Time for another food post, and this time it’s about one of the most famous ramen places in Tokyo called Ichiran.
I also call it the anti-social ramen place, but i say it with a lot of endearment because this was easily the best ramen I tasted in my short stay in Japan~
Before going on to the food pictures, just a recap of the day for my own benefit. It started off as a mostly lazy day going to Tokyo Station while my brother gets souvenirs for his friends, and I sit there at Starbucks as usual doing what i do best. Idk why but Tokyo city often makes me want to just sit down and chill (in a good way), and it’s strange considering that there’s literally no good cafe to sit down & chill besides Starbucks. Initially the plan was to visit the Imperial Palace since it was nearby, but after half an hour of both of us sitting down, him reading a book and me settling my bidding and blogging, we were both like… #nah. Lol. We both know that we’re not that interested in that kind of Japan history and culture, and it was obligation more than anything else.
So we chilled around for a long time before finally heading back to our hotel at Mystays Ikebukuro (we moved out of Sakura, sadly, the day before). I hurried to do laundry because they have a laundry room luckily, and we rushed back out to meet his friends to eat Ichiran.
Store front of Ichiran!
The queue wounded all the way up and to the lobby area!
Once you enter, you’re greeted with a vending machine as usual, and you choose the ramen you want. The normal one cost 790 yen which is about $9~, very affordable considering it’s a famous place.
Vending machine to make your orders
I read from other sources that they recommend ordering a boiled egg to cleanse your palette. We each ordered one egg but eventually i put mine into the soup instead of eating it pre-ramen hahaha.
We moved into the restaurant and I felt cheated cuz there was another queue LOL. It hasn’t ended yet D:
As you can see in the picture, people wait in a straight line until they are let into the curtained rooms. Meanwhile a waitress goes down to pass us papers to customize our ramens.
Even though they recommended like half spicy level, no!!!! I ordered 5 times and it was perfect for me, not too spicy and it didn’t overwhelm the taste of the ramen itself. It’s really really really delicious with the red sauce so I would really recommend trying about 3 times if you’re not that good at chili, and if you really can’t take chili, at least regular or double.
I had friends who went Ichiran but didn’t order the red sauce or ordered just a bit because it seems a bit misleading… like it appears that regular or half is safest for them, and they weren’t as impressed with Ichiran as I was. I really thought the chili made a lot of difference to our differing opinions haha, and if it wasn’t for my brother, I wouldn’t have known it was perfectly manageable to try up to 5x spicy level. My bro’s friends tried like 10x and they loved it so much. My brother’s 7 was a little too much for me, the chili taste was too strong, but my bowl of ramen was perfect with its firm noodles, light richness, 1/2 clove of garlic and 5x red sauce~
After we’ve customized our ramens, we were brought into the individual rooms and this is the anti-social part haha.
Everyone sat in their own individual ‘booths’ with wooden barriers in between. You can fold the barriers in if you’re with friends but I kept it there to really experience the concept haha. My brother told me they have this cool technology in which they can sense when you get up and that’s how they know the seat is vacant and things like that.
We passed our paper through the hole in front of us and as soon as it was received, they drew the wooden curtain shut. o.o
/anti-social/
my little booth at the corner, with the wooden curtain drawn shut
It took less than 5 minutes before my ramen was served!!!
Looking really really realy really tasty omg ❤ that chili
I cannot emphasize this enough but it was positively the best ramen i’ve tasted!! Superb pork broth taste that wasn’t too strong or oily because i picked light, a lovely mix of garlic taste from my 1/2 clove, deliciously firm noodles, soft pork that melts in the mouth…. omg i’m typing this in my dorm in Seoul and i’m like DDDD: i will never taste this again?! Sigh.
As you can see, my level 5 chili didn’t really change the soup color that much and it wasn’t that potent!
Ichiran tells a lot about the culture of dining in Japan tbh. They make it so that you don’t have to open your mouth and speak with any single person, or make eye contact at all. From the moment you step in, you order from the vending machine, you customize on paper. Perhaps the only words you have to exchange with the waitresses is how many people there are. You go in, escorted to your booth, and you just slip the paper to the chefs in the kitchen. There’s water dispenser right in front of you, utensils all ready, and if you want to order extra, you just have to take the pen and write on the ‘add-on’ paper they provided for you. Then you press the bell and pass the paper through the hole once more.
I found it so fascinating. In Tokyo it’s not surprising to see people eating alone, mostly office men after work, and most of the time the restaurants in Japan arrange their seats to be counter-style catered to individuals, instead of tables for four or two, because it’s a more efficient use of space given most customers come in alone. Ichiran however did take it to the extreme. In their website they stated that it’s to help you focus on the ramen, but I’m pretty sure part of its concept and why it’s so popular is how considerate the restaurant is towards people who eat alone, giving them the absolute maximum privacy and alone time they wish to have while eating.
It’s like good and bad at the same time. I have a torn opinion about these kinds of places. I eat alone sometimes too and i know that if i live in Japan, I would love Ichiran because it allows me to be comfortable eating alone and not be hyper conscious about others’ impressions of me. At the same time, I feel like having a place like Ichiran around will just make me withdraw into my comfort zone even more, thus making me anti-social for real lol.
Hm.
Regardless of the concept though, the ramen is absolutely the best ramen i’ve ever tasted! The first recommendation I’d make to anyone visiting Tokyo 😀
How to get to Ichiran @ Ikebukuro:
darmawanders 