This post was written in 2006. Shop details and prices may have changed since then.
I went to AFURI in Ebisu, the most famous ramen shop in Tokyo in 2005.
It opened in 2003, so it isn’t even listed yet in the various 2005 ramen books.
It shows up on pretty much every TV program about ramen, so I’d been meaning to go,
and I finally got the chance when a friend came to visit me in Tokyo.
The entrance. Unlike your average ramen shop, the interior is neat and clean. The building and the walls are all white,
which I guess is down to the neighborhood and the fact that they specialize in shio (salt) ramen. Apparently they use the clear water from the foot of Mt. Afuri (Oyama) to make the soup,
hence the name AFURI.
The menu is just shio or shoyu, but the combination everyone agrees is the best here is
yuzu shio ramen + chi-yu (chicken fat oil) + extra chashu. That comes to 1,000 yen.
True to shio ramen, the broth is crystal clear. When I took my first spoonful of the soup, I actually wondered if this was really ramen.
It’s a clean broth like the unagi nanban at Kanda Yabu Soba, and the fresh yuzu aroma really whets your appetite. But ramen is still ramen ^_^
There’s chashu and an ajitama (seasoned egg) in there too. The noodles are thin and on the soft side, but the way they go with the broth is something else.
The chashu here is incredible. The quality of the meat is one thing, but look at that! Look how thick it is. And when they take your order, they cut the chashu right there
and start grilling it. Unlike extra chashu at other places, your 100 yen gets you just one more of these, but make sure you add it.
Otherwise you’ll definitely regret it.
The kitchen is wide open. The cook boils the noodles and pours the broth all by himself, and an assistant adds the toppings. If you look closely in the middle, you can see the chashu
being grilled.
The biggest problem with this place is that the portions are small. It’s just about the right size for a snack, but taste-wise I think you’d be hard pressed
to find a better place. The broth, the noodles, the toppings – every single one of them is top-notch. For a while, I think
I’ll remember this as the place where I had the most satisfying ramen in Tokyo.