We began our first full day in Tokyo with breakfast sushi at Dokoro Yamazaki in Toyosu Market. Lunch featured ramen. If sushi was the thing that we were most looking forward to eating in Japan, ramen was a close second. We were more unsure, however, about how that would go. This because most of the highly-rated ramen places in Tokyo are very small (though most restaurants in Japan are very small by American standards) and it’s not easy to get into them. It’s not just that the popular places all boast long lines; ramen places are essentially built for solo dining. Which means that if you are eating with a friend you have to wait for not one but two seats together to open up. And we, of course, are a family of four. Add to this the confusion of the ordering process at the many places that require you to order and pay and receive a ticket at/from a vending machine before you enter the store, keeping in mind that the vending machine will likely only have Japanese text on it. What’s the way out if you want to eat good ramen without too much stress till the bowl arrives?

Well, I spent some time on Tabelog—the excellent non-grade inflated crowd-sourced rating site—and put together a list of places serving the major styles of ramen we wanted to eat that fit most of the following criteria: 1) relatively near other places we wanted to visit (this ruled out places that were a destination in themselves in far-flung parts of the metropolis); 2) not unreasonably difficult to score a seat at (this ruled out places that you have to visit early in the morning to get a ticket for a meal later in the day); 3) known for being un-stressful places to eat at (there are some places where you are apparently apt to be scolded by staff); and 4) being reasonably easy to navigate for non-Japanese speakers (some places have neither English-language menus nor any English-speaking staff—both, of course, completely reasonable things in a non-English speaking country). Our first port of call for ramen fit all these criteria.

One of the styles of ramen we wanted to eat in Tokyo was tori paitan ramen, or creamy chicken ramen. Ginza Kagari, whose main store or hon ten, is in—no surprise—Ginza, shows up near the top of most Tokyo ramen mavens’ lists for tori paitan ramen. The main store, however, while known for helpful, English-speaking staff, features long lines. A tip from the Japanese food writer, Yukari Sakamoto, sent me instead to their branch in the swanky Roppongi Hills mall. She indicated that you can get into it much more easily and eat pretty much the same ramen as at the mothership. And it’s in the same complex of buildings as the Mori Art Gallery which had a couple of exhibitions on that we wanted to see—and which also has a panoramic observation deck up on the 52nd floor that presents glorious views of the city. So that was the afternoon nicely tied up with a bow.

The only difficulty we had was in finding the restaurant. The metro had let us out inside Roppongi Hills—a swanky mall-office buildings complex—and it took a bit to find our bearings and realize that we were already inside Metro Hat, the building whose basement Ginza Kagari’s branch is located in. Once at the restaurant we were relieved to see that their vending machine was a touchscreen machine with English among the language options along with touch payment via credit card. Once we’d placed our order and got a ticket, a staff member came out to greet us. Seeing that we were a party of four she asked if we’d be willing to sit apart. We were, but a Japanese businessman with three empty seats next to him kindly offered to slide down so we could all be next to each other and we gratefully accepted.

The restaurant is quite small: 13-14 seats at a counter. There was never a line when we were there but no seat sat empty for long. Most seemed to be occupied by people who worked in one of the buildings in the complex; we were the only ones not dining solo. As is the way at ramen places in Japan, we were not there long. We handed the ticket as we sat down to a staff member in the central area behind the counter; she verified which of us had ordered what and our bowls came out in very short order. We ate them quickly and left, opening up spaces for a fresh round of diners. By the way, you might be confused—either looking at our order ticket or at the restaurant—to see signage referring to their noodles as “soba”. As Yukari S. points out, they refer to their noodles as “chuka soba” or “Chinese noodles” but it’s very much ramen.

What did we get? Well, as tori paitan ramen is what they are known for, we got a lot of tori paitan ramen: one bowl of their classic tori paitan ramen for the missus (who added on a soft-boiled egg); and two bowls of their tori paitan shoyu ramen for the boys. (There are also options to get the tori paitan ramen topped with truffles or with a side of extra chashu, egg etc..) You’re probably very worried that I didn’t eat anything. (Quite apart from being highly unlikely, that would be a huge faux pas, by the way: you don’t take up a seat at a tiny restaurant if you’re not going to be eating.) Let me reassure you that I did eat. But I didn’t get the tori paitan ramen. Given how rich tori paitan ramen is, I knew I would be helping the boys finish their bowls. And so I’d ordered a bowl of the only other type of ramen they do: niboshi or seafood broth ramen. I got it with extra green onions and bamboo shoots (menma). I am glad to report that it was very good; I can also report that the tori paitan ramen was utterly glorious. The creaminess and richness of the broth, or the depth of flavour, is hard to convey in words—it comes entirely from slow, long simmering of bones. And while the boys’ shoyu version was also outstanding, if you can only get one, I think the classic is the correct play. (There’s also an option to get tsukemen/dipping noodles with a concentrated version of the niboshi broth.) The noodles in all the bowls were thin and of classic firmness. We also appreciated the presence of vegetables with the ramen—the parents more than the children, if I’m being honest.

For a closer look at the place, the menu and what we ate, launch the slideshow below. Scroll down to see how much it all cost and to see what’s coming next from Tokyo.

Price? 5980 yen for the four of us. That’s just about $41 or a hair above $10/head. Crazy.

Okay, what’s next from Tokyo? Next up will be a meal that did not involve raw fish or noodles or soup. We had dinner at the yakitori place we’d failed to get into the previous evening (when we’d ended up at Yayoi Sushi instead). That report will probably go up on Friday. Over the weekend I’ll have a report on another sushi meal.