Why You Should Try A Ramen Tasting Tour

Take a Tokyo ramen tasting tour to try out six different mini bowls of ramen and discover the history and culture behind this iconic Japanese dish.

[A mini bowl of flavourful curry ramen at one of the stops on the tour - © Florentyna Leow]

If you’re travelling to Japan, ramen is probably on your eating bucket list. It’s the quintessential comfort food, and can be as fancy or as down-to-earth as you like. But Tokyo has thousands of ramen shops to choose from, and the difficulties lie in narrowing down your options and finding the most worthwhile ones to visit.

That’s where a ramen tasting tour comes in. Here’s our in-depth review on this ramen tasting tour in Tokyo, and how you can join one on your next visit to Japan.

[With a guide, we were able to sample a wide variety of ramen at different shops without having to eat huge portions - © Florentyna Leow]

Why Do a Guided Ramen Tasting Tour?

The best reason to do one, in a word: Efficiency. Instead of devoting a whole meal to a single large bowl of ramen, joining a tasting tour means that you can sample a variety of styles and tastes without having to eat half a dozen huge bowls all by yourself. Each mini bowl is about a quarter of the regular serving size.

A tasting tour like this can’t be replicated as an individual customer, as ramen shops don’t normally serve mini bowls or small portions of their offerings. The guides who operate this ramen tasting tour have long-standing relationships with the ramen shops, who prepare these mini bowls especially for tour participants.

Additionally, this tour is a great way to learn about ramen and its history if you aren’t familiar with the dish. The guides are all long-term residents/serious ramenheads and they really know their stuff. We won’t spoil all the details for you, but our review below should be enough to give you an idea of what it’s like. You can join the guided tour via GetYourGuide.

[There are few ramen-related questions that the guide can’t answer - © Florentyna Leow]

Things to Know Before You Go

• There are three variations on their tasting tour: one takes place in Shinjuku, another in Shibuya, and the last in Ueno. For this article, we tried out the Shinjuku route. We’ve also done the Shibuya route. Both were fun experiences that were noticeably distinct from each other. You could easily join both with almost no overlap in the types of ramen you get to try.
• The meeting point will vary depending on which route you join. Instructions are very clear and are emailed directly to you via GetYourGuide.
• The tour typically costs around ¥17,000 per person, but the price is sometimes lower when booking through GetYourGuide depending on the season and availability.
• Group sizes are kept small, a maximum of 8 people. However, they will run the tour even if you end up being the only participant, as was the case on our tour.
• Train transport costs are not included in the tour. However, we only needed to ride the train once; the rest of the time, we walked in the same neighbourhood.
• All of the ramen shops use chicken, pork, and fish in their broths. However, the same provider has a separate vegan and vegetarian-friendly ramen tasting tour for those who don’t consume meat or fish.
• Go hungry! You’re unlikely to need dinner afterwards.

[The interior of the first ramen restaurant we visited in Shinjuku; it was fairly quiet during off-peak hours - © Florentyna Leow]

The Tokyo Ramen Tasting Tour

Our guide for this tour was Mr. B. It was evident from the start that he was a huge ramen enthusiast. Within minutes of sitting down at the first ramen restaurant, he was walking us through the history of ramen and how it developed over the twentieth century in Japan. The historical and cultural overview was a useful primer, and helped us understand where each of the restaurants we visited sat in the ramen pantheon.

[These weren’t our favourites, but it was eye-opening to experience more traditional, simpler styles of ramen - © Florentyna Leow]

The first stop on the Shinjuku route gave us an idea of old-school Tokyo ramen. Rich, fatty, complex broths and marinated eggs with gooey centres are more recent innovations. The two mini bowls we had here featured lighter chicken-and-pork broths, and a hard-boiled egg. On the left was the “karami chuka” where you could choose your spice level. On the right was the mori chuka, where the noodles were served separately from the concentrated broth.

[At each stop, he provides laminated menus with short descriptions of each mini bowl - © Florentyna Leow]

Next, Mr. B took us on a meandering walk through Shinjuku’s labyrinth of underground shopping malls to our next stop, a ramen shop specialising in modern tori paitan (rich, creamy chicken soup). We were only sorry we couldn’t have all four mini bowls offered here instead of two, as all of the choices on offer looked rather tempting.

[Wagyu tantanmen (left) and matcha paitan with almond cream (right) - © Florentyna Leow]

Tori paitan is creamy and flavoursome, but a full bowl of the stuff can sit quite heavily on the stomach. Sampling small portions like this was the ideal way to know how it would taste without committing to the entire bowl. We liked our choices of wagyu tantanmen and matcha paitan. The former was nutty, creamy, and just spicy enough to leave us wanting more; the latter was underwhelming in its green tea intensity, but it was useful to learn that we did not care for matcha in our noodles.

[A wooden tray containing noodles from Asakusa Kaikarou, which are freshly made and delivered daily - © Florentyna Leow]

Our next and final stop with Mr. B was a curry ramen restaurant in Ebisu, a few stations down the Yamanote Line. We appreciated that we were walking in between ramen stops. Not only did this give us time to chat about noodles with Mr. B, it also allowed us to digest and get excited about the next place. He waxed lyrical about how chewy and delicious the noodles were at this particular restaurant. It transpired that the restaurant sources their noodles from Asakusa Kaikarou, one of the most famous ramen noodle producers in the country.

[Tour participants can choose from three or four mini bowls at each stop - © Florentyna Leow]

You don’t often see curry ramen shops, so it was a real treat to sample a well-made example. At Mr. B’s suggestion, we went with both the curry ramen and curry abura soba. The latter is rather like pasta in that the noodles are coated with sauce, not soup.

[This was the best egg on the tour Just look at that gooey orange yolk! - © Florentyna Leow]

It was tough to decide which one was better. The shop apparently blends their curry powder in house, and the creamy curry soup had body and a real depth of flavour to it. On the other hand, the noodles were as chewy and delicious as Mr. B promised. We cleaned our bowls to the very last drop.

Three hours passed by in the blink of an eye, thanks to Mr. B’s hospitality, positive attitude, and clear passion for ramen. If you’re on the fence about whether to join a ramen tasting tour, we’d suggest joining one. It’s an interesting (and tasty) experience even for people who know more about ramen than the average person.

[Mr. B was even carrying several ramen magazines in his bag during the tour — a true ramenhead - © Florentyna Leow]

Tokyo Ramen Tasting Tour

Admission:

From ¥17,000 per person; purchase online

Nearest Hotels:
Check availability and pricing for hotels around Shinjuku on Booking.com or Agoda.com.

Website:GetYourGuide

Near To Here:
This ramen tasting tour took place in Tokyo’s Shinjuku district. See our complete list of things to do in Shinjuku, including places to eat, nightlife and places to stay.

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