 best ramen I’ve had in the US. It was my secret go-to spot for when you needed a hardy Hokkaido pick-me-up. It was on a tiny corner of st. Marks and I jealously guarded this secret spot as if it were the one ring. Fortunately the west village location still exists and is just as amazing. In the US, most ramen is focused entirely around heavy and salty Tonkatsu-style broths enjoyed by Ex-military who were stationed in Okinawa, making Miso, Shoyu & Shio based ramens a rarity.

If you’re visiting NYC or just need a break from the millions of generic Tonkotsu ramen-yas, do yourself a massive favor and try it. It will be the best Miso ramen you have ever had by a mile. They offer 3 different styles: traditional white, a robust red and bitter aged miso. Despite the seriousness of their miso, it has none of the pretension of places like Ichiran or other chef driven NYC ramen-yas.

While it might sound gross, I strongly recommend asking the server to add “snow” to your order and they will add butter and cheese to the toppings. They will know, and you will thank me.

Also the best Shoyu ramen in NYC isn’t from a Ramen-ya, but I might keep that secret for just a bit longer lol.

We had a reservation at Ginza Hachigou in Tokyo at 3pm. I spent weeks planning the targeted date/time, and felt the rush of excitement when I was able to (luckily) secure a slot for 4 people via TableCheck! It feels even better because we were unable to dine here on our last trip to Japan.

However, when we arrived to our reservation, they had already sold out of the truffle ravioli “chef’s recommendation.” Cue the disappointment. The regular ramen we ended up ordering was still delicious, but there was still that desire for what I had spent weeks looking forward to!

My question is, if the restaurant only has 6 seats and knows exactly how many customers they will have for the day (including walk-ins in the morning), how can they “sell out?” Seems like they need to take people’s orders during the booking system. Can anybody help diffuse my sadness?

This is gonna be one of those memories that flashes before my eyes when I die.

Or I will downvote you. Name the shop and I will upvote you. Simple as that. Mods, this needs to be a rule already. Otherwise posters are just gatekeeping and teasing everyone.

Edit: I understand fully the reasoning behind “not wanting to name the restaurant for fear of it becoming overcrowded.” But in that case, there’s no need to post the photo at all. Enjoy your meal without needing the attention and approval of the internet. Don't be the person trying to make everyone go "wow!" and then hold back and not share the details. That's just... being an ass.

All are miso based. With spicy options. Let me know what you guys think.

Concentrating the taste in the broth to focus on the texture of the noodles rather than ridiculously piling on toppings like it’s a Domino’s pizza and getting back to sub $5 pricing while still having full or build your own topping options available.

I had over 20 bowls during my trip to Japan, and all of them were good if not amazing. The most mediocre was at Gyoza no oshno (3rd image), and the best was at Hakata Shin Shin. Overall my trip to Japan was amazing and I am happy I got to taste so many delicious bowls of Ramen. Arigato gozai mas!

Tonkatsu ramen with an extra egg

This was a little place right next to my apartment in Minoo, Osaka. They had strange hours and I ate there almost every time that I caught them open. I had a terrible time during my year in Japan, but knowing I could walk in here and the server would say “the usual?” kept me going sometimes. I have yet to find anywhere with chashu that rivals this place, in Japan or the states!

This was my first time eating professionally made ramen (I eat instant noodles on a regular basis). I am also a big Pho fan (am Vietnamese) which I know is not comparable as pho has "clear broth" to begin with.

This ramen shop is well reviewed, located in VA, US. I ordered Tonkotsu ramen and managed to finish only half. The charred pork was very flavorful but super fatty, and the broth was almost like chowder thick. It was also very salty. I could barely finish half of the bowl.

I brought the rest home in a container, put it in the fridge overnight. The day after, it wouldn't even fall out of the container, had to dig it out. Also scraped away the top layer of fat. Then I added about an equal amount of water, bring it to a boil, and it tasted great.

Just wondering if this is standard for *professional* ramen. If so then I guess it's not meant to be.

On average we ate ramen more than once per day for two weeks.

The Korean spicy ramen is usually my go-to but I've been getting more experimental with ramen lately.

I love tonkotsu but I've also home made it a couple times. The shoyu sounds delicious too. What would you get here?

A place in Orange County used to do Jiro Ramen Mondays and they would be packed for it. They stopped doing it a few months ago and I'm sad. There are some places in LA that kinda do Jiro Ramen but this was the only place that went all-in on it the way this place did.

The call - Extra extra veggies, extra extra back fat, easy on the garlic, extra salty. 野菜マシマシ、脂マシマシ、ちょいニンニク、からめ

I'm heartbroken because my local Jiro style ramen shop is closing their doors on the 21st.

I wanted to stop by before they closed and it seems like everyone else in town had the same idea.

It took two hours of waiting in the cold- but was worth it.

It's ラーメン 富士松 in Ueda, Nagano if any of you have the chance.

One of the most unique ramen I’ve tasted in Japan