Kim Kay
aka: Ramen Mistress

Kim is a freelance journalist based in Tokyo, Japan. She specializes in the connection between food, culture, and travel.

She has written for publications like Travel + Leisure, Tokyo Weekender, byFood, and Savor Japan. She has also been a guest on various podcasts as well as short-form video content focused on Japanese cuisine and tourism.

Learn more about Kim.

Publications and Projects

Price, menu item, & location at end ➡️

This is why I enjoy tsukemen (dipping ramen), it allows you to deconstruct each aspect of the meal. Instead of the noodles getting soggy, the soup getting cold, and the toppings to dissolve, you can take your time and unpack each part of tsukemen.

Natsumi in Akabane opened in 2012 and is known for those slippery, bouncy noodles.

Just steps from Akabane station; get off the train on your next train heading north out of Tokyo. Closed on Wednesdays, open for lunch & dinner the other six days of the week.

One look at this shopfront and I fell I love. Was I in a Studio Ghibli film? The rough wood exterior, the golden sign, the ticket machine standing out there in the elements.

This is Natsumi, which uses noodles produced by the legendary ramen shop Tomita. The soup? A rich chicken and fish blend. You’ve gotta get the dipping style tsukemen, it’s what they’re famous for.

Akabane is a town known for its wild nightlife, and if you make this ramen your first stop, you’ll be fueled all the way to the morning train.

Because everyone deserves a second bowl.

Is this the best ramen in Shinjuku? I think it comes pretty close.

Ramenya Shima is the picture-perfect chicken shoyu, and only accepts reservations. I had my eye on it for months, but never could line up the time to go with when the bookings opened up for availability.

What makes this ramen so famous both its lineage as well as the luscious layers of chicken and aged soy sauce. A quick bit of ramen history: Shina Soba-ya was one of the major influential shops of the modern shoyu ramen we know and love. Sano Minoru, the founder of Shina Soba-ya, still appears in framed photographs in ramen shops around the country, a testament to his legacy and vivid personality. The owner of Ramenya Shima trained there for years, and that classic DNA can be seen in this perfect bowl.

Layers of refined chicken flavor dance with smoky, robust shoyu. Noodles are long and straight, neither too firm nor too soft. It is one of those rare bowls where time stops and you’re suspended in perfection.

From now through November 24, Shinjuku’s Okubo Park turns into ramen heaven. The “Dai Tsukemen Haku” Festival brings 116 top ramen shops from all over Japan together for the country’s biggest ramen celebration. Each stall stays only a few days, so you should go multiple times to try different items!

Each bowl is around ¥1,000 ($6.50 USD) which is a bargain for some of these exclusive restaurants (there’s even one place coming from Chiba that that only serves one group per day!) Meet famous chefs and quirky mascots, snap pics at the photo booth, and share long tables with fellow foodies. There’s no entry fee, and you can pay with your transit card. Just bring your appetite!

📍Okubo Park, Shinjuku
🗓️ Until November 24 | every day from 11am–9pm

Ultra local spot Tsukemen Haruki, down near Maita station in Yokohama. The locals hang out with some of the izakaya fare like sauteed negi and beef liver, or pork and garlic over rice. The tsukemen noodles are what drew me here; they’re darker and looked pretty unique.

Walking in, it was pretty apparent this is a quiet corner shop… only a few counter seats, old posters on the walls, and a couple people nursing a highball or two. I got the spicy tomato curry tsukemen. Like the atmosphere, it was strange.

But in a good way. Tangy from the tomato acidity, tingly from the spice. A little sour. Nonconformist to other tsukemen genres you normally encounter. Slight seafood whiff. They do their own thing here, and it works. Husband and wife run the place, and my research shows they’re both of Chinese descent. I’d love to hear their story!

If all my problems could be solved with pork fat, I’d know the secret to world peace 👁️👄👁️

Whenever a ramenhead mentions the name “Toy Box”, they get a certain glint in their eye. More than simple bragging rights, but a sense of deep satisfaction and adoration for such a delicious bowl. It’s one of those ramen that not only lives up to the hype, but is BETTER than you expect it to be. And, yes, it’s one of my favorite shoyu in Tokyo.

Open since 2013 and near Minowa Station, Toy Box serves one of most satisfying chicken ramens in the city. A humble store front with only 8 counter seats, its intimate and somewhat intimidating. Silent inside, as if devotees to a religion are communing with a sacred ritual. If the name “Toy Box” sounds like it’ll be a lighthearted romp, you’re in for an awakening.

As I watched my ramen being assembled (and you can; you’re literally seated looking into the kitchen), I was properly shook at the amount of chiyu they top these babies with. It’s SO rich and opaque it almost looks like butter, or egg yolks. As it melts atop your hot soup, the flavor is booted into silky chickeny overdrive. The rest of the bowl is equally fabulous, but this was an unforgettable sight.

Toy Box made it into the Michelin Bib Gourmand again this year, and rightfully so. Get there soon.

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Find my recent bowls on Instagram

@ramenmistress

Kim Kay aka: Ramen Mistress

Publications and Projects

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Find my recent bowls on Instagram

Freelance writer of Japan food, beverage, and culture.

Kim Kay
aka: Ramen Mistress