Neiroya Ogikubo

In love with this place. Just make sure you get the lemon chicken ramen and a shave ice (kakigori)! I feel like most of the less-good reviews are from people who don’t get the lemon ramen. It’s so light but also savory and a little sour. The chicken melts in your mouth. I could eat this every day. It’s totally worth the subway ride to Ogikubo- the apparent birth place of ramen! (The one I circled in red in my photo is the lemon chicken ramen :)

Lovely shop, the atmosphere is chilled. Recommended for a relaxed pause. Had the Lemon Ramen, it was light and refreshing. The broth was delicious and the noodles and toppings complemented perfectly the lemon. The staff are friendly. The menus are only in Japanese but any translating tool will do.

I made the mistake of ordering the あんもち味噌らーめん. At 1880¥ for a normal portion of ramen, I expect the quality to be supreme. This simply was not. The broth was less flavorful than canned campbell's soup. The noodles were indistinguishable from spaghetti. Then came the anmochi. It's my fault for ordering it, but why on earth would you put that in ramen? Like I said after eating the shoyu ramen with fig compote at Tsutaya, it's like dumping barbecue sauce on carbonara. The ingredients had no cohesion. The only saving grace was the chashu, which had a nice sweet flavor and a good ratio of meat to fat. Service was okay. This is the third time I've followed a michelin guide recommendation, and the third time I've been immeasurably disappointed. I'm starting to notice a trend. The next time I see a michelin sticker in the window, I'm walking the opposite direction.

Beautiful atmosphere and great music—beyond satisfied! The lemon ramen and maze ramen were both delicious!

My sempai highly recommended me this shop for such a long time until I visited it for the 1st time today. The music vibe was great, I could see chef was cooking from my table 👍🏻 I love the chicken broth the most, but I wish the chicken meat could have been less rare. Overall, I definitely will come back 🙌🏻

Went for dinner around 17:30 on a Tuesday. No queue. Had the lemon ramen and the pistachio & strawberry kakigori, both of which were amazing.

Let me make two confessions. Firstly, I’ve lived in Ogikubo for more than 20 years and only eaten ramen here a few times, most notably at Harukiya. I used to eat Ramen a lot when I came here on a working holiday in the early 1990s but I think the heaviness of Tonkotsu and the saltiness of Shoyu Ramen turned me off the idea of eating it regularly. Secondly, I have walked past Neiroya literally hundreds of times and although I was curious, the signs instructing people on how to line up etc. were a turn-off. Tokyo restaurants can sometimes take themselves too seriously and become, frankly, intimidating. So it was a pleasant surprise to take my Ramen-loving Tasmanian friend to Neiroya where I thoroughly enjoyed their jesty and light lemon-flavored Tori-dashi Ramen. The soup was not too hot (猫舌の私にはラーメンがもう一つの苦手な理由かも), the broth and easy-to-slurp noodles were balanced with the sliced lemon and blanched chicken floating on top. I had the normal volume of noodles but I probably could have ordered 替え玉 (Kaedama) or extra helding of noodles. The service was warm, the decore simple and the mascot owl welcoming. Next time, I won’t walk past them in a hurry again.

I don't know how to explain the lemon ramen. The soup was lemony as it should. But other flavors are gone. If you are familiar with Thai food, this dish could be an equivalent of Tom yum noodle, but lack of other flavors. The noodle was perfect, and the sous vide chicken was flavorful. Just the soup that made me confused. The ambient was great.