While in Japan we wanted to get a good amount of ramen to eat. In the end we went to 7 ramen restaurants through Japan. The restaurants were Ippudo, Hakata Issou, Ebisoba Ichigen, Ramen Shingen, Teshikaga, Fuchiki, and Kagari. We learned that the literal translation for ramen is oil noodles. Not sure if you have been there but there is a ramen place in Toronto called Kinton Ramen. Kin is gold and Ton is pork so Kinton Ramen means Gold Pork Oil Noodles. Now I am going to tell you how delicious each restaurant was and about our experience there.
There are 4 main styles of Ramen and each style has a city that does that style best. The first style is Tonkotsu, tonkotsu is where they boil the broth for a long time with pork bones. Tonkotsu is always served with pork and Fukuoka is the city where they do tonkotsu best. The 2nd style is Miso, miso is usually served with seafood. Miso ramen can be made by 3 different kinds of miso, red, yellow, and white. White is the mildest. Sapporo is the city where they do miso best. The 3rd style is Shio. Shio is salt ramen. Shio is the most basic ramen and it doesn’t really have a place where they do it best. The 4th and final ramen is Shoyu. Shoyu is a soy-sauce based ramen. Shoyu has a clear brown broth and is not very rich. The most common ramen in Tokyo is Shoyu. The first restaurant was called Ippudo. Ippudo is a big ramen chain that has properties all over Japan. Ippudo is a tonkotsu style ramen restaurant. We went to Ippudo on our 2nd lunch in Japan in Nagoya with Dad’s friend Dan. It was delicious!
This is the ramen at Hakata Issou in Fukuoka. The ramen there was tonkotsu. The broth of that ramen was so rich and delicious. There was a lineup to get in but it was definitely worth it. I definitely would recommend going there if you are in Fukuoka. 
The 3rd ramen restaurant we ate at was called Ebisoba Ichigen. Ebisoba was in Sapporo and it was miso style ramen. It was a popular place so there was a bit of a wait but it went fast. I loved Ebisoba Ichigen. It combined seafood with pork and it was scrumptious.
The 4th ramen place was called Ramen Shingen. It was very good. We went there in Sapporo. The pork was a little too fatty for me but it was still a good bowl of ramen. It was a very intense environment. With the chefs yelling and steam rising. We felt pressured to eat fast because there was a lineup and all the locals ate so fast, two locals ate in the time we ate. 
Here is Denise, Dad, and I eating dinner at Ramen Shingen. One thing we were excited for at Ramen Shingen was eating Hokkaido corn, a lot of ramen restaurants in Hokkaido serve butter and corn to you to put in your ramen. The butter was good but Hokkaido corn is overrated. 
On our last night in Sapporo we went to an alley called Ramen Alley. Ramen alley had 17 ramen restaurants. At the end we were debating if we should go to Teshikaga or Ichikura. In the end we decided to go for Teshikaga. I think Teshikaga was a great choice. I ordered the Shio Ramen, Denise and Mom both ordered the Traditional Miso Ramen, and Dad ordered the All the Toppings Miso Ramen. We each got butter and corn to eat with it. The corn at Teshikaga was a lot better then the corn at Ramen Shingen. 
In Tokyo we went to a well known place in our neighbourhood called Fuchiki. If you didn’t notice, Fuchiki is on the Michelin guide. We were joking that the sign said it had 0 stars. Fuchiki was a small place with only 2 chefs but it was very good. The noodles at Fuchiki were great. Like many small restaurants, Fuchiki had a ticket machine where you choose your meal and out comes a ticket and then you give it to the chef to make. The ticket machine was in Japanese so we just winged it and went for the cheapest option. We used Google Translate to order a rice too.
The last ramen restaurant we went to was called Kagari. Kagari was in the neighbourhood of Ginza. Kagari had rich chicken based ramen, shoyu ramen, and dipping noodles called Tsukemen. Soba usually means buckwheat noodles but here the soba on the sign means chinese noodles which is actually ramen. I ordered the shoyu, my parents ordered the chicken based, and Denise ordered the Tsukemen. You can see the chicken based ramen below.
And now the moment you’ve all been waiting for. The ranking of the ramen restaurants from each member in my family.
Evan
- Hakata Issou
- Kagari
- Teshikaga
- Ebisoba ichigen
- Fuchiki
- Ippudo
- Ramen Shingen. My Best Bite of ramen: The 1st sip of the broth at Hakata Issou
Jess
- Hakata Issou
- Kagari
- Fuchiki
- Teshikaga
- Ebisoba Ichigen
- Ippudo
- Ramen Shingen. Jess’s Best Bite of ramen: The first taste of the broth and noodles at Kagari
Dan
- Hakata Issou
- Teshikaga
- Kagari
- Ebisoba Ichigen
- Ramen Shingen
- Ippudo
- Fuchiki. Dan’s Best Bite of ramen: The combo of broth, noodles, pork, crab, corn and butter at Teshikaga.
Denise
- Kagari
- Ebisoba Ichigen
- Fuchiki
- Hakata Issou
- Ramen Shingen
- Teshikaga
- Ippudo. Denise’s Best Bite of ramen: First spoonful of the warm broth at Ebisoba Ichigen
This is my final post about Japan because last night we took a flight from Narita Airport to Istanbul and then switched on to another plane that took us to Athens, Greece. Right now I am typing from our Airbnb in Athens. Everyone is exhausted from jet lag but we are doing great.
From Away 