Ramen Zundoya - Kyoto Sanjo — Restaurant in Kyoto

Zundouya is a chain ramen shop in a side alley near Pontocho Alley in Kyoto. The whole menu is basically one broth base with various toppings. For 1200￥, I got the All-Topping Ramen, selected the thin, straight noodles, and with the maximum amount of pork fat.

Holy wow, this might be one of the fattiest broths I have ever tasted. The fat is so rich and thick it clouded the soup and made it very buttery. Unfortunately, I was hoping the fat to actually be properly mixed in with the broth, but it was not the case; it was just added to the base broth. This made it lack a truly cohesive, well-rounded flavor, though despite the heavy fat, it was not too salty or oily. The mix of toppings made the whole ramen much better, as the soft chashu really fell apart and the spice and vegetables gave it...

Visited on a Friday afternoon and was seated right away. Large enough dining room but quickly fills up, when we left people were lined up outside. The service is extremely fast. It is nice they have an English menu option but the employees only speak Japanese. Limited menu options. Most all the ramen and menu items are pork based, only one vegetarian option. Good variety of topping choices. Absolutely loved the fried rice! The highball was refreshing, all drinks served in an ice cold mug. Was not too impressed with the ramen, the pork flavor was overwhelming. Would recommend giving this spot a try but wont be...

Our last night in Japan so we had spent down our cash. Looked up a place to eat some ramen and found Ramen Zundoya and scanned the website and reviews looking for “cash only” since we had no more cash and saw no indication it was a cash only business. Learned on arrival that it was indeed cash only. Walked a few blocks to Ramen Yokozuna Sanjo-Kawaramachi and asked if they took credit card. The answer was “of course” with the tone of “why wouldn’t we”. We sat down and had dinner there to a great meal and experience. Is the food good at Ramen Zundoya? I can’t say. I can say their food...