Recommended bowl: Locally sourced

Noodle Lab Q, opened in 2014, prepares pretty much everything from scratch, using locally sourced, high-quality ingredients as much as possible. The handmade noodles contain anywhere from four to six varieties of local Hokkaido flour. Eight kinds of soy sauce procured from three different Shoyu Kura (two in Hyōgo and one in Saitama) go into the shoyu tare. The soup is made from free-range Hokkaido chickens, and the low-temperature-roasted pork chashu is also from local pigs. Some opt for the tori paitan but the definite go-to for first-timers is the shoyu ramen. Master Hiroshi Hiraoka was previously a pro snowboarder.