Ramen

A bar on the second floor of a converted old house in a Tsukishima back street, two minutes from the station. It keeps whisky, wine and sake, and it also serves ramen: the owner worked in a well-known ramen restaurant before opening here, and makes both a thick iekei-style bowl and a clear shoyu one.

The hours have a gap in them. It serves from 11:00 to 20:00, shuts for an hour, and opens again from 21:00 to 01:00. It is closed on Mondays, has sixteen seats at a counter and tables, and welcomes dogs.

Good to know

• Closed on Mondays.
• The bar shuts between 20:00 and 21:00, so do not arrive in that hour.
• Only sixteen seats.
• The large ramen portion is not available.

A ramen and tsukemen shop whose idea is that you eat ramen in a private room. Besides 8 counter seats there are nine private rooms: one for two, five for four, two for six and one for eight. It is three minutes from Roppongi Station and open every day of the year.

It runs from 11:00 until 9:00 the following morning, and on Sundays until 5:00. Bowls are ¥1,180 to ¥1,280 and dipping noodles ¥1,280 to ¥1,380, with a larger portion ¥150 more. The menu is published in English as well as Japanese and Chinese.

Good to know

• Smoking is separated rather than banned.
• When Monday is a public holiday, the Sunday closes at 9:00 and the Monday at 5:00 instead.
• Toppings are ¥150 to ¥280 each, or ¥600 for all of them.

A branch of the tonkotsu ramen chain, in the basement of the HK Asakusa Building a few steps from Ginza Line exit 8. It has ten seats in the solo booths the chain calls the flavour concentration counter, and thirty-eight table seats, so you can eat alone behind a partition or sit with other people.

The shop serves one bowl of ramen and lets you adjust it: richness, garlic, spring onion, the strength of the red sauce, and how firm the noodles are. Opening at 9:00 means it is also one of the few places in Asakusa where you can eat ramen in the morning.

Good to know

• The shop can stop seating people before last orders when it is busy, even though the door is still open.
• The same building holds two more late-night places: Warawara on the 3rd floor and Mekiki no Ginji on the 4th.

The cheap end of the Hageten group, two minutes from Ginza Station, serving ramen and tendon side by side from 11:00 to 22:00 every day except New Year's Day. The sesame-tonkotsu ramen comes with five pieces of tempura on top, including char siu and pickled ginger fried in batter.

Bowls run from ¥1,290 to ¥2,600 with tax included, which makes it one of the few places in Ginza where a full meal costs under ¥1,500. Cards are not accepted, so bring cash.

Good to know

• Cash only — no credit cards.
• Closed on 1 January only.
• There is no car park.

An oyster ramen shop forty metres from Tsukiji Hongwanji temple, open from 06:00 until 05:00 the next morning with last orders at 04:45. Apart from the 24-hour Sushizanmai, it is the only place listed here for Tsukiji that is still serving at three in the morning.

The oyster soup is made from Hiroshima oysters reduced to a thick broth; the shellfish soup is a chicken clear soup simmered with seafood for six hours, then blended with two kinds of clam and freshwater clam stock. The noodles are hand-crimped just before serving. There are 14 counter seats, all non-smoking, and no reservations.

Good to know

• Reservations are not taken at all. Queue at the door.
• Fourteen counter seats only, and the whole shop is non-smoking.
• Closing days are irregular and announced on the shop's own site.
• Prices are not published.

Ichiran is a tonkotsu ramen specialist, and this branch in the basement of the Peace Building, three minutes from Shinjuku Station, is open 24 hours. The ramen that the company has served since it opened is 1,180 yen, with extra noodles at 210 yen, and you choose how your bowl is made by filling in a paper order sheet. All 28 seats are at the flavour concentration counter, which is divided into individual booths. There is an English version of the shop page and a subtitled video explaining how to order for first-time visitors.

Good to know

• A late-night charge is added between 22:00 and 6:00. The rate is not published.
• Seats cannot be reserved.
• You may not be let in even before last orders when the shop is busy.
• The company notes that seat numbers, opening hours or opening at all may change depending on staffing.
• The official page does not state whether prices include tax, nor what the smoking policy is.
• There is no parking.

Ichiran is a tonkotsu ramen specialist, and this branch in the basement of a building in Jinnan, three minutes from the Hachiko Exit of Shibuya Station and next to Shibuya Marui JAM, is open 24 hours. The ramen that the company has served since it opened is 1,180 yen, with extra noodles at 210 yen, and you choose how your bowl is made by filling in a paper order sheet. All 21 seats are at the flavour concentration counter, which is divided into individual booths. There is an English version of the shop page and a subtitled video explaining how to order for first-time visitors.

Good to know

• A late-night charge is added between 22:00 and 6:00. The rate is not published.
• You may not be let in even before last orders when the shop is busy.
• The company notes that seat numbers, opening hours or opening at all may change depending on staffing.
• The official page does not state whether prices include tax, what the smoking policy is, or whether seats can be reserved.
• There is no parking.

Nagi is a niboshi ramen shop on the second floor of a building inside Shinjuku Golden Gai, and the company describes it as the restaurant where Ramen Nagi started. It is open 24 hours a day and has ten seats at an L-shaped counter. The soup is made from a blend of more than twenty kinds of niboshi, dried sardines, selected from around Japan, and the company says it buys more than five tonnes of niboshi a month. Both ramen and tsukemen, served with a separate dipping soup, are on the menu.

Good to know

• Prices, accepted payment methods, the smoking policy and whether reservations are taken are not stated on the official website.
• The shop has only ten seats, so you may have to wait.
• It is on the second floor of a building inside Shinjuku Golden Gai.

Ichiran is a tonkotsu ramen specialist, and this branch inside Atre Ueno at JR Ueno Station is open 24 hours. The ramen that the company has served since it opened is 1,180 yen, with extra noodles at 210 yen, and you choose how your bowl is made by filling in a paper order sheet. All 36 seats are at the flavour concentration counter, which is divided into individual booths. There is an English version of the shop page and a subtitled video explaining how to order for first-time visitors.

Good to know

• A late-night charge is added between 22:00 and 6:00. The rate is not published.
• The restaurant is closed on the days Atre Ueno itself is closed.
• Seats cannot be reserved. The Fast Pass, booked through TableCheck, lets ticket holders enter through a priority lane but does not reserve a seat.
• You may not be let in even before last orders when the shop is busy.
• The company notes that seat numbers, opening hours or opening at all may change depending on staffing.
• The official page does not state whether prices include tax, nor what the smoking policy is.
• There is no parking.

AFURI is a ramen shop on Dogenzaka known for yuzu shio ramen, a clear chicken and dashi broth finished with yuzu. The Shibuya Dogenzaka branch opens at 11:00 every day and serves until 23:00, or until 5:00 in the morning on Friday and Saturday, closing earlier if the soup runs out. Both ramen and tsukemen, served with a cold dipping broth, are on the menu, and there is a rainbow vegan ramen made entirely from plants, with lotus-root noodles that contain no egg. The branch is fully cashless.

Good to know

• The branch is fully cashless, so bring a card or a payment app rather than cash.
• The shop closes when the soup runs out, before the listed closing time.
• It stays open until 5:00 only on Friday and Saturday nights; from Sunday to Thursday it closes at 23:00.
• The official site does not publish prices, seat numbers, a walking time from the station, the smoking policy or whether reservations are taken.