Tozanken Ramen — Restaurant in Kutchan

TL;DR - in the Hirafu area, one of the best priced restaurants, no frill good ramen (not mind blowing, just good), but be prepared to wait an hour or more!

A tale of 1.5 hour wait...

Everyone else has mentioned this, but I case you missed it...you either need to get here super early or be prepared to wait. The problem with Hirafu is that, most restaurants are so packed with reservations, walk ins are hard to come by. BUT Tonzaken does not take reservations, so it's all walk-ins and then grabbing a ticket and waiting for a table.

On the positive side, the ramen was decent, very affordable comparing to the rest of Hirafu, and hits the spot when it's nice and cold. We also had some chicken wings that was extremely tasty and juicy. We tried the curry chicken cutlet with rice (mediocre), Dosanko Ramen with salty broth (which turns out to actually be a semi briny kelp based broth), and a specialty made Asahikawa with miso base (there are pork slices, but under the slices of meat are sprouts, bamboo shoots, napa cabbage) with an egg (this is just a hard boiled egg, not soft boiled and no seasoning). All the ramen were tasty and the noodles were well cooked. In addition we had 1 coke and 1 small sake, all this for about ¥6,800!

The not so great part... The long wait...enough said. Also, because we waited for so long, we grabbed a stool for my friend to sit (he was not feeling well) but the host came out about 20 minutes to take the stool and said they needed it. Which is fine, we understand they need it for dining customers, but what I didn't understand was...he took the stool and stacked it away...they didn't need it!!! This is the main reason I am docking a star on service (would have given them a 4 star in the...

Everyday we walk past, it has a very long queue which leads up to the souvenir shop upstairs. I think they open at 5pm , so you can go queue early to get in first.

The wait would usually be 30 mins to an hour. You can shop at the store upstairs meanwhile.

But make sure to come back to the stairs to listen to your number.

There is a machine at the door to take queue number but you must be there when they call your number, otherwise your queue number will be removed.

The ramen was nice to me but I see some people not finishing their ramen or leaving a big portion untouched. Make sure not to order too much or try the usual size first.

The portion is actually pretty huge even for the normal size. I'm an average sized female asian, and had to give my male friends two pork katsu and big amount of noodles to help me finish them. I love the soup too.

If you can take spicy, use the chili powder and chili oil that's on the table to add more flavor ! I love it.

They have side dishes such as gyoza and fried chicken etc. gyoza is nice...

I have been there for a few times and my friends recommended to dine there. However, may be due to peak season, everytime we passed by we saw people queueing outside and we decided to eat elsewhere.

I eventually have the opportunity to try it's food upon recent visit. Among all restaurants nearby, this one is considered most value for money. It can accommodate ard 20 odd people and the dining area was well maintained and clean.

The staff are polite and efficient. The food are delicious which made me and my wife having dinner there for two consecutive nights with a view to trying as many dishes as we can.

The most impressive food are noodles, cutlet pork (the best I've ever tried), pork, spring roll, dumpling and chicken wings🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳

Another impressive thing I saw was the seriousness they treat their job. The staff who washed the dishes would inspect their cleanliness b4 giving them to customers.

In all, 5 🌟 without hesitation and will visit again...