Best Ramen Restaurant in Kyoto: Top 17 Kyoto Ramen Shops

As the old capital of Japan, Kyoto is known as a historic city, filled with cultural and historic sites of significance. However, Kyoto’s dining scene is just as vibrant as well. While Kyoto’s best restaurants are often centered around kaiseki dinners, it is also home to hundreds of ramen stalls, and with a wealth of Kyoto ramen shops to choose from, there certainly is no shortage of noodles for you to feast on.

While many stalls are crowd favorites, our list focuses on just a few bowls of ramen that are acclaimed for their robustness, umami, and depth. These are some of the best ramen stalls in Kyoto that showcase the Japanese noodles in their best light, with broths and soup bases that feature Kyoto ingredients and produce. 

Here are some of the top Kyoto ramen restaurants to try during your trip to Kyoto.

Kobushi serves a rare combination of local duck and nodoguro (blackthroat sea perch) that is tough to find anywhere else. Such a combination of two bold ingredients creates a soup that is delicate, but still impactful and memorable. For those seeking a heavier ramen, they also serve a popular spicy tantanmen. 

Diners are also able to add even further flavor to their bowl thanks to the yuzu, shichimi (Japanese seven spice), and kombu (seaweed) infused vinegar available on the table. 

Kobushi is in the 2024 Michelin Guide as a Bib Gourmand and in the West Japan Top 100 ramen shops on Tabelog. However, there is never too long a line, which makes this an easy choice for anyone seeking an esteemed bowl of ramen without lining up. 

Kobushi is conveniently located near Kyoto Station. It makes for a perfect lunch break after exploring nearby Umekoji Park or the Kyoto Railway Museum. 

Find out more: Top Bib Gourmand Restaurants in Kyoto

If high-quality noodles are what you’re after, head to Muginoyoake, which means “dawn of the wheat.” The noodle master used to work at a flour-milling company, and takes great pride in his homemade flat, straight noodles. 

The soup is made with scallops and Japanese pepper. While scallops add an element of umami sweetness, the pepper adds a spicy kick to keep you coming back for more. 

Muginoyoake is in the 2024 Michelin Guide as a Bib Gourmand, and is a 16-minute walk from Nishi-Kyogoku Station or an 18-minute walk from Nishioji Station. 

Just one look at the katsuobushi (smoked, shaved tuna) crowning this bowl of ramen, and diners know they are in for a treat. Not only that, but an ample portion of wagyu beef is added to the finish which really brings this bowl into elite status. The beef is cooked in a sukiyaki-flavored broth, then seared shortly before serving.

With only ten seats, Menya Inoichi draws a crowd thanks to their current status as a 2024 Michelin Bib Gourmand and a Top 100 ramen shop on Tabelog. 

Just a 3-minute walk from Kyoto-Kawaramachi Station, Menya Inoichi is certainly a bucket list ramen considering its high caliber ingredients. 

Find out more: Kyoto’s World of Wagyu: 10 Best Wagyu Restaurants and Steakhouses in Kyoto

Mendokoro Janomeya serves a decadent combination of karaage fried chicken served on top of a rich chicken ramen. The broth steeps whole chickens to create a creamy paitan (thick white soup). They also offer shio (salt) and shoyu (soy sauce) ramen if customers desire a lighter bowl. 

Noodles are made with whole wheat flour and as a result are slightly sweet. They also serve a dried sardine ramen which tends to be a bit sharper in flavor, so there is something for everyone on the menu. 

Mendokoro Janomeya is on the second floor of a shopping arcade and a 1-minute walk from Kyoto-Kawaramachi Station. They are also in the 2024 Michelin Guide, making an ideal pit stop during a day out in Kyoto. 

The interior of Chinese Noodles Roku looks like a high-end kaiseki restaurant. The ramen is produced by the chef of a famous Michelin-starred Chinese restaurant, which explains the sophisticated ambiance. 

The ramen uses Kyoto duck, venison bones and a combination of porcini, shiitake, tomatoes and longan. Dining at Chinese Noodles Roku is a feast for the senses.

Roku is just a 2-minute walk from Kawaramachi Station or a 5-minute walk from Gion-Shijo Station. It’s a good choice if you get hungry after exploring the narrow alleys of Gion or strolling along the Kamo River. 

Find out more: Where Gourmet Meets Geisha: 9 of Gion’s Best Restaurants

It’s a bit of a trek to reach Ore no Ramen Appareya, but adventurous diners will not be disappointed. It’s one of Kyoto’s most praised ramen restaurants and is a Top 100 ramen shop on Tabelog. 

The most popular dish is limited to 20 servings daily. It is a tsukemen with a rich, salty pork bone broth and thick, wavy noodles. Other standout dishes include the roast pork ramen, with pork slices beautifully arranged like flower petals. Such a floral presentation is fitting considering their location in the beautiful nature of the Kyoto countryside. 

Ore no Ramen Appareya is only open three hours a day for lunch, so plan ahead if you want to savor this famous bowl. 

The ramen at Seikoudoku is a dream come true and the very definition of limited edition. They prepare just one batch of noodles daily, which means diners are treated to absolute maximum freshness. This also means they sell out relatively quickly. 

The soupless tantanmen is bursting with red chili, cashews, peanuts, miso paste, and Chinese five spice. The noodles are thick and flat, begging to be mixed up with the rich combination of ingredients. 

Currently, Seikoudoku is taking online bookings through their website. The system opens at midnight for the next day. Making an online reservation is highly recommended if you are serious about getting your hands on such a fantastic bowl of ramen. 

Seiko Udoku is near Uji, making it a great choice during a day trip to the matcha capital of Kyoto. 

Eating at Vegan Ramen Uzu Kyoto is a bit like being inside an abstract art exhibit. This sensation is intentional, as the restaurant was designed by the famous teamLab group. The tables are made of polished black stone and mirrors create the illusion of multidimensional spaces.

The ramen is plant and algae-based with a combination of miso, soy, shiitake mushrooms and kombu (seaweed). Noodles are made in-house and use organic wheat from Miyazaki. It is also recommended to try their seasonal fermented fruit juice. 

Vegan Ramen Uzu is in the 2024 Michelin Guide as a Bib Gourmand. Reservations can be made online for their signature course menu, which includes two appetizers, ramen, dessert and two drinks. It is certainly a memorable experience. 

If Kyoto is part of your whirlwind trip to Japan, you would be remiss to skip dining at world-famous Ippudo at least once. With three locations near Kyoto Station, Ippudo serves a reliable bowl of rich, creamy tonkotsu (pork bone) broth. Their thin, silky noodles are not overly filling and served classic Hakata style.   

It is recommended to order a side of their tender chashu (braised pork) or a marinated egg. Many branches have tables and space to store your belongings, which make it a good choice for families traveling with children. They also offer a menu in a variety of languages and accept all forms of payment. 

They have branches at Shijo Karasuma, Kyoto Porta and Aeon Mall Kyoto. So if you’re buying last-minute souvenirs, dinner at Ippudo would be a great choice.

If you like your ramen as thick as it gets, head to Menya Gokkei in northern Kyoto. Their tori paitan (rich chicken soup) is so dense, you can literally stand a spoon vertical in your bowl without it falling over. 

Menya Gokkei makes their famous soup by boiling whole chickens into a gravy. The noodles are served very firm and chewy so as to stand up to such a heavy broth. Many diners choose the “Akadaku” version of their ramen, which covers the entire bowl in a thick layer of cayenne pepper. It may sound intense, but pairs very well with the creaminess of the chicken broth.

Menya Gokkei is a 7-minute walk from Ichijoji station, and is a Top 100 ramen shop on Tabelog that regularly draws long lines.  

Kyoto is home to a plethora of ramen stalls, but hidden in the north of Kyoto is Kyoto’s best kept ramen secret: Ichijoji Ramen Street! Touted as the largest ramen district in the Kansai region, Ichijoji is home to ramen shops that sell a large variety of ramen.

Fondly known as the "battleground of ramen," upon stepping into the vicinity, you’ll be greeted by many ramen stalls lining the streets, all competing with each other in a bid to be the best and most popular ramen store.

Have a peek at our list of the top 6 ramen to try from Ichijoji Ramen Street to decide which bowl of ramen to start your feast with.

Situated smack in the middle of Pontocho, this tiny ramen stall is hard to discover, but is usually found by spotting the long queues snaking out from the small alley to the main street. Famous for their extremely tasty chicken ramen and niboshi broth ramen, Janomeya also serves up seasonal bowls of ramen that are in stock for a limited period only.

The next time you’re in Gion and are deciding which Kyoto ramen to eat, join the queue and wait to devour Janomeya’s delicious bowls of ramen.

Sitting on the northwest periphery of Kyoto is Ramen Touhichi, a small ramen stall that has been firmly etched into the Japan's Michelin Guide under the Bib Gourmand category for many years. With chicken sourced from Tanda and Kochin, Nagoya, Ramen Touhichi ensures that each bowl of ramen is made only with high quality local produce. Their silky smooth noodles are also made from organic Hokkaido wheat flour. 

Ramen Touhichi’s most famous ramen is their tsukesoba. In contrast to normal tsukemen's thick curly noodles, Ramen Touhichi’s tsukesoba uses the same silky noodles as it does in its other bowls of ramen. What’s unique about the tsukesoba is how the dry noodles are served in a bowl of kansui (the alkaline lye water that's essential for making ramen noodles), lending an almost viscous feel to the noodles as you pick them up with your chopsticks!

You’ll also find many diners ordering bowls of their tori shoyu ramen and toripaitan as well, both of which are extremely flavorful. Ramen Touhichi’s karaage fried chicken is also a must order if you’re here! These morsels of chicken are crunchy and peppered with a dash of cumin to spice them up. 

Hidden away in a narrow alley, uncovering the entrance to Gion Duck Noodles truly requires an observant eye and a bit of undercover work. Tucked away in a small corner along the alley, Gion Duck Noodles is only advertised by a small sign hanging above its entrance, with a duck and ramen emojis. If you don’t speak or read Japanese, fret not, for the menu is made up of emojis too.

Gion Duck Noodles only has a selection of duck tsukemen and duck shoyu ramen on its menu, and you can select either the thigh or breast meat. We were told that duck thigh meat is juicier and with a nicer bite, while the duck breast meat pieces are more flavorful.

The friendly owner also used to train as a French chef, and innovatively uses German rye wheat to ensure that the noodles are denser in nature to complement the flavorful duck meat. The ramen chef also siphons his dashi. This is one Kyoto ramen that is sure to wow your tastebuds with its flavors!

While shoyu ramen, a conventional Kyoto-style ramen, can be found aplenty around Kyoto, it’s hard to find a stall that manages to extract the flavors of shoyu as well as this Ichijoji Ramen Street shop. Menya Yukou’s broth is made from a special house-blend of shoyu, and they offer three different bowls of ramen — Hachiku, Madake and Kurochiku — all priced at ¥800.

Their most popular bowl is the Hachiku, with a base made from an assortment of clams and shoyu; and Madake is a kombu and tonkotsu shoyu base, which is perfectly balanced in flavor and texture.

The star of Menya Yukou, however, is Kurochiku, which features a strong blend of shoyu. A taste of the dark, almost blackish broth brings forth the nuances that constitute the best of the shoyu blend Menya Yukou painstakingly creates in-house. It is bitter, sweet, tangy and salty all at once, but the flavors work so harmoniously together to give you that delicious and robust umami taste.  

If hearty bowls of ramen are your favorite, Ginjo Ramen Kubota serves a heavy-bodied tonkotsu ramen that will be right up your alley! They are famous for their Ginjo Tsukemen Miso, a thick and rich tsukemen broth made of seafood. The salty and sweet dipping broth is complemented by thick curly wheat noodles that are perfectly textured, allowing the dipping broth to completely coat each strand, with each dunk you take. 

While once only popular among locals, Ginjo Ramen Kubota is fast gaining popularity these days amongst tourists as well, despite being situated quite a distance from Kyoto Station.

As the small stall can only seat 10 diners at a time, queues can start to snake pretty quickly, so go early to ensure you get a spot.

Mensho Ichiryu Manbai is located in downtown Kyoto, but is patronized mostly only by locals, as it sits on one of the quieter lanes in the bustling vicinity of Kawaramachi. The stall offers a selection of shoyu, shio and miso ramen, ensuring that there is something for everyone.

But Ichiryu Manbai is not merely a jack of all trades, and in fact, is a master of all its bowls of ramen. In terms of flavor, every single bowl of ramen served is a perfect exhibition of balance, complemented by thin straight noodles, cooked al dente. Each serving also comes with a leaner yet flavorful piece of chicken breast meat, alongside a richer piece of chashu. 

Ramen Tsuru Manbai also opens till 5 in the morning, perfect for those late-night suppers if you feel peckish.

Join Takeshi, your cheery guide, on a bar-hopping adventure through Kyoto, stopping off at two local izakaya — where you'll sample a few local snacks and drinks, of course — before ending at a cozy ramen restaurant, where you'll get your fill of what you came for!

Have fun exploring some of the suggested hidden finds included in this list, but if you’re truly a ramen-fanatic, take time to explore hidden alleys and pathways — you might just stumble upon your next favorite bowl of Kyoto ramen!

Whether you’re dining right outside the shinkansen station or lining up in the rural countryside for a limited edition bowl of ramen, Japan’s food scene has something for everyone. 

If you’re looking to recreate Japanese ramen at home, check out this homemade ramen and gyoza cooking class. For a real food-crawl, check out the Ichijoji ramen street, often referred to as a “ramen battleground” thanks to its sheer number of high quality ramen shops!

If you want to seek out more ramen while traveling throughout Japan, why not visit the top 5 cities known for ramen?