When the prestigious Michelin Guide unveiled its 2024 Tokyo edition in December last year, we noticed that our beloved city was awarded 23 fewer stars than the previous year. On closer inspection, we found that all three of Tokyo’s Michelin-starred ramen restaurants lost their one-star status in the 2024 guide. This means there currently isn’t a single Michelin-starred ramen in Tokyo – or the world, for that matter.
Tsuta, in its original incarnation in Sugamo, was the first ramen restaurant in the world to receive a Michelin star in 2015 (it lost the star a few years later). In the last few years right up to 2023, only three other ramen specialists had been awarded a Michelin star: Nakiryu for its beloved dandanmen, Konjiki Hototogisu for its excellent pork-and-clam broth noodles, and Ginza Hachigou for its sublime consomme-like ramen broth.
In the 2024 Michelin Guide, all three ramen restaurants no longer hold a star. However, they are recognised with a Bib Gourmand rating instead, along with 16 other ramen joints, three of which are new entries in this year’s guide. The three new Bib Gourmand ramen restaurants are Ramen Break Beats in Meguro, There is Ramen in Suginami, and Japanese Ramen Gokan in Higashi-Ikebukuro.
Ramen Break Beats in Meguro serves up sophisticated ramen packed full of umami flavours, thanks to the addition of porcini mushrooms in the shoyu (soy sauce) broth and freshwater mussels in the shio (salt) broth. The noodles at There is Ramen, on the other hand, are complemented by a clear soup made with light soy sauce and dried sardines. Japanese Ramen Gokan is also beloved for its clear soup ramen, here made with free-range chicken and clams.
Regardless whether Nakiryu, Konjiki Hototogisu and Ginza Hachigou have a Michelin star or not, they are still some of the best ramen in Tokyo and definitely worthy of a visit. After all, the most important thing to rely on when judging food is your taste buds. If you like what you’re eating and it makes you happy, that’s good food.
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