Tokyo Ramen Street: 8 of the Best Ramen Restaurants in Tokyo

Deep within the bowels of Tokyo Stations lie some of the best restaurants for an awesome bowl of ramen: Tokyo Ramen Street. It’s origins come from being a quick stop off for salarymen to grab a bowl of ramen after a long stint at the office, but now you can get all different types of ramen from Tokyo Ramen Street and its 8 best ramen restaurants.

Roll up to Tokyo Ramen Street for all different types of delicious ramen from various regions, with each restaurant sporting its own specialty. Don’t be afraid of the queues, in fact, it’s a sign of just how good the ramen restaurants are. You’ll be able to find your new favorite bowl of noodley goodness at a reasonable price, with 8 of Tokyo’s best ramen restaurants, all in one place.

Here are the select must-try ramen restaurants featured at Tokyo Ramen Street.

1. Tokyo Niboshi Ramen Gyoku
2. Soranoiro Nippon
3. Rokurinsha
4. Shio Ramen Senmon Hirugao
5. Tonkotsu Ramen Oreshiki Jun
6. Tsujita Miso no Sho
7. Tokyo Chuka Soba Chiyogami
8. Tokyoeki Ikaruga

The first restaurant up is Tokyo Niboshi Ramen Gyoku, whose ramen broth is made from a base of dried sardines, or niboshi. For that intense umami kick, they use a golden ratio of chicken and niboshi in their tasty, thick ramen broths. A niboshi ramen at Gyoku is served with succulent pork slices, a soft boiled egg, and bonito tuna flakes to really intensify that anchovy flavor. While specializing in a rich broth made from mainly niboshi, they also have other options such as a soy sauce and sardine base. If you’re not a fan of fish, just pop over to the next ramen joint in Tokyo Ramen Street.

Soranoiro Nippon is a prize-winning ramen restaurant in Tokyo Ramen Street, and was even featured in the Michelin Guide of 2015. They are known for their awesome vegan bejisoba, meaning vegetable soba, which is made from nothing but plant-based ingredients. With an average of 6 veggie toppings for each bowl, Soranoiro’s ramen is both healthy and delicious, with the broth full of vegan-friendly umami flavor. For an extra 150 yen, you can even change your ramen to be gluten-free. Have your daily requirement of nutrients sorted with just one bowl of healthy ramen from this popular Tokyo Ramen Street restaurant.

One of the most popular ramen restaurants in Tokyo Ramen Street, Rokurinsha is famous for its awesome tsukemen. This is a different style of ramen where you dip the noodles in a separate soup. The pork and seafood broth at Rokurinsha is slow-boiled for 13 hours, making for a super-rich dipping soup for their tsukemen. Their trademark is having a pinch of fish flakes on top of each piece of nori dried seaweed in every bowl. Don’t waste a drop, water your broth down with some supuwari, and drink it after you’ve finished your thick noodles. The queues are always trailing around the corner, so if you can’t wait, grab some Rokurinsha’s frozen ramen to take home.

Shio ramen, meaning ramen with a salt-base, is the specialty served at Shio Ramen Senmon Hirugao. With a clear broth and fine noodles, Hirugao’s shio ramen is simple yet refined, with a delicate salty flavor from a seafood and chicken combination broth. Without being too salty, this ramen is a popular choice for a lighter ramen style in Tokyo Ramen Street. If you’re really hungry, try the special ramen, which features juicy dumpings alongside chashu pork slices and a halved boiled egg.

Delicious tonkotsu ramen can be found at Tonkotsu Ramen Oreshiki Jun, another popular restaurant on Tokyo Ramen Street. You can smell the intense scent of the pork bone broth as it wafts through the restaurant, whose broth has a creamy texture and a flavor that's both balanced and mellow. You can choose how firm you’d like your chewy noodles, and grab a side of curry or dumplings if you want something a bit extra to go with them. Oreshiki Jun also sells a karashi abura soba, a spicy bowl of ramen highly recommended for those who like their noodles with a kick. Or, add a touch of their signature chili oil to your bowl for extra spice, it's made from 18 ingredients!

The signature ramen at Tsujita Miso no Sho is a miso ramen, a common Japanese condiment made from fermented soybeans. When you stir the mottled white miso broth, its fragrant with a strong garlicky flavor. Along with the usual chashu and boiled egg suspects, Tsujita’s miso ramen is sprinkled with aonori seaweed and topped with menma pickled bamboo shoots. For some options on the menu, you’ll stir in a generous blob of deep-red miso paste to intensify your already-delicious ramen. If you’re after miso ramen, this is the go-to place in Tokyo Ramen Street to get your fix.

The ramen at Tokyo Chuka Soba Chiyogami has a shoyu-base, which is a simple soup made from soy sauce. Chiyogami specializes in a ramen made from chuka Chinese-style soba noodles, and their broth is light, clear and simple like the good old days. With traditional toppings of bamboo shoots, negi green onions, and sheets of nori seaweed, it makes for a basic but delicious bowl of ramen. With a few plump pork slices on top, you can’t go wrong with these Chinese-style noodles.

Ikagura is known for their unusual takes on ramen, with a range of specialty noodle dishes. The main event at Tokyoeki Ikagura is another tonkotsu broth, which uses a blend of pork and seafood to make a deep, richly flavored ramen broth. The soup itself is thick and hearty, with a taste that is refreshing but lingers with you well after your final slurp. They also sell spicy ramen, dipping noodles, and an afternoon cheesy delight: a three-cheese maze-soba, which is only served from 2 p.m. daily. Mix the cheese into the broth-less soba, for something a little different.

Find your new favorite ramen restaurant at one of these gems in Tokyo Ramen Street. Queue up then grab your order from a ticket vending machine at each restaurant, then get ready for a wild flavor ride, no matter which ramen you pick. You’ll find the 8 best ramen restaurants at Tokyo Ramen Street in the First Avenue Tokyo Station shopping area, just beyond Character Street.

Explore Japan's ramen trends, from Nagoya's spork ramen to the cult classic Ramen Jiro!