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Went to almost all the rated best places in Tokyo as well as quite a few in Sapporo and Kyoto. Fu Unji was always one of my favorites and the most professionally serious in Japan. Its in Shinjuku tho and totally not far...
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Hand down the best shop is Warito. In fact I would consider it one of the best ramen shops in greater Tokyo and it consistently scores high on ramendb (aka the metacritic of ramen).
Here's a review: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/692641
Warito is basically doing a style called "tonkotsu gyokai" which translates as "pork bones fish broth". That's what people like in Tokyo and most shops have that soup base.
Warito is quite strong, but there is another shop in the area called "Hayashi" 〒150-0043 東京都渋谷区道玄坂1-14-9 and they taste similar to Warito but much lighter. Personally I think too light but tonkotsu gyokai might as well be an acquired taste, so it might be a good idea to first go to Hayashi - especially because it is literally less than 500 ft from your hotel.
Also, you should consider that a) most shops are only open for lunch b) you probably have to stand in line for one hour .
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re: Robb S
No, it's actually true.
Of course "most" Ramen shops will be open all the time, but the really good places are often lunch only. Not always, but quite often.
Here are some examples: 麺処 ほん田 is probably almost universally seen as one of the best shops in town and they're open from 11:30--4pm, 麺屋吉左右 is done by 3pm, TETSU closes at around 4pm as does 麺匠 ヒムロク. 中華蕎麦 とみ田 is officially open til 5, but I have been there sometime in the early afternoon and they were sold out.
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re: Scharn
Robb S
Dec 21, 2011 08:05 AM
So it's actually not true that "most ramen shops" are open only for lunch. And it's certainly not true that "most ramen shops" have hour-long lines.
I thought I might have been missing a trend here, so I just looked at the ten top-ranked shops on RamenDB. Only two of the ten are open only at lunchtime.
In short, visitors to Tokyo should know that there's plenty of good ramen to be had at any hour of the day, and you don't have to wait on line for an hour to eat good ramen.
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re: Robb S
Well, a 2/10 chance to go to some shop just to see it closed when you only have a few days in Tokyo is pretty bad, don't you think? And when you're looking at the Tonkotsu-Gyokai shops (I really don't care much for the others) it's ballpark more like 6-7/10. It's probably a good idea to check opening hours in advance.
ps: here's a list. maybe it's even more than 6 or 7 out of the top 10, but I'm simply not bored enough to check it: http://tinyurl.com/7rj5sku
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re: Scharn
Silverjay
Dec 21, 2011 02:10 PM
I don't think Hayashi and Warito are anything alike. One is shoyu and one is tonkotsu. One is light soup and the other is viscous tsukemen broth. They both use fish. Not a huge fan of Hayashi. In the same neighborhood, one hill over actually, is Sakakurazaka which is another good tonkotsu gyokai tsukemen. I still prefer Suzuran to both. Suzuran used to be a RamenDB top five few years back. Warito maybe best of the lot, but bit of a hike.
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