Ramen diaries.
Where does a good bowl in the city? Your choices are limited...
I am – to put it lightly – a ramen pig.
By which I mean: I eat ramen all the time. Have done, for the last two decades. I used to live in Japan, in a sleepy city called Okayama, in a decaying but happy student dorm under some print block hills. It was a long time ago, but the memories still linger like a good cup of matcha.
Food can be a compass. A way of orientating yourself, or a path back home. In new cities like Amsterdam (which is starting to feel a lot less new), I’ve needed ramen: it grounds me and gives me strength, reminding me of my past while I discover my future.
It helps that I love everything about ramen. I love the boil of the bones, which is ostentatious and unapologetic and a world away from the finickitiness of French depouillage. I love the bounce of the noodles, but also the gloop of the just-set yolk and the sheen of the moody nori. I love the sniffle that comes on towards the end of your bowl and the final blowing of the nose, loud and proud.
Ramen demands your attention. It’s the equivalent of watching a foreign show with subtitles: you have to stay in the game. When you eat ramen, you need to curl your noodles, dip your spoon, switch utensils and wisely pick which element you’r going to eat next. Every once in a while, you’ll need to offset the high sodium with a sip of cold water. All of this makes ramen an experience. It’s mindfulness-as-food. And I swear it’s healing too, though perhaps more spiritually than nutritionally.
So, I eat a lot of ramen. I’ve gone in all sorts of directions to find the best bowl. I’ve been quietly building a list, which I’ll share now.
Let me be straight with you: Amsterdam doesn’t have good ramen. Not like other capital cities do. There’s a distressing amount of average here, and more than few bowls are actively bad. That said, I’ve found a few favourites, some obvious, some not. Shoyu (soy-based) fares much better here than tonkotsu (pork-based).
I’ve also picked up some heat on the way. Turns out, people have a lot of opinions on ramen. But more on that later.
So where to begin? Not with Ramen Kingdom, which - for the love of god - is shut. It’s been shut since 1000BC, which is incidentally when people started telling me to go there. I’m probably not allowed to say why it’s shut for legal reasons, but go do some research.
Let’s start with Takumi then, which is a chain of ramen places that operate across Europe. It includes many people’s favourite, Umaimon. I think ramen lends itself quite well to chain-ification, but I couldn’t tell you why. Takumi do a good job of making each outlet seem not like a chain.
I’m not against Takumi, the noodles are slinky - a little sexy even. The broth achieves a creaminess, but it does taste a little like chicken soup from a can. Still, eating canned soup on a cold night is like putting on a puffa jacket: it feels nice.
Just next door is Ramen City, which I had high hopes for, because it has more than a whiff of underdog-ness to it, being stuck in the shadow of a Takumi branch. Sadly, this is not a good bowl. There is simply nothing memorable about it (I mean that literally: I cannot remember anything about it other than it was disappointing). The decor is strange too, the purple lighting reminiscent of the UV torches police offers use to check crime scenes for bodily fluids.
Also in de Pijp, SORA, which does ramen from Sapporo. This place has a homeliness to it, in a ‘sorry for the mess’ kind of a way. It also has a POV: the Gokujo Sapporo Kuro Miso Ramen is unlike other ramen you might have had. It comes loaded with fillings, a whole farm’s worth of vegetables in fact, but as a result, there isn’t enough broth. Maybe I’m missing something. I also find the roasted black garlic oil to be overpowering, but things definitely get better underneath.
Not far away is the first place I’d actually recommend: Fujitora Ramen, a relative newcomer on the scene. It came recommended to me by a Japanese follower (I can’t remember who you are, but thank you, you’re the best). It’s on the Alby C but currently hidden behind a web of scaffolding. Steamy windows obscure shadowy figures inside. You can just about make them out, hunched over hot bowls of noddles like ghosts from another time.
The amount of Japanese spoken inside makes me feel very natsukashii. Although it’s not ramen, I have to mention the karaage here, which is the best I’ve had in Amsterdam. Glistening, fatty cuts of chicken come in rock-solid, deep-fried potato starch. My only gripe is that it’s served too hot. But onto the shoyu and shio (salt) ramen, which are both very good. I’d begun to think that perhaps I was the problem, that maybe my taste buds misremembered ramen, so thank you Fujitora for saving the day. The broth tastes of deep, nurturing, boiled bone. That said, the seasoning builds just a little too much.
On the other side of town is Otemba. I have a strange relationship with Otemba: I know it’s not the best bowl there is, but I like it anyway. The tonkotsu is one of the only passable examples in Amsterdam. It has thickness, is boisterous and brash. It’s not refined, but that’s okay.
Otemba, to me, tastes just like London ramen. The Akihabara interiors are reminiscent of the ramen chains buzzing around Soho. Ramen is now a global dish, meaning it’ll begin to offshoot whether we like it or not. I don’t think New York ramen tastes like London ramen, and both of those don’t taste much like ramen in Japan. All of this is okay: if you want something authentic (whatever that means), go to Fujitora or Hinata (below). If you want a London-style bowl loaded with top-level flavours rather than sunken depths, go to Otemba.
If you disagree, I think that’s okay too. I say that because people do disagree with me quite a lot when it comes to ramen. I have rarely, if ever, picked up heat when posting my Reels, but when I have, it’s been about ramen. This place is so mediocre, sheesh. Like, you clearly don’t know ramen. Chill out, babes, it’s just soupy noodles.
I think this heat stems from two things: 1. Ramen is deeply precious. I get it, I’ve already said how important it is to me. 2. Japanese culture attracts aficionado-style minds, meaning everyone thinks they’re an ‘expert’ on what ramen should or shouldn’t be. But I don’t like that kind of policing around authenticity.
Take Hinata, which I think is one of the best in Amsterdam. I find the broth quite magical, tasting brewed from carcass but also light and clear. If you like to bang the drum of authenticity, I’d probably say go here. It tastes like おばあさん/o-bāsan/grandmother made it. But I don’t always need something as strict as this.
A quick word about the Fou Fow sisters, one for ramen and one for udon. Go for the udon if you prefer a lighter broth (I actually think their broth is too light, sorry). But the tonkotsu ramen is good, it tastes very piggy to me, in a way that other tonkotsu ramens don’t… almost like boiled ham? Not a bad thing, per se. I’m more unsure of the vibe of the Fou Fow sisters – both times I’ve felt there was a slight edge to the service, in an eat and get out kind of way. Maybe I’m wrong.
So then, onto the centre, where I’d highly recommend Taka Ramen on the fourth floor of Dun Yong supermarket, a wonderland of Asian groceries. If you haven’t been, Dun Yong is worth a good hour of your time. Floors upon rickety floors of cookware and toys and crockery, and of course, a web of aisles rammed with every Asian sauce, sachet and spice you can imagine. At the top is Taka Ramen, the place that (if you remember) I described as ‘hidden.’ The Tan Tan Men is exquisite, it has playful spice and juicy clumps of minced pork. It simply tastes real. I will go back on the reg, but be aware, there are queues leading down the stairs.
Nearby are two other places: Vatten Ramen and Ramen Impossible. I really want to like Vatten, I think its interiors are smart. They create a little world in the same way a Japanese dry garden does. Self-contained. I was really rooting for this bowl, the broth was instantly delightful… but my meat was dry. Too dry to overlook. A shame. Ramen Impossible is also very good, if I was vegan I’d go mad for this place. The homemade noodles are a highlight and the dishes zing with garlic.
And that leaves Fuku Ramen, which is clearly one of the best bowls in the city. In fact, I’d go so far as to say Fuku Ramen is one of the best restaurants in the city. It has that sense of completeness: gorgeous food served under soft lighting amidst cozy interiors by staff who actually care about you. I can trust this place will deliver every time I eat here, which is a rare feeling these days.
The starters are sensational. Raw fish is served in mouthfuls that pull flavours straight from Japan: smoke and shiso, ikura and nori. It shows deep respect. Each small starter is like a stepping stone across a still pond, building your anticipation for the main event. The ramen itself is a shoyu potion. A gourmet meal, artfully submerged in an exquisitely flavoured broth. The slivered pork is the real winner, it’s pinker than a new born and just as soft. I’d go back here a lot, but it’s tricky to get a reservation these days. If Fuku were to open a quick-fire ramen joint, something a little more rough and ready, the kind of place that slings bowls with no reservations, I really would go all the time.
There are still places to try: the Tokyo Ramen Takeichi chain, Ichisin Ramen, Ramen-Ya. But the reviews have me concerned. No one’s recommended them. Frankly, I’m scared. The truth is, a lot of restaurants in Amsterdam make food that tastes like it can’t be bothered. That’s especially true of ramen. Genuine attention to detail is rare. Of course, that’s changing. And by celebrating what’s good, we can part of the change.
OK BYE!
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I miss Hinata ramen so much. Was always such an easy post-work dinner spot on the way home (helped that we knew the founder (brag)). The kara-miso ramen and the Hinata white were faves. Special shout out to the Curry croquette and the Age gyoza 🤤
Been waiting for you to talk about Ramen. Finally! Agree - Fuku is THE place for great ramen in the city. The chef has roots in near by De Kas from what I remember - no wonder Fuku is in a class of its own!
Fuku rotates their Ramens and I’d been hunting days for when they do tonkotsu. If you’ve not managed to, I’d recommend! Having tried their shoyu for the first time, the experience was almost religious one! It almost converted me. Their tonkotsu though reminded me why I’m tonkotsu-through-and-through.