Kyoto Ramen Laboratory — Restaurant in Kyoto

This place was close to our hotel, which is how we ended up coming here. It looks like the restaurant has been in business in that location for a very long time. They have pictures up of what I assume are celebrities that visited them over the years.

The ramen bowls we had, tasted great and had enough food in them to fill you up. We also shared a portion of fried rice, which tasted good.

My biggest issue with this place is that it looks like it hasn't been properly cleaned in years. The more I looked around, the worse it got. Discoloration and grime on the walls in the dining room and kitchen. Grease caked on the kitchen walls. Dust all over the place. The air conditioning units were especially disgusting. The air intakes were covered with dust and the air outlet had what I assume to be dust and black mold on them.

Place needs a proper deep clean or it will soon be contaminating food...

This is so far the best gyoza I have ever tried. It's succulent and light. For 270yen/6pcs it's very worth it. Accidentally ordered the charsiu donburi which ended up better than the ramen. The donburi comes a small bowl of ramen broth, but that is better than the broth in the ramen! The broth inside the ramen is more watery with peppery taste. The meat in the donburi is also more pronounced and seems more generous than the one inside the ramen. The best part is that they have chilli sauce similar to hainanese chicken chilli sauce. It's spicy and yummy. There seems to be not much queue witch is great, in saying that the place is small so it gets pretty busy quickly. It's good that they open until 3pm instead of 2pm. Service is great, not quick but not slow either. The place doesn't have good exhaust, a bit greasy. Would come back again anytime to order the donburi and...

We were last in Kyoto in 2017 and had the best ramen of our trip at this place. Fast forward to our 2023 japan trip and we decided to seek it out again… and it was again the best ramen of our trip! This is the place to go if you want to try rich pork bone broth, flecks of marrow glistening on the surface, perfectly chewy noodles, tender chashu pork, amazingly delicious! Treat yourself to the extra slices of roast bbq pork on top, so good. The gyoza and fried chicken was also delicious. And all so inexpensive! Ice cold beer. English menu. The restaurant is quirky, covered in hand written menu signs… hasn’t changed at all in 6 years. 😊 There are 3 comfortable family-sized booths (uncommon in little japanese eateries), as well as bar seating. Very popular. The service was lovely and friendly and i wish we had the language to tell them how we were still loving their ramen 6...