Tokyo Aburagumi Sohonten Ginza — Restaurant in Tokyo

It feels like if you find noodles place in Tokyo with ratings over 4, it means you have to be prepared to queue.

We arrived around 7:10pm and saw two long queues and realised there were two ramen places next to each other. Decided to try this Abura Soba place ( realised it’s another name for maze soba)

There were about 25 people in line when we got there and 6 people right in front of us left the queue. We still had to wait nearly an hour between standing in line and getting our food.

There’s only 8 seats inside which is the main reason why the wait is longer. You order from the machine, pass them the ticket and wait until there’s a seat. Once you are seated the noodles will come swiftly.

We ordered one spicy (miso tare) and the other normal but added yuzu pepper as it was free. A tub of yuzu pepper was already placed on the table when we were seated.

The spicy version is definitely a lot better than the original. The original was kinda meh however if you add the yuzu pepper provided, it elevated the dish to a whole new level. The addition of citrus, tanginess/spiciness made the dish sooo much so palatable. The yuzu pepper was so good it felt like we added 1/3 of the tub into the noodles. So glad we added yuzu pepper when we ordered on the machine.

Will I queue an hour again? No.. mainly coz I hate queueing and I feel that the noodles from Kajiken (I’m Singapore) taste a lot better and I can get a bowl...

LOVED THIS BROTHLESS RAMEN (Warning: young adults from Central Florida in for vacation) This was my first time trying this style, and I’m in love. The price was also excellently low, especially when you realize we were blocks from the busy and pricier Ginza area. We were also greeted by an English speaking staffer.

PLACE ORDER FIRST THEN GET IN LINE We started to fall in line, but thankfully someone already in line told us to enter the store, put our order in, pay, then get in the outside line. The machine to place your order is right at the entrance, and an English staffer was there- he just asked us questions then pressed the correct machine buttons for us. (Thank goodness because there really wasn’t any photos and much English that would’ve helped me). Whenever someone left the little restaurant (just counter seating with a small bathroom), that same staffer would bring in the next person in line, collect your order from the machine, and hand it to the chefs who’d start making it fresh.

SIMPLY GOOD AND FILLING The noodles were insanely bouncy and chewy in a great way. As someone who’s more used to broth-full ramen, this dish appeared totally simple with tons of green onions, soft meat, bamboo shoots, seaweed, and an egg. We followed paper instructions in front of us to add a little oil and vinegar to the dish then mix. Wow! This tasted like a comfort food I could have over and over....

We are at Tokyo Aburagumi Sohonten Ginza on a Saturday night. This is a very small restaurant - I think it seats about 7-9 people. You wait in line outside - when you get close to the front of the line, you order off a kiosk, and give your ticket to an employee at the door. Then you are called in to get seated by an employee. The kiosk allows you to select several languages so we were able to order in English and pay by credit card. You can order two different flavors (soy sauce or spicy miso) and the size doesn't change the price. The base bowl price includes bamboo shoots, green onions, pork, and seaweed. You can order two special toppings options for an additional cost that will add a soft boiled egg and/or roasted pork. Note that the default pork seems different than the extra roasted pork. The extra roasted pork was much more fatty and tasty. We got in line around 7:30 pm and it was a 40 min wait to order and then about 10 in for us to be seated and receive our food. I have no frame of reference for what this dish should be like but I thoroughly enjoyed it and it's so inexpensive too. I think this is a great, cheap place to get some...