Ippudo Lumine Est Shinjuku — Restaurant in Tokyo

Let me start by saying i am a longtime ippudo fan, and its the #1 ramen chain in japan for me. Every trip to Japan i always visit Ippudo.

Which is why it saddens me to leave a bad review. This is easily the most disappointing experience i have had at ippudo.

I ordered a shiromasu base ramen with egg plus a side or 5pc vegetarian gyoza. It cost 1,280¥.

Now one thing to note is that unlike a regular ippudo outlet this one at Lumine is a food court concept. You order, get a buzzer and wait to collect your food. So, no table service. Also no complimentary beansprouts or the ability to add cloves of garlic.

Additionally it has a “plant based studio” concept so it features many vegetarian ramen. I didn’t bother with them and went with the classics. Notably they don’t have regular pork gyozas. Its all vegetarian gyoza. Slightly disappointed I still ordered the gyoza to try.

First i start with the ramen. The broth is off. Its too watery and not rich enough, and a tad too oily. This is not the broth which made me a fan. The charshu is mediocre- not terrible but not good either. The only items in the bowl which pass muster are the noodles- nice and springy and the egg which is the sole highlight of the meal was perfectly done. But the most important ingredient is the broth, and on that, it fails.

Then the 5pc gyoza. Despite looking charred, the gyoza was served lukewarm (if not for the faintest hint of warmth i would have outright said it was served cold). It’s clear they fry the gyoza in batches and by the time it gets to you it’s turned cold or lukewarm. In a regular ippudo outlet, your gyoza will be panfried upon order. You simply won’t get a cold gyoza so this cold/ lukewarm vegetarian gyoza is a big miss.

Also the vegetarian gyoza is lacklustre. It doesn’t have the rich juices that come from a nice pork gyoza and the end result is lacklustre.

Other than the nice egg, my meal was disappointing. I think the problem is too many dishes spoil the soup. Instead of a lean, simple menu, the vegetarian concept adds on too many other dishes which makes it hard to maintain consistency. This vegetarian ippudo may be a draw for vegetarians but for true fans, you are better off skipping this outlet and going to their regular ones.

This time, I didn’t finish all of my broth, which I usually do. That’s a sign that the ramen...

Ippudo is a chain of Ramen restaurants. It was recommended to us by a friend of ours who lives in Tokyo. We were in Shinjuku, looking for a place to eat and when we found this branch of Ippudo nearby to where we were, we decided to give it a try.

This particular location was located upstairs in a department store building. It wasn't a proper sit down restaurant, but more like a food court styled location. I was really happy though to see that they had a Vegan ramen on their menu. In fact, there was more than one Vegan option. I went for the vegan Shoyu Ramen. Admittedly, I wasn't too crazy about everything that was put into my bowl. There was a bamboo shoot and at least one other ingredient in my bowl that I wasn't too keen on. The noodles and broth though were excellent, so I would happily dine here again.

They have plant based gyoza on their menu too, which we ordered and tried. Very tasty and we were all suitably impressed with them.

Meat eating hubby was very happy with his bowl of regular ramen. He had tried another well known ramen noodle shop earlier in the trip, but the other one was "meh" to him. We all loved the food at...

This restaurant is the perfect place in Shinjuku to get ramen as a group with vegan and non-vegan members. The restaurant is located on the 8th floor of the Lumine Est mall. There is a pretty big menu that has a couple of vegan ramen options alongside non-vegan options. I ordered the vegan “special silk-smooth veggie tonkotsu miraton”. The broth was the best part - it was rich and had a lot of elements coming together to make it taste amazing! The disappointment was the fake meat on top. It got soggy so fast. The texture was awful and it had next to no flavor. So aside from the meat, I really enjoyed this plant-based ramen. I also got an order of the veggie gyoza which were delicious. Everyone in my party who ate the meat options enjoyed their ramen, but it didn’t blow them away. Please note that the vegan options are NOT available at every Ippudo location. This location has the most options (two ramen options, plus one seasonal cold noodle). Otherwise, according to their website, you can get one vegan ramen option at the following locations: Ginza East store, Harajuku Takeshita Street store, Shijo Karasuma store, and Kanazawa...