Udon and Ramen @ Nishi-Shinjuku, Tokyo

The Nishi-Shinjuku (West Shinjuku) area is home to several eateries catering to tourists wandering around the Electric Street and white collar workers from nearby office buildings. To get here, take the West exit from Shinjuku JR station. Udon and ramen are two of the most common noodle staples in Japan and the eateries serving these noodles cater to almost everyone! Most udon outlets actually make their noodles from scratch and cook them on the same day they were made, so freshness is guaranteed. Here are some of the udon and ramen joints I visited during my stay in Tokyo:

Sanuki Udon Hanamaru
This outlet is located next to Standing Bar Sushi; it serves really fresh and good udon. Like many sanuki udon joints, this is a self-service udon place, so you place your udon order and take your additional side orders tempura or onigiri at the side counters.I was very impressed by the quality of their basic hot udon- I ordered their Ontama Bukkake (294 yen for a small bowl). It is hot udon served in their special soy sauce with half boiled egg with runny yolk. The udon served here is very affordable! (399 yen for medium bowl and 504 yen for large bowl). The udon texture was fantastic- chewy and firm, but not too dense or hard- just the way I like it!

Address: 1-12-1 Nishi-Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo. Website: http://www.hanamaruudon.com/

Rakugama Udon
Rakugama udon- also another self service sanuki udon joint has many outlets around Tokyo. Just look out for the flashy shop signboards (as shown on the left) and their colourful displays of appetizing udon!



I had their plain hot udon with light soup (280 yen for small bowl, even more affordable!)and a few pieces of tempura.

I have heard good reviews of this place but I somehow prefer the udon served elsewhere. Udon served here is typically denser, slightly fatter (in diameter) than the other eateries. While it was incredibly chewy, the udon noodle here was just too fat and dense for my liking. I would have loved it if it were slightly softer and I wonder if mine had been overcooked.

However, the tempura here was rather decent. Although it was cold, it was not soggy and still maintained a good level of crispiness! What I also liked about this place- you can help yourself to the free spring onions and fried flour bits!

UPDATE: I did some research on self service udon joints and realised that you should pour additional soup for selected udon. Not sure if it will change the udon texture in any way.

Address: 1-12-6 Nishi-Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo. Website



Darumanome Ramen


This ramen place may be small, but it serves a mind-boggling array of ramen combinations. When we visited during the late evening, I only noticed one ramen chef busily whipping out fresh ramen noodles, helped by only 2 service staff. Sometimes you just wonder how the Japanese do it. So you place your orders and pay with the vending machine located at the entrance (still very fascinated by their automated ordering system), get your order ticket and wait for the food to be served!

We ordered the everything-also-have mega combo ramen (I don't know what it's called in Japanese, but the picture menu seems to be screaming that out anyway) for 990 yen. (And we added another egg for 100 yen, so you're not seeing double hurhur). It was absolutely delish! The soup was so milky and flavourful which went well with the thin QQ ramen noodles. There was literally a cornucopia of ingredients- cha shu slices, pork meat blocks, spinach, bamboo shoots, seaweed AND RUNNY EGGS! I'm a big fan of runny eggs and they just go so so well with ramen! This is a great place to get your hakata ramen fix, but I noticed they also serve other kinds of ramen too!

Address: 1-14-5 Nishi-Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo. Website.