Susuruka, Susuranka — Restaurant in Nara

Cute ramen shop that offers a twist on ramen and some rice options.

All ramen options are mapo-tofu-based, but you can choose yours with or without cheese. For the regular menu, there are three types of ramen - (1) mapo tofu (dry), (2) mapo tofu soup (you can include cheese if you want), and (3) grilled cheese and mapo tofu (dry). They also have rice bowls and side dishes such as gyoza. This restaurant also has a halal menu which offers two types of ramen - options 1 and 3 - as well as some rice options.

We ordered the regular mapo tofu ramen soup with cheese, halal mapo tofu ramen, halal teriyaki chicken rice bowl, and a gyoza. The ramen soup was super flavourful, and the cheese was definitely a good addition. The dry mapo tofu ramen was good too. It tasted more spicy than the soup one. My hubby loved the teriyaki chicken rice bowl. The gyoza was delicious with thin dumpling skin.

This is a very popular restaurant despite being away from the touristy sites. There was a line outside the restaurant when we came and a line when we left. Tucked behind a dessert shop, the restaurant is small, but the wait wasn't too long.

Service was excellent. Great restaurant to try...

Arrives 11:15am already has customers inside. Order the recommendations with Mapo ramen plus a bowl of chickin rice. ¥1400 takes all (May 2025) they have English menu.

The wait is about 5mins before my meal arrives, looks so inviting, the first few bite is okay, later it turns to spicy and numbing the lip and tongue, just like mapo sauce would do. I feel so happy to eat it!

The noodle is thick and very nice to chew, I like the texture.

The tofu is very soft and almost melt in the mouth, with the strong flavour it taste so good.

The chikin however is not my favourite, it is quite soy sauce intense and I couldn’t taste the chikin anymore, the rice is good though I put a lot of the mapo broth into it and eat together.

After finish only I drink the ice water. It is so thoughtful they provide ice water in a big IKEA kind of cup. Maybe they know we all need it after the meal.

At one point, a group of tourist arrives, they speak French and Muslim. And there are about 15 people of them, so the environment was not pleasant as they speaks loudly and laugh loudly. It killed my vibe to enjoy the food so I quickly finish and pay the...

One of the handful of halal-friendly options available at Nara, this place was literally a hidden gem within a quiet residential neighbourhood, and tucked behind a dessert shop (see the photos to see the alley to enter, the restaurant is on the right!)

After walking around Nara Park, we took a direct public bus to the neighbourhood, and arrived around an hour before closing time, and thankfully it wasn't too crowded!

Their halal menu (see photos) is pretty substantial, went with the cheese mapo tofu ramen + grilled chicken rice bowl add cheese (cos you can never get enough cheese 😋) and it was super goood - both dishes were packed with flavours, and the open concept kitchen meant we could watch the chefs prepare the food (although it also meant it can get kinda hot, especially if you're at the counter seats)

For Muslims, do note that the prayer space beside the restaurant is no longer available - thankfully prayer options are available at other locations in Nara, such as the tourist...