Some Ramen bowls from my recent trip to Tokyo

Pic 1: Ramen Matsui located in Shinjuku. Small shop run by a husband and wife. Michelin guide ramen. They source ingredients from all over Japan, including duck. This bowl was elite.

Pic 2: Kagaribi located in Ginza. This is a one man operation. He makes his own noodles, which are wavy and bouncy. Amazing bowl.

Pic 3: Manriki located in Seishincho. This place goes heavy on the spices, and the entire restaurant is adorned with the Buddhist manji. The broth was very flavorful. They have a location in Akihabara as well.

Pic 4: Komuro located near Gyotoku station. They make their noodles in-house. Classic Chashu-Wontonmen bowl.

Pic 5: Okachimachi Menya Musashi Bukotsu located in Ueno. All the other heavy hitter ramen shops had 1+ hour lines. I was only third in line for this shop but that is the beauty of Japan, you can get great ramen at most shops just a few steps away. I got the Niboshi bowl here, but they are known for their Tsukemen, which includes a squidink or spicy broth.

Pic 6: Aoba located in Nakano. They are the first shop to combine Tonkotsu broth and seafood broth into a single bowl, a technique which is now commonly used at many other shops.

Pic 7: Setagaya Ramen located inside Haneda Airport. Even if it was airport ramen, it tasted great and was clearly better than some well-known shops I’ve been to in Los Angeles.

I used the Ramen Beast app to find all these shops. If you ever plan a trip to Tokyo, I recommend this app, since it highlights almost all of the notable shops that are within your geographic area. Keep in mind that it doesn’t have every shop listed, as only locations that Ramen Beast has actually eaten at are listed, so there are many other shops you can still find on your own.