Tokyo Ramen Tours

Bowls, Shops and Routes

The Ramen Tasting Tour with 6 Mini Bowls is the widest tasting option. It runs 3 hours in a group limited to 8 and serves 6 mini bowls at 3 shops, chosen from 11-12 options. Each mini bowl is about 1/4 the size of a full bowl. You choose a Shibuya, Shinjuku or Ueno route, and 1 drink is included. The Shibuya Ramen Tasting Tour, 3 Bowls covers 3 half bowls at 3 Shibuya shops in 3 hours, with a tonkotsu and shoyu focus for up to 10 travelers.

For evenings, the Night Ramen Crawl in Shibuya runs 2 hours for up to 5 people and pairs 4 mini bowls at 2 shops with 2 drinks. If you prefer a guide to yourself, the Private Ramen Tasting Tour, 2 Bowls gives you 2 full bowls at 2 shops, and you pick the district: Shinjuku, Tokyo Station, Asakusa or Ikebukuro.

Tasting Tours Side by Side

This table sets the tasting tours side by side on bowls, area, length and price per person, with each figure taken from the tour's own listing. The vegan tour follows the same format with 4 vegan mini bowls at 2 shops.

What Costs Extra

Three tasting tours list train fares outside the price. The Ramen Tasting Tour with 6 Mini Bowls at $119 needs a train ticket on the Shinjuku route only. The Vegan and Vegetarian Ramen Tour at $94 asks you to bring a transport card or cash for the train from Shibuya to Shinjuku. The Night Ramen Crawl in Shibuya at $88 excludes train fare, and the guide helps you buy a ticket on the day.

On the Shibuya Ramen Tasting Tour, 3 Bowls, extra dishes such as dumplings or rice are paid in cash. Getting to the meeting point is on you on every tasting tour.

One dietary point before you book: the broths on the Ramen Tasting Tour with 6 Mini Bowls and the Shibuya Ramen Tasting Tour, 3 Bowls contain chicken, pork or fish, so neither suits vegetarians or vegans.

Ueno Food Tours With Ramen

Ueno offers food tours where ramen is one dish among several. The Hidden Taverns and Ramen in Ueno runs 3 hours for up to 10 people at $105.54, rated 4.9 from 1,250 reviews. The fee covers 5 dishes including ramen, sashimi and grilled fish, plus 5 Japanese drinks and a souvenir porcelain cup, in taverns where staff speak no English and the guide orders for you.

The Ueno Food Tour: Sushi, Ramen and Yakitori costs $85, runs 3 hours for up to 5 guests, and covers 4 food stops and 4 drinks. It includes pork and has no vegetarian option, and the minimum age is 18. Book it if you want sushi and yakitori in the same evening as your ramen bowl.

Classes Where You Make the Noodles

The Shibuya Ramen Class: Tonkotsu, Shoyu and Miso is the clearest pick for comparing styles. In a studio near Ikejiri-ohashi Station, one stop from Shibuya, you knead, roll and cut noodles on a professional machine, blowtorch chicken chashu and assemble 3 mini bowls in 1.5 hours for $78.

Become a Ramen Chef for a Day takes place in a working ramen restaurant kitchen in Meguro. Over 2-3.5 hours at $141 you break bones for broth, make noodles from scratch, learn restaurant gyoza and work the line. It is not suitable for children under 8.

The Ramen Noodle Making on Kappabashi Street is the shortest noodle class: you turn flour into hand-cut noodles in about 30 minutes and eat the bowl, all inside 50 minutes for $44.14.

The Ramen From Scratch and Akihabara Tour adds a grocery store tour before you cook Jiro-style ramen from scratch for lunch, 3.5 hours at $119.62, with a minimum of 2 per booking. The Ramen and Gyoza With a Tokyo Mom is a home kitchen near Shinjuku Gyoen where you knead noodles and fold gyoza from scratch.

Ramen Classes Side by Side

This table compares the ramen classes on what you make, area, length and price per person, with each figure from the class listing. Read the price against what you make: the cheapest class uses pre-made soup and noodles.

Ramen With Gyoza, Sushi or Sake

Three classes pair ramen with other food. The Ramen and Gyoza Class with Supermarket Visit in Arakawa holds a 5 rating from 905 reviews, includes a local supermarket tour and runs 2.5 hours for up to 7 guests. The Asakusa Ramen and Crispy Gyoza Class in Kappabashi includes apron and recipe, but its listing states no refund and all sales final, so only book if your plans are firm.

The Sushi and Ramen Class With Sake Pairing in Tsukishima covers ramen and nigiri sushi plus 3 sakes chosen by a certified sommelier over 3 hours. It is not suitable for vegetarians.

The Short Option

The Easy Ramen Making in Kabukicho is the fastest and cheapest class at $28.78 for 60 minutes. You assemble 1 bowl at Shinjuku Ale in Kabukicho, 5 minutes on foot from Shinjuku Station, with soup and noodles pre-made. Drinks and gyoza are paid options.

It holds a 4.9 rating from 1,328 reviews, the largest review count of any class here, and groups run up to 6. It suits travellers with one free hour in Shinjuku who want to make a bowl without a full cooking lesson.

Tours and Classes With a Vegan Option

The Vegan and Vegetarian Ramen Tour is the only tasting tour that is vegan by default. All ramen is vegan, gluten-free noodles can be arranged, and non-vegan broth options exist for mixed groups. The Shibuya to Shinjuku train fare is extra.

Several classes cater to plant-based guests. The Easy Ramen Making in Kabukicho sells a vegetarian menu option. The Ramen and Gyoza Class with Supermarket Visit has a vegetarian option if you advise at booking. The Become a Ramen Chef for a Day can cater to vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free and pork-free needs with advance notice, though you share cooking space and tools with guests on the regular menu.

The Ramen Noodle Making on Kappabashi Street charges an extra $3.13 (¥500) for vegan or no-pork soup. The Ramen and Gyoza With a Tokyo Mom offers vegan and other dietary options when noted at booking. On the Shin-Yokohama Ramen Museum and Chinatown day trip, pork-free shop options are limited, but halal or vegetarian food can be arranged on request.

Not Suitable for Vegetarians

Six listings rule out vegetarians outright or through their broths. The Ramen Tasting Tour with 6 Mini Bowls and the Shibuya Ramen Tasting Tour, 3 Bowls both state their broths contain chicken, pork or fish. The Night Ramen Crawl in Shibuya is listed as not suitable for vegans or vegetarians, though its first shop can serve vegan ramen and the second offers a rice dish as a replacement.

The Ramen From Scratch and Akihabara Tour has no vegan or vegetarian option, and can only switch chashu from pork to chicken with 48 hours notice. The Sushi and Ramen Class With Sake Pairing is not suitable for vegans or vegetarians. The Ueno Food Tour: Sushi, Ramen and Yakitori includes pork and excludes vegetarian, vegan, pork-free and gluten-free meal options.

Ordering Vegan Ramen on Your Own

The Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) warns that dishes without visible meat or fish often hide ingredients such as meat or bonito flakes, so simply asking for a vegetarian meal may not be enough.

JNTO also notes that many vegetarian restaurants in Japan display a vegan or vegetarian sticker from The Japan Vegan Society, VegeProject Japan or The Japan Vegetarian Association. Look for one on the door before you order on your own.

Shin-Yokohama Ramen Museum: Tickets and Hours

The Shin-Yokohama Ramen Museum publishes its own admission and hours. One-day entry costs $2.81 (¥450) for adults 19 and above and $0.63 (¥100) for children aged 6 to 18. Children under 6 enter free. Doors open 11:00-21:00 on weekdays and 10:30-21:00 on holidays. Ramen shops stop taking orders 30 minutes before closing. The museum closes on 31 December and 1 January.

The shops stand in a recreated streetscape of 1958, the year the first instant ramen was invented. Visitors of junior high school age and older are expected to order one bowl when they enter each shop. A paid Ramen Making Experience class, booked by reservation, teaches noodles with the traditional green bamboo beating method.

The Cup Noodles Museum Yokohama

Yokohama also has the CUPNOODLES MUSEUM YOKOHAMA, open 10:00-18:00 with last admission at 17:00. It closes on Tuesdays and over the year-end and New Year holidays. Entry costs $3.13 (¥500) for adults and is free for high school age and younger.

Paid workshops sit on top of the ticket: the My CUPNOODLES Factory costs 500 yen per cup and the Chicken Ramen Factory costs $7.50 (¥1,200) for adults and $3.75 (¥600) for elementary school students. Half-size bowls at the NOODLES BAZAAR food court cost 500 yen per serving.

Going With a Guide

The trip from Tokyo to Yokohama takes planning, so one listing folds it into a full day. Shin-Yokohama Ramen Museum and Chinatown costs $127 per person for 7 hours. The price covers a private van with pickup at your hotel in Tokyo's 23 wards, museum entry, 2 mini-size ramen bowls per guest and a Chinatown street-food tasting set. The group is capped at 6 people.

Tokyo Ramen Street at Tokyo Station

Tokyo Ramen Street sits on the B1 floor of First Avenue Tokyo Station, directly connected to Tokyo Station. It opens 10:30-23:00 with last orders at 22:30. One quirk to plan around: barcode and QR payment cannot be used there, so carry cash or a card that works at the register.

Tokyo's Own Style and the Four Main Soups

The Japan National Tourism Organization names four common ramen types: shio (salt), shoyu (soy sauce), miso and tonkotsu (creamy pork bone soup). Most shops specialise in one or two. Tokyo's classic style is a dark, pork bone or chicken-based shoyu ramen. Sapporo is known for miso ramen and Kyushu prefers tonkotsu.

The tours cover these soups in different ways. Ramen Tasting Tour with 6 Mini Bowls offers 6 mini bowls chosen from 11-12 options including Hokkaido, curry, classic Tokyo, tori paitan, Kyushu and tsukemen styles. Shibuya Ramen Class: Tonkotsu, Shoyu and Miso has you make all three classic soups yourself.

Neighbourhoods the Tours Use

Every tour starts somewhere you can reach by train, and the table below sums up where each kind of tour runs.

Every tour starts somewhere you can reach by train. Shibuya hosts the Shibuya Ramen Tasting Tour, 3 Bowls, the Vegan and Vegetarian Ramen Tour and the Night Ramen Crawl in Shibuya, the last two meeting at SHIBU HACHI BOX on Dogenzaka. Shinjuku and Kabukicho appear on the Shinjuku route of the 6-bowl tour, the Private Ramen Tasting Tour, 2 Bowls, Easy Ramen Making in Kabukicho and Ramen and Gyoza With a Tokyo Mom near Shinjuku Gyoen. Ueno routes run on the 6-bowl tour plus the Hidden Taverns and Ramen in Ueno and Ueno Food Tour: Sushi, Ramen and Yakitori. Kappabashi is home to the Ramen Noodle Making on Kappabashi Street and Asakusa Ramen and Crispy Gyoza Class, while Ramen From Scratch and Akihabara Tour meets at JR Akihabara Station.

Ordering at the Ticket Machine

In most ramen shops you pay in advance at a ticket vending machine. Insert money, press the button for the ramen and sides, take the change and hand the printed ticket to the staff. On a guided tour the guide handles ordering, but knowing the machine helps on solo days.

Slurping and Not Lingering

The Japan National Tourism Organization is clear on both points. Slurping noodles is not considered rude in Japan. Ramen shops are not places to linger: do not stay long after finishing, especially when people are lined up outside.

Eat, pay any extras, and free the seat.

Pace Yourself on a Tasting Tour

Bowl counts differ a lot between tours, so match the tour to your appetite. Mini bowls on the Ramen Tasting Tour with 6 Mini Bowls are about a quarter of a full bowl each, while the Private Ramen Tasting Tour, 2 Bowls serves 2 full bowls. At the Shin-Yokohama Ramen Museum, visitors of junior high school age and older are expected to order at least one bowl in each shop they enter.