TOKYO: Nakiryu 鳴龍 ( 1 star Michelin)

It was a perfect morning in Tokyo. Just nice for a little stroll in the park and a nice date with your partner.
Nick decided that it was perfect for us to spend some time together doing one of our favourite things in the world... Looking for good food.

Christian has been recommending this ramen place for us repeatedly. Every trip he hears us make to Tokyo he'll be like " YOU MUST QUEUE FOR THIS RAMEN"

And finally after 3 trips... and after I've ticked off most of my top must eats, I was like " Okay Nick, lets go to this ramen place Christian has been raving about"

It first started with a LONG TRAIN ride.

I've realised something about Christian's recommendations. It's always somewhere far from everything. The last time he recommended Mutekiya ( click to read) , it was so far but it was so good!  I still say that it's the best tonkotsu ramen in Tokyo.

Anyway, Nakiryu opens at 11.30am, Nick and I got there at 10.45 ( 45 mins early) and there was already 50+ people in front of us.The queue was till the opposite site of road.
Which is terrible news because the shop is small and there's only 10 counter seats.. so.. That means... we would be on the 6th seating

When you finally get to this side of the road, you're in the next seating so yeah you know you are not too far away from your pipping hot ramen.

Most of the people queuing are tourists, duh. Only tourists have so much time on their hands right. Only the person behind me was Japanese. He was a dude about my age who had just finished running. He says it was going to be his first time trying as well, and he decided to try because it's michelin and he was free that day.

Although the weather looked nice and sunny, IT WAS SO COLD.

I was freezing like a little popsicle on the opposite of the road. Thankfully after 2.5 hours, we made it to the opposite side of the road which means.. next seating!
And there is a small stairwell. So Nick, myself and japanese dude after me took turns hiding in this stairwell away from the cold wind....

FINALLY AFTER 3+ hours. Oh did I also not mentioned, I made 2 trips to the nearby family mart. Once because I was so hungry and thirsty, so I got Nick and myself green tea and Egg mayo sandwich to share. 2nd time was because I really needed to pee because of cold diuresis.

Okay, biology lessons time!

When it's cold, your body tries to conserve heat by constricting the blood vessels in the skin to lose less heat to the environment. However, if you constrict the blood vessels to the skin, it means relatively more blood accumulates in other parts of the body and that raises blood pressure. Hence in response to the raised blood pressure, the body wants to get rid of some volume to bring the blood pressure back to where it should be, so the levels of a hormone called anti diuretic hormone (ADH ) will fall. With reduced ADH, the kidney produces more dilute urine and that translates to an increase in urine production.

And by the way if you leave the queue without any good reason ( they come out every so often to check if anybody left the queue ) , they will also strike your name off the waiting list. Nick told them I had to go to the toilet twice.. The guy probably thinks I have a terrible bladder lol.

So yes, Finally after 3 + hours... WE GOT IN !!!!!

We were so excited because we were NEXT IN LINE to be seated!

A little bit about this ramen shop Nakiryu. It's the second ramen shop in tokyo to get a Michelin star. The direct translation of Nakiryu is crying dragon. Which is rather apt, because although I am not a dragon, I almost shed some tears in exasperation and desperation while waiting for my turn. 

The menu

There's a huge variety, but the thing to eat is their house special dandanmen. Dandanmen is characterised by it's spicy soup and distinctive use of sesame seed. 

I know especially asians will have this mentality, wah queue so long, better eat everything. But sorry hor. Everyone is limited to just 1 bowl of noodles. 

But trust me, some people take so long with their bowl of noodles, there was this korean american dude who was like wtf he took 45 mins with this group because they all were just taking pictures and chatting. WTF BRO. CONSIDERATION PLS. 

Anyway, this shop is cash only. when you go in, there's a vending machine. You just have to put money in it, and they give you a ticket and you exchange the ticket when you're seated.

Nick and I both ordered the dandanmen ( regular 850yen) and the braised pork on rice 350yen

A close up shot of the braised pork on rice which I thought was much more enjoyable than the dandanmen, the pork was oohhllalalalalla so good!

Did I find it nice?

YES!

Did I enjoy the experience?

UM....

I definitely did not enjoy the 3+ hours in the freezing cold.

Did I think it deserves the Michelin star?

UM...

I don't know as well. It was much tastier than other dandanmen, and to top it off there's a very clear production chain. Like one dude is only in charge of cooking noodles, the other dude is in charge on putting condiments 

Maybe that's what michelin inspectors give credit for. Good professionalism reflected by clear inndividual scope of work. 

Will I come again?

Definitely not. I don't think 3 hours of my time is well justified. 

At least the middle dude working there is good looking hahahahaha. 

Nakiryu 

SKY Minamiotsuka 1F, 2-34-4 Minamiotsuka, Toshima-ku 
Tokyo 

Mon 11.30am-3pm

 Wed-Sun 11.30am-3pm, 6pm-9pm

closed Tue

TOKYO: Fu-unji 風雲児

Over the last few years, Nick and my ramen eating has really evolved. Going way back to the traditional and somewhat perhaps boring pork based tonkatsu --> chicken based --> fish based. But recently Nick and I have fell in love with Tsukemen ( dipping noodles). Ask anybody in Tokyo where they would recommend for tsukemen and this restaurant will almost 90% come up in the list.

If you ever find yourself around Shinjuku, THIS is the place to go for a relatively cheap lunch/dinner if you ever find that you have possibly 30-60mins of spare time to queue. 

Fu-unji serves tsukemen with the soup made with boiled chicken and fish. It's thick and creamy and goes perfectly with the ramen noodles. I've heard some feedback from people I've recommend to try fish based ramen in asakusa ( read here) that they find the broth too fishy. This I promise, the fishiness is not as strong since their soup is a mixture of both chicken and fish. 

When you first enter the shop, there's a machine where you can purchase a ticket based on what you want to eat - tsukemen vs ramen. 

My advice is to go for the special tsukemen 1000yen. 

There's a couple of options on the vending machine which says " spring onion", " chashu", "egg", " nori". DO NOT SPEND EXTRA MONEY TO ORDER THOSE if you already ordered the special tsukemen as it comes with all of those. 

There was a Indian couple beside us who clearly didn't do any research before coming to try, they ended up with 3 eggs, a full bowl of nori and chashu and spring onions lol :/
Wah I seriously didn't know if they were coming for tsukemen or they were coming for eggs + nori + chasu 

Fu Unji 風雲児

Mon - Sat 11-3pm; 5-9pm

 2-14-3, Yoyogi, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, Japan 
Phone Number // 03-6413-8480

TOKYO: Afuri ramen 阿夫利

Finally introducing to you my FAVOURITE ramen in Tokyo! So there's usually 2 Singapore to Haneda flight that we take, the first one lands at 3.55pm and the second lands at 9.50pm. I'm usually the kind who gets VERY hungry post flight. Actually even during the flight I get very hungry too. So as much as I love the comfortable seats of business class, I'm actually really starving because they only serve 1 meal.

See see, this was my 1 meal on ANA business class. Porridge leh! Sure hungry what. 

p.s: This was when I took a midnight flight. It was good porridge tho, very yummy. 

At least for economy class, they serve 2 meals + the option of nissin cup noodle if I'm still starving. 

I remember long long time ago when I was younger, my mom used to book first business/ first class seats on Malaysia Airlines ( last time it was really quite good, but now even you give me half price I also think I need to consider. Very scared the plane go missing until my body also cannot find leh :/ ) 

So yeah, I remember long long time ago they used to serve UNLIMITED food on business and first class. The air stewardess would come to you every now and then and ask if you want food. Wah, I used to stuff my face so much. 

Anyway, so yes, usually when we land at 9.50pm, by the time we get to our apartment it's already almost 11pm. Nick likes to go to sleep immediately, but how to sleep if I'm so hungry right?

So i usually suggest that we go to the Afuri  branch opposite our apartment. 

What I like about Afuri is, its Chicken based soup. As per my previous posts, I'm not really a fan of tonkotsu broth  * Think Ichiran*. Wah cannot la, if I eat Ichiran at 11pm thats the end of me already, I'll have Indigestion the whole night :/  I really enjoy the fish based ramen ( read here!)  that's probably my favourite ramen soup base, but I can't go all the way to asakusa at night right ( also, because it's close at night ), so the best option is...

AFURI! 

okay la, I just realised I'm making it sound like it's my desperate last option. It's not ok, I genuinely enjoy Afuri. 

Afuri's signature dish is their Yuzu Shio (salt) Ramen  980yen ( pictured below). This is also my favourite item in the menu. 

 This below is their Yuzu shoyu (soy) ramen 980yen

They add chicken oil to the broth, and you get a choice of whether you want Tanrei (normal) or Mashimaji ( more amount of chicken oil) 

I usually get Tanrei because .. Don't eat too oily la huh. Bad for arteries ok! :p 

My other favourite is Yuzu tsuyu tsukemen ( cold dipping noodles) You can request for the noodles to either come cold or warm. I like my noodles warm. 

Their menu is quite extensive, you can check it out here (click)

Highly recommend ! And it's so easy to locate one too eg, roppongi, azabujuban, shinjuku. 

Afuri ramen 阿夫利

multiple locations 

24 hours 7 days a week