Lunch at Ramen Sen No Kaze in Kyoto

25 November 2016 

Before leaving Kyoto, we stopped for lunch at one of the best ramen restaurants in Kyoto.

This restaurant, called the Ramen Sen No Kaze, is located just a few minutes walk north from Exit #6 or Exit #9 of Hankyu Kawaramachi Station, and before the Tenman-gu Shrine.   

The restaurant is small and queuing seems to be the norm. We were given a queue number and told the estimated waiting time was about half an hour. With that, we had the option to go shopping or wait outside. A few seats were available inside the restaurant for the people at the top of the queue and there were additional chairs provided outside, with heaters to keep queuing customers warm.

An easy to read menu posted outside the restaurant showing the different configurations of the noodles that were available.

 

This restaurant serves one of the best chashu (pork slices) or char siu (as it is known back home) with the ramen. There were different configurations and that were displayed in an easy to read menu posted outside the restaurant. Options for the soup included the classic pork-based soup, soy sauce-flavoured pork-based soup, miso-based or even seafood- and soy sauce-based soup. The soup could be spicy or non-spicy.

The ramen could be configured to come with steamed rice or gyoza or with both rice and gyoza.

The best seller was the Kyo No Shio Ramen. This dish normally came with 3 slices of the cha shu. We added two extra pieces for 200 Yen. I was given 6 pieces!

We chose the best seller, according to the menu, which was the Kyo No Shio Ramen. This is ramen noodles in classic, creamy, slightly salty pork-based soup stock and three slices of savoury, well seasoned chashu pork slices for 830 yen. There was option to add two more chashu slices for 200 yen and a Shoyu Tama (soy-sauce egg) for 70 yen which we did.

Side order of gyoza to go with the ramen.

We added an order of the delicious gyoza (dumplings stuffed with minced pork and assorted vegetables) to share. They were served as appetisers and best eaten with the vinegar and soy-sauce dips.

Seating was at the counter and we got to see the lady owner, who speaks English, and her staff grilled and cooked the food we ordered. The time needed to cook each ramen serving was controlled using a set timer with alarm to maintain consistency and quality. In less than 10 minutes, we were slurping away on our bowls of ramen. We finished every drop of the soup!

This was one of the best ramen I tasted in Japan. Highly recommended.