Ichiran Ramen-2016

一蘭 Ichiran Ramen

Be prepared to queue up in Tokyo and Osaka. I did not see any queue in Hiroshima(Not sure of the standard here cause I did not try here). Honestly, I do not understand why is it so popular to Tourist when we can have a bowl of ramen anywhere in Japan and it can taste as good with good service. After a few trips to Japan and have my share of ramen there, I do understand why I would prefer to have my ramen here when I wanted. 

The ramen in Japan can be quite salty. So, it is always good to pay a higher price for the preference here. Plus, the staff knows how to manage the crowd, so the queue can be quite pleasant.

The waiting staff will pass you a questionnaire form for your to fill up while queuing. Here, you will indicate your preference on how your noodles to be cook, like the level of taste, salt, spicyness, how well done of your noodles. After that, you will need to order your food via a vending machine. Usually the noodles are served plain with onions. So, we can add on side orders like egg, and meat.

While queuing, we can see the seating allocation. In Osaka, there are 2 levels. So you can see the panel here, just like parking lots. Green for vacant, red for occupied.
The waiting staff will bring us to our seats. The bar counter like seating has individual window on the sides. If you are alone, you can open them. If you have 2 person, you can open them. In front of us, is a mat that blocks the kitchen from us. Food will be served via this mat.
As usual, there is always a place for us to place our bags and jacket. In Osaka, there is a hanging place behind our seats. So we can just hang our jacket there. 

After adding all the ingredients, a bowl of noodles may cost us about 1300yen. But who cares. We are on holiday. What is holiday in Japan without a bowl of authentic ramen???