Ramen Mistress

The best hand-cut ramen noodles this side of Tokyo.

Found at Teuchi Asama, they don’t skimp on quality. The noodles are crafted from 4 types of flour, served in an extra rich soy sauce soup with black satsuma chicken. Even the peppered menma is fire.
The owner trained at the super famous Shichisai, and you can tell.
Located near Naka-Meguro station. Super convenient and hella good.

Shop: Teuchi Asama
Location: Near Naka-Meguro Station
Hours: Lunch only (Closed Thursdays)

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I committed the cardinal sin with this bowl of ramen. Well, if you’re asking a doctor, at least. They tell you not to drink all the soup in a ramen bowl… it’s loaded with salt, and depending on the style of ramen, fat and other things that would make your cardiologist cringe. BUT, when the bowl is clean, light, refined, made with pure ingredients and no additives, I personally say go for it. And at Japanese Ramen Gokan, it’s too easy not to drain it.

The soup uses premium Hinai (free range, full bodied chicken from Akita prefecture) and Miyazaki Jitokko chickens (from the south, all free range, tender and flavorful), alongside rich black pork. They also use Hokkaido Rausu kelp, and a dashi of Chiba clams, Hokkaido cockles, and Hokkaido scallops. The soup really is a masterpiece, and why I say you should always get a shio ramen (rather than a shoyu) if you want to taste all the components that go into it.

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If you love yuzu, you NEED these eggs. The farmers in Kochi actually feed the chickens yuzu fruit, which infuses the flavor directly into the white.

This is a bucket list spot for egg lovers. The chef became an online sensation known as Double Egg Tomo because he always got two eggs on every ramen he ate. He eventually walked away from his other career to open a shop dedicated entirely to that obsession.

The bowl I had was a knockout, though it was a limited run. They were serving a duck and sea bream yuzu shio, a departure from his usual shellfish-based duck shio and shoyu soups. Even with the seasonal broth, the eggs remain the constant, marinated specifically in yuzu salt.

These Kochi eggs are incredible. Since the chickens eat the fruit directly, the egg white gets a subtle citrus aroma.

I should have followed the founder’s lead and doubled up, but even with one egg, this was a stellar bowl.

🥚RaMen TOMO TOKYO 九段下ラーメン
🥚Closed Sundays
🥚Open for lunch and dinner but only lunch on Saturdays
🥚Near Kudanshita station

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Some of us get midnight hunger pangs, or have an early flight, or just enjoy an early morning. At Ramen Niki in Shimbashi, you can get ramen literally all night long until the sun comes up. Tucked down a quiet alley and just a minute from the station, Niki opened January of 2025. The chef previously worked in various other shops before opening his own, all-nighter place. You order via QR code, and they take cashless payments. Totally a recommended spot for first train or last train!

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It was freezing cold the day I arrived to the corner where Muginae sits, facing quiet apartments in a quiet neighborhood between Shinagawa and Kawasaki. A man pedaled, his dog as copilot sitting in the front basket of the bicycle. With fifteen people lined up outside the shop and the spring wind blowing brisk and strong, I was worried it’d be a frigid long wait. Luckily, the turnover was better than I expected and I entered Homemade Ramen Aomugi relatively quickly.

The interior has only 9 counter seats, all looking into the kitchen where multiple staff prepare the ramen. You can choose either a lighter soup using dried fish and chicken, or a heavier blend that looks and feels more cloudy and pork forward. Both use a soy sauce base. I went for the lighter option, and the depth and richness was perfect for a cold day.

Choose Aomugi for a fancy feeling ramen; one that’s made with minimal artificial ingredients but uncompromisingly rich in taste. It’s a great gateway to more refined ramen without being overly pretentious. And I hope you see then guy on the bike with his dog.

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Some people come for the ramen, others come for the lore. Menba Hamatora plays early 2000’s punk and has a history of one of Yokohama stations great ramen. (They also boast to be “the ramen shop with the best sound system in Japan.) Their google maps review count is almost at 3,000 and those aren’t bots! They opened in 2002, so next year will be their 25 anniversary.

📍 Menba Hamatora 浜虎
⏰ Open 8am-3am daily
🚆 2 minute walk from Yokohama station
💴 From ¥850-¥1,500 per bowl Less

Shina Soba Komuro specializes in wontonmen, and one look at those slippery wrappers has me drooling.

The soup is a combination of chicken, pork, vegetables, and fish. The noodles are pretty low hydration in contrast to the delicate wontons. And the chashu even has a touch of honey added to it. This is a gorgeous and delicious bowl!

Komuro is no joke. Here’s a sample of the accolades they’ve racked up over the years:
🏆Tokyo Ramen of the Year for their shio wontonmen
🏆Tabelog Top 100 Ramen Shops of East Japan
🏆A score of 98.284 on Ramen Database

The chef trained at famous Shina Soba Kazuya in Meguro before opening his own shop here near Gyotoku station. And if you’ve ever been to Yakumo near Ikejiri-Ohashi, you’ll see the ticket machine looks visually similar as well. Kazuya, Yakumo, and Komuro are all connected to the historically famous shop Tantantei out in Hamadayama, so if you want to complete a wonton scavenger hunt, that’s a great starting list.

Komuro is open from 10am to 3pm, and closed Mondays and Tuesdays. This is a perfect early lunch spot; get there early to beat the line.

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This ramen ticks all the boxes and will go down in my diary as a must-hit spot.

The shop is called “Above The River” (川の先の上) and quite literally sits on a little bluff uphill from Yokohama’s Ookagawa river. Get off at Kamiooka Station, walk through the quaint shopping street, and marvel at the cherry blossoms if they’re in bloom. If you arrive around lunch time, the queue will spill down the stairs from their second story location; you’ll likely see hungry families lined up thanks to the shops free cotton candy machine.

The shio (salt ramen) is a combination of chicken and seafood, leaning heavily into shellfish. The punch of the salt is definitely there, and is a robust dashi despite its clear appearance. The noodles were moderately firm with a nice crispiness and wheat flavor. And this pork - WOW - I love when the smokiness and slow preparation renders the strips of fat into a coconutty decadence. This is a bowl that creates a symphony of its flavors and is a must for shio lovers. I could eat this daily for breakfast, but probably would’t drink all the soup because it’s quite salty.

Above The River made it into the Kanagawa Top 100 famous shops in 2025, and has a reputation for being top tier ramen in the area. They also have a shoyu, tsukemen, and limited edition items on offer, so it’s worth going more than once. I know I’ll be back!

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If udon and ramen eloped on a beach vacation, the would make an Okinawan noodle baby. Okay, that’s weird, but the lightness of the soup and the texture of the noodles give me udon vibes, but the power of the pork in both the toppings and in the stock scream ramen.

At Haisai, I always get the soki soba because I’m a sucker for the thick cylindrical tubes of cartilage. The way it pops in your mouth like pork jelly boba pearls. Trust me, it’s better than it sounds!

Not sure why, but Okinawan ramen also always comes with red pickled ginger. It’s such a refreshing ramen, perfect for hot days in the Okinawan islands!

📍 ハイサイおきなわ, 〒231-0048 Kanagawa, Yokohama, Naka Ward, Horaicho, 2 Chome−5−1
🚶 3 minutes walk from Kannai station
🕰️ Open 10am-9pm, closed Thursday and Monday
🍜 “okisoba” ¥880, “sokisoba” ¥1,000

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