This is the first time I had my ramen this way. We placed our order in a sort of vending machine where we chose our ramen and ingredients that we want then it calculated the total amount that we need to pay based on our request. We also paid through the machine and what we need to do after that was just get a seat, pass our order bill and wait for our ramen to be served right in front of us!
From the storefront appearance, it looked decent and might not be interesting for public or tourist that have never heard about Ichiran Ramen. It was my Brother-in-law who brought me there together with my sister. Yes..he did more homework than me. 🙂
What made me a little bit surprising was the seating. Each of us was like sitting in a cubicle with a partition on the left, right and front. So, it’s a single seating. Just me, myself and I OR you, you and yourself. 😀
Below is the picture that I grab from Ichiran Ramen website.
Every diner would have their own water tap for their drink. The blind in front can be folded and that’s where our ramen will come in from. The partition on the left and the right were also foldable in case we would like to have a chat with people sitting next to us. But from what I saw during my visit that day, most of the people would just “eat and go”. So, in my opinion, the seating layout was meant for that purpose.
Ichiran Ramen has branches in Japan islandwide. I don’t know if all Ichiran Ramen branches would have the same seating format but the one that I visited near to Ueno Station was set that way. What I love most from the ramen is it’s so pure fresh. Not oily and the soup was tasty. The noodle was home-made, the sliced pork was tender. The red sauce on the top of the noodle was Ichiran’s Original Red Sauce. Should I say, it’s one of their secret sauce? 🙂
If we have finished our noodle but we still have the soup left, we may order for more noodle. But WAIT! You have to follow the steps below for ordering noodle refill (kaedama). It is interesting. They create a system that allows us to make an order without raising a voice. 🙂
In the beginning, I feel uncomfortable with the system. But that’s their uniqueness and it is interesting to know. Most importantly was well….their ramen is fantastic! 🙂 I will definitely come back if I have chance to go to Japan again. If you plan to go there, do remember to drop by, have a try and let me know your opinion! 🙂
Happy ramen-ing!
Ichiran Ueno (Atre)
7-1-1 Ueno Taito-ku Tokyo-to 110-0005
Tel.: 03-5826-5871
Other locations, click here.
