博多一風堂新宿アイランドタワー店

Ippudo needs very little introduction. For any ramen fan, the Kyushu-born shop is considered a pioneer of creamy tonkotsu-style ramen. Founded in 1985 by Shigemi Kawahara (河原成美), the shop took around a decade to gain the momentum to open just outside of Tokyo at the Shin-Yokohama Ramen Museum. It took another decade and change later to open in New York, a move that catapulted Japanese ramen onto the global scene.

In Japan, Ippudo operates around 50 shops. These range from normal-seeming ramen shops to no-frills office complex restaurants to massive countryside establishments with table seating for a hundred. The company operates on a standard of consistency and each bowl in each shop should taste the same.

Akamaru (赤丸), Shiromaru (白丸), and Karakamen (からか麺). The white bowl is the standard with a soup that takes around 18 hours to render, followed by a day of low-temperature aging. Noodles are made with Ippudo’s own brand of flour called Kaze (風). The tare is a blend of Kyushu soy sauces that has been slowly evolving since the company’s beginnings.

Bite-sized gyoza are a Hakata standard. Grab an order with a beer.

While the white bowl is the standard, the red bowl is the crowd favorite. The creamy soup is enhanced with a dollop of red spice and a drizzle of black garlic oil.

Go for the tokusei bowl, which has risen in price to nearly 1300 yen. Ramen prices in general are rising in 2023, and the days of 500 yen for a bowl of simple tonkotsu ramen are long gone outside of the yatai food stalls in Hakata.

Ippudo is good. Is it as good as the English-speaking world of foodies says it is? That is up for debate. Ippudo, and Ichiran for that matter, are hyped beyond belief. Any Instagram post from a large Japan-is-cool account will have hundreds of comments referencing these two shops as a life-changing ramen experience for someone’s first taste of Japan. I get it. Creamy pork soup is good. Actually, the reason I returned for a bowl is that I realized I didn’t have any decent photos after editing together my ChatGPT ramen video. Yes, the AI puts both Ippudo and Ichiran in its top 10 best ramen list every time I ask. I had to come back.

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The menu at the regular Ippudo shops also has rice bowls and some sides. If you venture out into the Ippudo cinematic universe, the shops get a bit bold. A full izakaya menu at Ippudo New York. Clear consume soup at their French popup. One of the best vegan ramen I’ve had at their Paris shop. A drum-themed TAO version. Miso ramen at Miso Collection Ippudo. Limited octopus ramen. Monjayaki ramen! Some shops are doing vegetarian tonkotsu ramen, an oxymoron but a bit of fun for the no-meat foodies out there.

As a company, Ippudo is a powerhouse. Operating successful shops in 16 countries is the dream of any ramen chain with an eye on international expansion. On a personal note, my small part in a 2010 New York Times article catapulted Ramen Adventures from a lowly blog to a blog with slightly more traffic. This led to media attention here in Japan, the start of my tour guiding work, and was probably why I stuck around this country for so long. The article was a direct effect of Ippudo New York being such a hit. So thank you, in a roundabout way, to Ippudo for affecting Ramen Adventures in a special way.

Official site here.

Ramen Adventures

Ramen Shop Reviews from Japan and Abroad

博多一風堂 (Hakata Ippudo in Shinjuku)

麺創房無敵家 (Mutekiya in Ikebukuro, Tokyo)

味噌らーめん柿田川ひばり (Kakitagawa Hibari in Ebisu, Tokyo)

本家第一旭たかばし本店 (Daiichi Asahi in Kyoto)

博多一風堂 (Hakata Ippudo in Shinjuku)

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麺創房 無敵家 (Mutekiya in Ikebukuro, Tokyo)

味噌らーめん 柿田川ひばり (Kakitagawa Hibari in Ebisu, Tokyo)

本家第一旭たかばし本店 (Daiichi Asahi in Kyoto)

麺創房無敵家 (Mutekiya in Ikebukuro, Tokyo)

味噌らーめん柿田川ひばり (Kakitagawa Hibari in Ebisu, Tokyo)