Ramen Bario Shimbashi Head Shop

In Tokyo, the birthplace of Ramen Jiro, I happened to learn of a popular Jiro-inspired ramen restaurant by the name of Ramen Bario. The main restaurant is located in Shinbashi, which is famous as a “ sacred place for businessmen,” and it is not hard to imagine what the situation would be like if there were a Jiro-inspired ramen restaurant in such a place.

During my stay in Tokyo on a certain business trip, I just had a craving for some gutsy ramen, so I went to the Ramen Bario Shimbashi Head Shop during weekday lunch time. I was prepared to wait in line for a while, but I was surprised to see how long the line was…

The line was not as long as I had expected, but it was still very popular… This is how the line and wait time looked like at Ramen Bario Shimbashi Head Shop during lunch time on a weekday.

I arrived at Ramen Bario Shimbashi Head Shop around 12:00 pm on that day, and unexpectedly, there was no line in front of the restaurant. All 12 L-shaped counters in the restaurant were filled with customers, but I was the first one waiting to enter the restaurant, which made me partly feel “lucky” but also somewhat disappointed.

First, you purchase a meal ticket from the ticket machine inside the restaurant. Once the ticket is in your hand, the waiter in the kitchen will ask you to show the ticket, so show the ticket in your hand so that the waiter can see it clearly. After that, wait in an empty space in the restaurant until an empty seat becomes available… On this day, I was able to be seated in about 3 minutes.

A strong ally of working businessmen! Default Ramen at Ramen Bario Shimbashi Head Shop.

Now, let me introduce the standard ramen I ordered at the Ramen Bario Shimbashi Head Shop (price: 1,000 yen including tax). It only took a few minutes after I sat down, and the Ramen was brought in front of me like this…

A rather small bowl of rice topped with a lot of vegetables. By the way, this time, I called for adding vegetables and back fat. The way to make a call at Ramen Bario is a little different from Ramen Jiro‘s. You make your call when you put your meal ticket on the counter. There are three types of calls that can be customized: vegetable, back fat, and ramen sauce. The call does not include garlic. This may sound disappointing to you. But don’t worry…

Garlic can be put in as much as you want from the container on the counter. So feel free to add as much garlic as you like, and if you don’t like it enough, you can always add more.

Let’s start with the soup… This emulsified soup has a very strong pork flavor. If it were only the pork flavor, it would be comparable to that of Jiro or other inspired soups…but on the other hand, the ramen sauce flavor has a light taste, and I dare say that 70-80% of the broth is pork. Well, it is not bad to sip the noodles with just the pork flavor, but there is a ramen sauce on the table (I forgot to take a picture of it…), so you can adjust the thickness of the sauce to your liking.

The noodles are very thick and hard-boiled. As expected, the noodles have a crunchy texture and are very satisfying! I would like to say that the amount of noodles is a bit small… The ticket machine indicates “300 g of noodles,” but I don’t think it is that much.

And the chashu “pork”, which is definitely not to be underestimated in Jiro-inspired dishes, is quite insufficient in terms of volume. I think the pork is well done and the flavor of the broth soaks into the inside of the pork. I don’t think I would be satisfied with this size even if I had more pork. In fact, there is a “Ramen with 6 pieces of pork” on the menu, but I wonder if it is cosmetically acceptable…

It is said that the recommended way to eat Ramen Bario is to add vinegar to the soup at the end and drink it all up, but I personally did not find the taste right. If I drank the soup all the way through, my calorie intake would be outrageous. So, I felt that the volume of Bario‘s ramen was a little bit too large for Jiro’s standards. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why the restaurant was not as crowded as I had imagined.

Other menu items at Ramen Bario Shimbashi Head Shop (prices include tax)

• Six Pork Ramen 1300yen
• Negi Ramen 1150yen
• Ajitama Ramen 1100yen
• Large Ramen (400g noodles) 1100yen
• Small Ramen (250g noodles) 950 yen
• Large tsukemen 1200yen
• Tsukemen 1100yen

Daimon Branch, Toyosu Branch, and other 6 branches in total… Access to Ramen Bario Shimbashi Head Shop is a 4-minute walk from the nearest station, Toranomon Station on the Tokyo Metro Ginza Line.

In addition to the Shimbashi Head Shop, there are six other Ramen Bario restaurants, including the Daimon and Toyosu branches. Two of these stores are located in Hawaii in the U.S. and have already made inroads into the world. Jiro-inspired ramen has finally made its way overseas. Keep an eye on the future of Ramen Bario.

Here are the details of the restaurant…

From JR Shimbashi Station, it takes 7 minutes on foot.

P.S. If you are looking for delicious ramen in Tokyo, please stop by this article below…