AFURI Shinjuku Sumitomo Building — Restaurant in Tokyo

While almost every restaurant is closed between 3 - 5 pm in the area where our hotel in Tokyo is, AFURI was open. We received a warm welcome from the staff members, and then chose our Ramen selection on a touchscreen which offered the menu in Japanese or English.

I personally don’t like ordering on a machine, especially since as a tourist who may have questions about the ingredients or choices of the offered food. On the other hand, not many Japanese people in Japan speak or understand English, so the machine is a good solution. The touchscreen is simple to use and self-explaining. You choose the language, the quantity of oil, type of noodles and meat you want. There is no choice if you want a white or dark broth, and pay by credit card at the machine, which then prints a receipt and a small piece of paper for each order, with the details of what you ordered. You then hand the little paper to the kitchen staff member who serves the counter.

Our Ramen was served quickly and tasted absolutely delicious! I ordered mine with pork, which was flavorful, and my husband ordered his with chicken. The chicken was perfectly sliced, delicate breast meat, which had been cooked to perfection, not at all dry as it too often is served elsewhere.

The staff members were extremely friendly.

About the ambience: I personally don’t like to sit and eat at a counter, and don’t appreciate using machines for ordering food.

The temperature in the restaurant could be a little bit cooler, because especially after eating Ramen people usually feel hot and are sweating.

Because of the easy handling of the ordering, extremely friendly staff, clean open kitchen and the delicious Ramen, I'm giving 5 stars and...

Sooo glad this place exists!! I don’t eat pork, so I was relieved to find a ramen restaurant that has a vegetable broth option. I ordered the Rainbow Vegan ramen and later added the tender chicken breast along with the marinated egg, seaweed, greens and spicy sauce and oh my goodness it was soo delicious and full of flavor. The vegan ramen comes with at least 3 different kinds of vegetables. It was not salty and I felt satisfied. You place your order and pay at the kiosk first. There is an English language option along with pictures. You will be given a ticket with your order number and the kind host will direct you to your seat and take your ticket. It’s bar seating, you get to have a cool view of the cooks preparing the ramen.

I highly recommend this place. It is on B1 floor, so take the escalators to the...

Make sure you order your food at the ordering machine before getting in line. They accept CC! Got the recommended yuzu ramen and it was great! The char siu was very good. This is not tonkatsu ramen but a clear broth, chicken stock ramen with a yuzu flavor, which was nice initially but then started getting to me towards the end. (I think you can get it without the yuzu too). Not overly salty like other ramen places. The wait line was indoor with AC so definitely a plus with the summer heat. Went at 2pm and the wait for 3 people was about 15-20 min. Stayed at the Hyatt Regency in Shinguku so this was right around the corner from us. Would definitely...