Tokyo Style Noodle Hotate Biyori — Restaurant in Tokyo

Since there aren’t any English reviews yet, I feel obligated to share my experience. From what I know, this shop is fairly new on the scene and has been one of the most buzzed about places amongst local ramen nerds lately. It’s received a number of “best of year” and recognition from places like TRY, RamenDB, and Tabelog. This was one of my last meals of this trip, so I wanted to try something special and something that wasn’t the usual tonkotsu pork bomb that I’ve had many times here and in Los Angeles. This definitely delivered on both fronts.

It’s not easy to get a spot here though - because it is such a hot shop right now. You have to line up before they open and then make a reservation for later in the day. I’m not a morning person, so I opted to make a dinner reservation. Dinner starts at 5:30, and they typically start taking reservations at 4:00. (Check their Twitter to make sure they’re open for dinner service.) The friendly woman who worked there told me to show up at 4 or a little earlier (~3:30). I happened to be in the area at 3:15 on a Thursday so I jumped in line and was the 7th one. At 3:40 she came out and had us write our names down in the time slot we wanted. I was only in line for 30 minutes though, so not too bad.

I returned later and the owner helped me place my order at the vending machine. When I asked for his recommendation, he said the two “special” scallop tsukemens were the best / most popular (1400 yen). He said the white one had a stronger scallop flavor and that’s the one I went for - the top-right button. I also added the “large” option for extra noodles (“大盛”), which I’m glad I did - since part of the experience is trying the noodles in many different ways. It’s definitely a large portion, but I’d say that most folks with strongish appetites can handle it without it being excessive. (If you think you might not finish it, don’t order it - it’s rude to waste.)

Part of the fun of the food here is that it is a whole experience - he really wants you to try the noodles in many different ways that highlight the different characteristics, and I loved going on that journey with him. There’s instructions on the table (in Japanese) and even a dice on the table that apparently lets them know whether you want their instructions or not. The chef apologized for his English but it was actually pretty good - I’m the one who should be apologizing for not speaking Japanese. Nevertheless, it’s hard to remember 7 different steps, but the gist is that he wants you to try the noodles by themselves first and then with each of the different ingredients (salt, dill, wasabi, truffle oil, the dipping broth) before going freestyle.

After eating the scallop carpaccio, I started by mixing the noodles with the clear kelp water, as instructed. I was surprised to see the noodles get frothy in texture as I mixed them. Even by itself, this was light, but very good - you could really taste the noodle. Then having it again with the salt brought out a whole other element and richness in the noodle, as did the wasabi and dill. Dipping it in the broth changes it yet again - the broth is rotated seasonally and the ingredients will be listed in Japanese on the card next to you (I took a photo on my iPhone and translated it to get a rough idea). There were scallops and a chicken meatball in mine, as well as a wonton.

With the noodles you’ll find pork loin char siu and chicken char siu, flavorful menma, a green veg, and a perfectly jammy egg. I haven’t had slow cooked chicken char siu like this before, so the texture was a bit odd for me, but the flavor was fine though not a highlight. It was the torched scallop on top and the rest of the bowl that made it a real meal to remember. Finally, after you finish the noodles, they give you another light broth (mine had yuzu and other ingredients) to warm the remaining soup and give you yet one more experience before you slurp the last drops and vanish into the night.

It was not only an amazing meal, but also really changed the way I think...

First Visit Breakdown - Sunday March 16

Before the sun was up on a nasty rainy 5°C cold morning, boarded a train headed to Akihabara station. After I arrived at the station, headed for the “Showa-Dori” (Exit 1) and saw the Coco Curry shop, made a right walked past Family Mart then few more stores down on left side, I arrived! Time check 6:21am. Hung a left at the “mystery pole” and…there was a guy already on line, so I was second in line. Later found out he arrived at 5am! 2nd place is totally OK since 1 person can only get reservation for 4 people max, therefore I would make it into the store for the first round, so I was happy.

6:43am, total 5 people waiting. 6:55am, total 9 people waiting. 7:38am, total 20 people waiting.

PRO TIP: wear WARM waterproof shoes when you need to be standing out in the cold rain for 2 ~ 3 hours!

8:54am, man with a Clipboard (actually the chef) came out of the store- it’s showtime!

He went through the whole line asking how many people you need to get a reservation for, then he retreated back to the warm dry store.

9:15am a lady emerged from the store. She said we can choose ANY time today- lunch time or dinner time, so what timeslot do I want. I chose 11:00am and she said to come back at 10:50am (10 minutes before my chosen time). Took almost 3 hours, but FINLLY got my reservation! I walked past 35 people still waiting for their reservation, found a coffee shop to warm up and wait.

10:50am me and my plus 2 are now back outside the store waiting.

11:00am the lady comes out, invites us in to buy tickets from the vending machine. Note- their machine does NOT accept 10,000 nor 5,000 bills. I was ready, and had handful of 1000 bills ready for insertion. Well, it just turns out that their machine does NOT accept the NEW version of the 1000 bills. Thankfully the lady could switch my new bills for some old bills. So when you come here, be sure to have lots of OLD style 1000 yen notes!

We ordered the following: “special shoyu” tsukemen: 特製帆立の昆布水つけ麺黒＜醤油＞ Price: 1600 yen “special salt” tsukemen: 特製帆立の昆布水つけ麺 白＜塩＞ Price: 1600 yen Chashu over rice (チャーシューごはん) Price: 400 yen

• Special Extra Sauce for their followers * Price: 350 yen* (*only if you follow their store on X (@hotatebiyori) then they will allow you to order this special extra dipping sauce!)

Handed tickets to the chef and sat down. Few minutes later, our meals arrived in glorious fashion, and boy oh boy we were in for a treat! The Chef was super friendly and unbelievably nice taking so much time to explain EVERYTHING to us. Overall, we had such an amazing experience and were taken aback to how patient and accommodating they treated us/guided us/explained things, being the newbies (first timers to this shop) that we were. Don’t be intimidated if you don’t know how to speak Japanese or don’t know what tsukemen is or even don’t know how to even eat tsukemen- they are super helpful, will take care of you- you’ll be fine.

Helpful tip - don't take picture/videos of how they prepare the food...that's a big no-no. Taking pictures/videos of YOUR meal after they present it to you is OK. You have 30 minute time limit to eat your meal. If you’re snapping 100's of pictures, you won't have time to enjoy eating the amazing meal you should be eating 🙂

FINAL THOUGHTS Like literally every other review you will read for this place… This place is unreal. The food is absolutely frigging delicious and MUST be tried!!! Does it suck going through the process to get to eat here? Yup…but damn straight it is worth the trouble! Will I come here again? HELL YES I will be back. Totally worth the wait. We will bring everyone who visits us here in Japan to this place because it will most likely be the best meal they will have here in Japan!

Hope this is adamantly clear for everyone- Come early, wait a couple hours, and ye shall be rewarded with an unforgettable and memorable...

To all visitors from overseas

If you wanna eat ramen at this restaurant, you need to come here in the morning to put your name on the list ! (Which is absolutely worth it to wake up early and wait) The name listing would start between 8:30am-9:30am (and the restaurant will open at 11am) depends on how many ppl in the line. I went to the restaurant on 3/1 Saturday and I arrived at the restaurant around 7:30am but already ppl in the line. Then I was able to put my name and the time slot I could get was 2pm. So when you go there around 11am and most likely the restaurant would be done taking ppl in, so don’t be disappointed … lol because you HAVE to put your name in the list otherwise you can’t get this beautiful amazing ramen !!

The food itself there was AMAZING ! If you wanna try delicate but bold flavored ramen that’s for you. And as a Japanese who was in the states for 6yrs I guarantee you can’t rly get this type of ramen in the states at least lol And the scallop is sooooo good and they serve soup at the end and it’s so good the broth and dashi mix is absolutely heaven.

However this restaurant only has counter seats and maybe like 9-10 seats, so they have 30mins limit to finish the food. every bite is soooo good but if you are a slow eater you need to be careful about the time. And most of the menu and instruction (how to eat the best) are Japanese only, so if you don’t read Japanese you def need to translate !

Anyway it’s one of experiences so I’d recommend...