Soy sauce ramen｜AFURI Harajuku

I visited “AFURI Harajuku”, the second AFURI restaurant. It is conveniently located just a 3-minute walk from JR Harajuku Station in Tokyo and has excellent accessibility.
The store looks more like a stylish café bar than a ramen restaurant. This time it was lunchtime, but as luck would have it, only about 50% of the customers entered the restaurant.

Choice of two soups

I purchased a “Shoyu Ramen”（Soy sauce ramen） from the ticket machine. When I was shown to the counter and sat down, I was asked what kind of soup I wanted tanrei(light） or maro（mellow), so I ordered “mellow” this time. I ordered the “mellow” soup, which is a light broth with chicken oil added.

Tanrei（Light）soup: A chicken-based soup with the flavor of all ingredients, including seafood, kelp, and aromatic vegetables, carefully extracted and balanced to create a full-bodied soup.

Maro（Mellow) soup: A light and refreshing soup with more chicken oil, which gives the soup a mellow chicken taste and flavor.

The soup is so gentle to the palate that you may think it is a salted soup, and in addition, you can taste the chicken and seafood flavors. After that, the flavor of soy sauce fills your mouth. The chicken oil is a very nice accent, giving the soup sweetness and strength.

Next, the noodles are thin and straight, made by Mikawaya. The noodles are hard-boiled, very smooth, and well-balanced with the fine soup.

The topping of thick pork belly roasted over a charcoal fire is slightly charred and very fragrant, and its flavor is well seasoned and the texture of the meat is impressive. While many ramen restaurants use soft pork char siu that melts in the mouth, everyone has his or her own preference, but the chewy, savory meat is perfect for the ramen at AFURI Harajuku.
Other ingredients include half an ajitama (seasoned egg), sweetly cooked thinly sliced bamboo shoots, nori (laver), mizuna (potherb mustard), and chopped green onion. As you would expect from a very famous restaurant, AFURI Harajuku has a reputation as a very famous restaurant.

【 UMAMECCA Editor’s voice 】

This time we had the Shoyu Ramen（Soy sauce ramen）, but “AFURI Harajuku” is also known for its famous Yuzu Shio Ramen（Salt ramen）, which is very tasty, and the Yuzu Tsuyu Tsukemen（Dipping noodle）, or Yuzu Dew Tsukemen（Dipping noodle）, which is the best tasting ramen.
The yuzu aroma is refreshing and appetizing, and the thin noodles go perfectly with the yuzu salt soup. We hope that as many people as possible will try this ramen.