While I was posting about ramen in Prague and Manchester this summer, I was off on my travels and have returned with a lot more ramen to write about! We took a two month trip this summer, spending time in Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Malaysia. It was an absolute dream, and the food was unsurprisingly fantastic. I usually like to give every eatery its own post, but quite frankly we’d be here forever, so I’ll be grouping them together for ease. Where better to start than with the ramen scene in Tokyo? This was our first destination before we journeyed up to Hokkaido, but we also passed back through for a few more days on our way south later in the trip. One of our goals in Japan was to eat as much ramen as possible, and we certainly achieved it. It was great to get more flavoursome broths than we do in Prague, and more exciting toppings as well. FYI, there will be one more Tokyo ramen coming later, but this is the majority of them.

T’s Tantan (Narita Airport)

I had done my research and knew that as soon as we landed in Tokyo we’d be able to get a big bowl of ramen at the terminal. We loved T’s Tantan last time we were in Japan, back in 2019, so we knew this would be a guaranteed success after an extremely long journey from Prague. There are several branches of T’s Tantan around Tokyo, and they are all-vegan, which is always reassuring.

Anyone can access the restaurant – it’s in Terminal 2, and it’s after you emerge from arrivals/before you go through security for departures. You order and pay at the counter right at the start, then when your buzzer goes off you need to collect your tray of food. There’s drinking water available, as in most places in Japan. Quite the treat!

Dr HH ordered the sesame tantan, which we tried five years ago. It was as good as we remembered, with a hearty and delicious broth. The big ball of meat was tasty, but dispersed quickly throughout the broth. It was a very generous portion of noodles.

I had the shoryu ramen, which we had not tried on our previous visit. The broth was tasty, but not quite as good as the sesame one for me, as a huge sesame fan. The chicken pieces on top were delicious, with a really good taste and texture, and the mushrooms were good and juicy.

We couldn’t resist sharing a portion of chicken on the side – it was also really tasty! This was a promising start to our time in Japan.

T’s Tantan (Tokyo JR Station)

We visited this specific branch twice on this trip, because it’s extremely conveniently located if you’re getting on a train from Tokyo Station. It’s also somewhat inconveniently located in the sense that it’s a maze in the station and trying to find it can be a bit challenging – we found it fine the first time, but almost gave up the second time because we were approaching from a different direction and simply could not find it. Then all of a sudden, it was there! This branch has a slightly different menu to the airport branch, and this time you order from a tablet at the table and your food is brought to you, then you pay at the counter when you’re finished.

We both tried the golden tantan, and this was probably the best one there is at T’s (it’s almost the same as the sesame one above). It’s really rich and thick, and the sesame flavour is exceptional.

Dr HH also tried the black sesame tantan. It’s a bit spicier than the golden version, but a bit less rich as well. It’s entirely delicious too.

We also shared a plate of twelve gyoza on one of our visits – they were nice and crispy from frying, and had a good meaty texture inside.

You can also buy instant noodle pots to take away with you – we tried the soy sauce ramen, tantan ramen, and hot and sour ramen. We spent a few days later in our trip in Lake Toya, which has basically no vegan options and only two convenience stores, so these were a lifesaver then. They were all tasty, but they were a little light, and we ended up supplementing ours with rice and edamame from the 7-11 to make a filling meal. Highly recommended!

Vegan Bistro Jangara

This one was ultimately our favourite ramen in Tokyo, though T’s ran it pretty close. It’s located in Harajuku which is generally a convenient area for tourists I think. It was surprisingly quiet when we visited one evening – surprising because I saw it top a lot of lists on social media for best vegan ramen in the city.

Dr HH ordered the karabon ramen, a rich and spicy tonkotsu. It was indeed spicy, perfect for Dr HH but a bit much for me, so if you generally don’t enjoy spicy food then steer clear of this one. The broth was good and creamy too, and just look at that meat on top! Fantastic taste and texture.

I got the kobonshan ramen, which is a garlicky tonkotsu ramen. The broth was, once again, excellent, with an incredible richness. I also loved the meat, and the other toppings (including red cabbage) added some good textures too. This felt quite different from the other ramens we tried on the trip, really high level broth and meat.

As always, we couldn’t resist some karaage chicken on the side. Mock chicken is generally a high standard in Japan, and this had a good texture and taste. They had quite a garlicky taste as well, which we really enjoyed, and the tartar sauce was a good accompaniment. It’s a shame we only had one chance to visit this spot – it’s the pick of the bunch!

VeJin Tokyo Vege Ramen

I believe this place is closing down imminently, but I’m including it in this round-up anyway, for posterity. It’s located it a trendy little food hall with two vegan eateries in, and several non-vegan ones, plus a bar in the middle. We went up to our chosen eatery to order and pay, and then we got buzzed over when our dishes were ready. Rather annoyingly, drinks have to be ordered and paid for separately at the central bar – a bit of a faff. In terms of our dishes, it was a bit of a mixed bag.

Dr HH was bold and went for the truffle ramen. While it did have a good truffle flavour in the broth, he wasn’t a big fan unfortunately. There were some big pieces of yuzu rind than were too big to manage properly and that resulted in very concentrated citrus bites, rather than a more evenly distributed citrus flavour. And he really didn’t like the meat on top – it had the texture of highly processed luncheon meat, which is not something we ever really buy or have on ramen. On the plus side though, he enjoyed the mushrooms and fried leeks, and he does enjoy being adventurous in his ordering!

I played it safer with the tantan ramen, and it was amazing. It had a good spicy kick, but wasn’t so overwhelming that you could only taste the chilli. The broth had a good whack of sesame in it too. There were some meaty chunks on top which had a nice texture and taste (nothing like the meat in the truffle ramen), but there was nothing else really going on with the toppings, which was a shame.

We would both have been happy to go back and try some non-truffle varieties, but even so, it wasn’t the best ramen we had in Tokyo. It’s a shame to see it go though.

Ippudo – Plant Based Studio

We were unimpressed with the misleading name in this restaurant. Ippudo is quite a big ramen chain with multiple branches within Tokyo (and further afield). Some of those branches have vegan options. None of them, including this one, is entirely vegan. Even if you use a very generous interpretation of “plant based”, it wouldn’t apply here, as this place most definitely serves meat. Words have meaning, and it’s difficult to negotiate the world as a vegan when people use the term “plant based” so differently, so I’m already a bit cross with this place.

Nevertheless, we went there to eat knowing it wasn’t all vegan, so I can’t have been that cross. It’s located in a food hall in a mall. You queue up and order at the entrance and then (in our case, when it was very busy) wait around for a table to become vacant, hopefully before your buzzer goes off to notify you that your dishes are ready.

There were three vegan ramen options, and we both went for the vegan tonkotsu, because it’s something we rarely encounter at home. The broth was rich and creamy and full of savoury flavours, just as we wanted. We got two big, round pieces of fried tofu which were fun, but didn’t resemble any particular mock meat in the way our other ramen dishes have. There’s a big piece of tomato in there which we didn’t enjoy, but otherwise the garnishes all worked well and it was a big tasty bowl.

We also shared some vegan gyoza, which were fine but not hugely flavoursome – the dipping sauce was doing a lot of work. Overall, I wouldn’t hurry back to this place, but it was perfectly fine, despite the misleading name.

Activities in Tokyo

Eating well was our top priority in Tokyo, of course, but we did have some time for other activities too.

As Ghibli fans, we really enjoyed our trip to the Ghibli Museum. It’s hard to get tickets from abroad, we ended up paying a lot for our tickets through an agent, but ultimately it was worth it for a very whimsical time. You get to see a screening of a short animation (only in Japanese, but you can follow the plot anyway), some sketches, and loads of fun bits and bobs.

We also enjoyed the digital art at teamlab: Borderless, which I’ll write a bit more about in my next post. There’s at least one other teamlab museum in Tokyo. If you like interactive art with lots of bright lights and fun characters, then it’s good fun.

The Yayoi Kusama Museum was another highlight. It’s a very small museum, I wish it had been at least three times bigger, but every single piece in it was a hit for us.

Stay tuned for more on Tokyo next week!