Eating out in Tokyo : Cheapest Lunch Restaurants in Tokio

Japanese Restaurants in Tokyo | Marukin Ramen.

Japanese Restaurants in Tokyo| Marukin Ramen is one of ramen chain restaurants.
This ramen restaurant, located in part of Tokyo called Shirokane, specialises in Hakata ramen also called tonkotsu ramen. Hakata ramen broth is based on pork bones and vegetables cooked slowly long time.
Ramen soup with tasty ramen noodles is a great lunch dish, because it is rich, delicious as well as very nutritious Japanese food. That is why I went to eat ramen soup.

Japanese Restaurants in Tokyo | Marukin Ramen- outlook.

Marukin Ramen entrance is easy to notice.

Restaurant’s wall are painted white, there is big white signboard over the door and lots of yellow flags with restaurant’s logo.

It looks simple but nice and jolly. I like yellow.

Japanese Restaurants in Tokyo | Marukin Ramen- how to order and pay

Menu with prices is displayed outside of restaurant, near entrance, but unfortunately it is all in Japanese.

But do not despair. There are menus with some pictures on each table and on counter, as well as some menus placed on walls.

There are pictures so you can show what kind of ramen or some other dish you want to eat.
If you speak and read Japanese, this is perfect and you can choose freely.
To make an order you need to tell one of chefs what you want and he will start to prepare your ramen immediately.

When you finish your meal, you must go to cash desk to pay.

You will get your bill right after meal …

…so all you need to do is simply prepare money.

Japanese Restaurants in Tokyo | Marukin Ramen- interior and atmosphere.

Interior in Marukin Ramen is divided into two parts. First is kitchen area which looks very industrial, all made from metal and looking like part of space ship. It is very easy to keep clean.

The border between kitchen and customer area is L shaped counter, made from wood.

Customer area with few small tables is nice and cosy looking.

Furniture is made from wood and have nice honey golden colour. There are also curtains made from reed or bamboo.

Walls around customer area and part of kitchen are half covered by white ceramic plates, easy to clean. So this is hygienic place.

I liked customer area and kitchen look. It was interesting contrast. Staff members wear same shirts and kerchiefs in same colours like curtain between customer area and back or restaurant.

There were no music and in general atmosphere was rather quiet but pleasant, warm.
I felt very comfortable sitting near counter and eating my ramen.
Chefs were polishing kitchen and making some preparations. They were rather not talkative.

Japanese Restaurants in Tokyo | Marukin Ramen- food and service

I went to Marukin Ramen with friend.
I ordered simple version of Hakata ramen but my friend wanted bigger portion with many extras, including extra portion of noodles.
Just after we ordered chef started to prepare our bowls with soup…

… but first we received glasses of tap water, for free.

In front of me I saw containers for seasonings like chopped garlic and deeply pink beni shoga.

Chef places bowls with our ramen on the top of counter and we picked them up.

My ramen soup contained almost white, cloudy and very rich broth with noodles, piece of roast pork meat, nori, chopped spring onions, and chopped collagen.

My friend’s portion seemed big.
He got same type of broth and noodles, lots of chopped spring onions and pork, collagen and hard boiled egg cut in two. Around the bowl there were squares of nori sea week looking like kind of wreath or tiara, very spectacular.

We received also small plate with salty pickles.

To enjoy our ramen completely, we add to our soup some crushes garlic, pickles and beni shoga.

One of tips how to eat ramen is to place roast pork deeper inside of bowl and then flavours from meat with permeate into broth, making soup even more tasty.
And it was tasty,　rich in taste, but as for me, broth was a bit salty.
But from the other hand, broth tastes good together with mild noodles, so there is balance.

My friend ordered extra portion of noodles, served on separate plate together with bottle of thick broth to add to bowl as well. Refil noodles cost 100 yen. If somebody wants extra topping, it costs 300 yen.

It looked like mountain of noodles inside of his plate.

We ate all, but after this lunch I was so full, that I could not eat anything else to the end of day.
It was definitely very nutritious meal and very garlicky.
When we finished our soup, we could see that on the bottom of bowl was painted Kintaro – small and very strong boy from Japanese legend. He is kind of Marukin Ramen symbol.

Japanese Restaurants in Tokyo | Marukin Ramen- comments

Japanese restaurant Marukin Ramen is a good place for those who like Hakata ramen, a bit heavy and rich in taste. Prices are very moderate and place itself is very pleasant. Not fancy perhaps, but has nice atmosphere and is very clean and cosy.
Location is not too convenient, but also not so hard to find this ramen restaurant.
I do like look of customer area and polished kitchen.
And I like these salty pickles as well.

Japanese Restaurants in Tokyo | Marukin Ramen- additional information

• small portion of ramen costs 500 yen and my friend’s costs around 1000 yen, refil noodles costs 100 yen
• portions are very big, prices moderate
• smoking is allowed
• it is place to stay short during lunch time, just to eat
• single customers are very welcomed same as couples and small groups
• it is good place to eat for everybody
• dishes are served by chef
• tap water and spices are for free
• as of 2009/04/26

Category:Japanese Restaurant

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