This is the fourth post in the Tokyo – Kyoto – Osaka series. Other posts in this series include the intro post: Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka, Matsugen (delicious soba), and Sushi Iwa.
The past few years have been very exciting for ramen aficionados.
Two words: Ramen Street
It’s exactly what it sounds like: eight of the city’s top ramen places – in a row – serving swoon-worthy bowls of noodles at one of the most convenient intersections of the entire city. For a ramen-seeker, it’s a dream come true. Forget trekking around the city to random out-of-the-way places, just to seek out ethereal bowls of noodles.
Now, they are all right at Tokyo Station – just about as central of a location as you can imagine. It’s where both the Narita Express and the train from Haneda International Airport drop you into the city. It’s where you pick up the Shinkansen (bullet train) to all sorts of neighboring cities, like Kyoto, Osaka, or Kobe. It’s where Japan Rail, the Tokyo subway, and the Keio Line all converge.
Since the original four noodle stands came in 2009 and four additional ones in 2011, there’s arguably no better or more concentrated single location for ramen (well, except for maybe the Ramen Museum in Yokohama, but that’s far!).
Really, there’s almost no excuse not to stop by Ramen Street.
We took the JR Yamanote line to get there, but as I mentioned above, there are countless ways to arrive at this station. The station is huge, and I must confess that the first time I tried to find Ramen Street (about a year ago), for some reason I couldn’t find it (thought I did find Character Street, another super fun area in Tokyo Station). Look for exits pointing to the Yaesu Central Exit. Once you exit, turn right.
{Yes, there are “Women Only” areas in the train – much more important during rush hour!).
It’s pretty much impossible to avoid waiting in line. It seems like Japanese people love their ramen at all hours of the day. Thankfully, our wait was only about 20 minutes, which isn’t too bad.
Oh, you do have to buy your tickets for your order before getting in line. We had just gotten in line when a lady came by asking us for our tickets. Oops! We had to get out of line to purchase them. Thankfully, she came by pretty immediately so we hadn’t really moved that far in line before having to step out.
The machines are only written in Japanese, so it’s a bit stressful if you don’t read the language. I can read a tiny bit of Japanese (plus I can sort of read Chinese), but it was still hard. They do have certain buttons marked as “most popular!” or “No. 1!”, so if in doubt you can always choose one of those.
And then the torturous wait begins. Thankfully, there are seats as you get closer to the front of the line.
We were finally seated after about a 20-minute wait. It’s amazing how efficient the whole operation is, actually. Once you enter, you don’t wait that long before beautiful, hot piping bowls of noodles appear right in front of you.
Here is a Tsukemen, or “dipping noodles” with chashu (roast pork) and a poached egg. Aren’t those gorgeous pieces of pork?
You dip the noodles into this rich, velvety “broth” (or shall I call it sauce, it was so thick!), which is made with a combination of fish and pork bone broth. It was deeply rich, superbly satisfying, and overall fantastic.
And slurping is totally encouraged.
We also got a bowl of their shoyu (soy sauce based) noodles, whose broth is made from a combination of chicken and fish stock.
This was also very good, with a perfect, super yellow yolk.
You can order supplementary sides for about 300 yen (about $3) each. Here is a simple chashu over rice topped with Japanese negi (onions).
Here is a more complex side dish, with chashu, bamboo shoots, and a boiled egg over rice. Personally, I thought the ramen provided plenty of food, but I guess if you have a larger appetite it’s nice to have some “snack” you can order on the side.
Overall, we had a great time there. Personally, I might give Rokurinsha (also at Ramen Street, but with more than an hour’s wait that day) an edge for the flavor of the broth in the tsukemen. However, everything at Honda Ramen was still very, very good.
Most of the ramen costs between $8-$10 USD, with the “sides” costing around $3. Do remember to bring cash though, since I don’t think the machines accept foreign credit cards (or any card, for that matter).
The original location of Honda Ramen is an inconvenient 15 minute walk from a train station north of the city. This is most certainly a much easier way to access these delicious noodles.
Tokyo Ramen Street
B1F Yaesu South Exit, Tokyo Station (First Avenue Tokyo Station B1F South Street)
Access by exiting through the Central Yaesu exit and turning right.
General Hours 11:00-22:30 (kitchen closes at 22:00), though hours vary by shop
All Rights Reserved
I am so jealous!! I’d love a large honking bowl if ramen. Especially with a soft boiled egg.
That pork does look great!
At least we have Yume Wo Katare nearby which has pretty good pork!
Yes, the perfect soft boiled egg totally makes the ramen!
We loved Honda Ramen (ate there twice) but we didn’t try Rokurinsha because of the lines. (We tried one in Tskuji market and a crazy tiny one in the Golden Gai district.) It was the first place we ate when we arrived in Tokyo and that vending machine confused the hell out of us (we got help from the staff). The egg was a definite highlight. We’re planning on eating our way around Boston to see if we can find any ramen that comes close. We didn’t like Yume Wo Katare (too fatty) or Sapporo (just didn’t think it was that tasty). Backbar’s happy hour ramen is decent, but we’ve got a few more places to check out.
Those egg yolks have such a rich color! What do they feed their chickens to get that? Our U.S. chicken eggs have rather pale yolks, but when I used to keep chickens in my yard, we fed them all kinds of scraps, and the yolks were rich, colorful and overpoweringly flavorful. Almost too much flavor to eat at once.
I now live in a city that prohibits ‘livestock’ in city limits, and so I must content myself with store-bought eggs.