Do you have a favourite Japanese Noodle Eatery in Paris?

There are several Ramen places near Opera or rue Saint Anne that we used to go. Recently, there are several Japanese joints opening, Ippudo, Kodawari… (I’m talking about the traditional Japanese food, but not the Franco-Japanese cooking or the Japanese chef cooking French), Ippudo is 1 of them. We had a late lunch in the Saint Germain shop yesterday.

I have a Karaka Chashu standard portion, Kata cooking and also a small glass of Gassan no Yuki sake. The noodle is well cooked, soup base is pretty good too. Though I find the price a bit steep for a tiny portion of noodle, if you add 1.5€ more, you can have a bigger bowl with more noodles.

The bill for my meal is 24€, will I go back? Yes.

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Thanks for sharing the report with us. Lucky you didn’t have to suffer like I did with my 1.5hr wait. That was painful.

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The maximum I have waited for food was around 1 hour, once in Japan (sushi restaurant in Tokyo Tsukiji market) - really worth it, once in France: Yves Camdeborde’s Le Comptoir du Relais in Paris - not worth it.

I don’t have a lot of patience for queuing, I will probably skip the place if they don’t allow reservation or go at low time to avoid queuing.

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A few newer places for ramen, udon and soba in Paris from a 2016 review from Le Figaro.

RAMEN

Kodawari Ramen
29 rue Mazarine
75006 Paris
www.kodawari-ramen.com

Ippudo Louvre
74-76, rue Jean-Jacques-Rousseau
75001 Paris
Tel: +33 1 42 86 09 85
*There is another Ippudo in Paris, in Saint-Germain as reported above, but their menu has less choice (no eel rice, for example)
www.ippudo.fr

Ito Chan
2, rue Pierre-Fontaine
75009 Paris
www.itoeats.fr/itochan


UDON

Bistro Kunitoraya
1, rue Villedo
75001 Paris
Tel: +33 1 47 03 33 65
kunitoraya.com/villedo/villedo1
* Been there, noodles were good

Kisin
7-9, rue de Ponthieu
75008 Paris
udon-kisin.fr/en/


SOBA

Abri Soba
10, rue Saulnier
75009 Paris

Sara
8, rue de Ventadour
75001


TAIPEI STYLE BO YU

Dersou
by Japanese chef Taku Sekine
21, rue Saint-Nicolas
75012 Paris
Tel: +33 9 81 01 12 73


*More a restaurant than a noodle joint, in the evening they have tasting menu with cocktail pairing

For the review of all the restaurants above, please read the original article here:

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Compared to the Berkeley U.S. Ippudo menu, here the French menu is much shorter. We went to the Ippudo Louvre branch a week ago. It was more spacious than the Saint-Germain shop, near to the kitchen instrument stores.

The day menu includes a few entries and rice dishes (don).

Akamaru - pork soup with chashu, mushroom with sesame, clives, umami sauce and garlic oil.
The taste was just right, delicious, I had a bowl in the Michelin stared Tsuta in Hong Kong, I felt the soup was under seasoning. (or it was maybe also due to my starting of a flu…)

Karaka Special - same as the bowl took in Saint Germain.

Felt that the noodle soup and the cooking were slightly superior in this branch than in the Saint Germain shop. Soup were mild spicy, well-balanced. Ramen cooked perfectly kata: al-dente.

We ate everything with the Japanese craft beer Coedo Shiro (a light fresh blond beer) and Coedo Shikkoku (dark caramel taste beer)

13-14 euro for the basic bowl, no egg or extra meat. My bowl plus the beer was 21 euro, hubby’s special bowl with beer was 25 euro.

I read that was a bigger dinner menu at the Ippudo Louvre’s shop. I noticed they were changed on the outdoor tables at 6pm when we went around doing some shopping around the area. Someday soon, I want to return to try their dinner menu.

You can see the Ippudo menu here:
http://www.ippudo.fr/menu/

Ippudo Louvre
74-76, rue Jean-Jacques-Rousseau
75001 Paris
Tel: +33 1 42 86 09 85

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We wanted more ramen last week, this time we tried Hakata Choten in Paris 1er. It serves Tonkotsu Ramen, which is based on pork broth originated from Kurume City in Fukuoka. The cloudy thick rich white soup was invented by accident when the owner forgot to put out the fire below a pot of pork broth.

We arrived around 20h, not a lot of people eating on a quiet Sunday. The place was quite small and with a few tables outdoors. We sat inside and ordered a bowl or ramen for each and we order some gyoza as they had won some awards in Japan. We heard the staff communicating among themselves in Japanese.

Gyoza with green onions, a lot of onions, I had to admit they were good, very thin skin and crispy on the side.

Gyoza with the chef’s own spicy miso - this version is more or less the same as the first one, except there was some red miso meat sauce on the gyoza, good balance of taste.

Chashu (simmered pork belly) Kuro (black) Tonkotsu Ramen - I requested an additional ajitama (egg), as advertised, the broth was very rich, deep and smoky: the black sauce is grilled garlic infused in oil, the size of Chashu was impressive (I regretted order the extra pork, as with the gyoza, it was difficult to finish everything). The broth had a strong character and very tasty, at the same time, I found it slightly too oily and a bit heavy to finish off the broth. The ramen is cooked perfectly kata - al dente.

Special signature ramen - meaning you have it all: charnu, egg, black garlic oil, spicy red miso paste. Actually since the broth was a bit heavy, the red miso was a better balance out of the 2 bowls.

We enjoyed our meal, we have order a total of 10 gyozas, it was too much food with the bowl of ramen even I was very hungry. The bill was 55,50€ The black chasu ramen was 17 euro (16 + 1€ of egg), the Special Ramen was 18 euro (14 + 4€ of extra chasu) 2 dish of 5 gyoza 7 euro each. A bit pricey but the food was good.

Hakata Choten has another branch in Opera. We read from review that the Les Halles branch has a better note than Opera.

Hakata Choten Les Halles
16 Rue de la Grande Truanderie
75001 Paris
Opening time: 12:00-22:00

http://www.hakata-choten.com

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Kodawari Ramen is located in the Latin Quarter, in the core of universities neighbourhood, so do not be surprised that has a usual 1-1.5 hour queue especially Friday and Saturday night. We went on a week-day evening, at 19:00 in mid February. A short wait of 5 minutes and a 20+ people waiting before me. Note that you will only be seated when all the parties arrive.

The place teleports you back to the 70’s or 80’s back streets of Japan, not that different from Blade Runners feeling, at least for a short while.

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How about the food? Actually I kept putting off eating at Kodarwari thinking that it was a bit gimmicky. Food was better than I thought, luckily.

Kurogoma ramen - house speciality : sesame black sauce, garlic and ginger broth with Basque pork chashu. H asked for an extra portion of chicken chashu, nori and tamale (egg).

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Niboshi patina ramen - thick reduced broth infused with Japanese sardines and Basque pork chashu with extra slice of pork, tamale and nori. Slight heat with the extra spicy sauce.

Noodles were al dente. Both soup were made with Landes farm chicken, when compared to pork based broth, it is lighter but well balanced. Noodles are house made with Acy Romance wheat (Gilles Matignon’s moulin) which they claimed suitable for making ramen noodle. They stress on the menu - No MSG. We will be back for seafood dashi and other ramen. H likes his bowl here, but he likes the Hakata Choten’s fatty pork garlic broth more. Although personally, I feel HC can be a bit heavy, and the execution varies a lot between a Sunday night and a busy Saturday night, for example.

Yuzu mojito

Kodawari Ramen
29 rue Mazarine
75006 Paris
Opens every day:
12:00 - 14:30, 19:00 - 22:00
http://www.kodawari-ramen.com
No reservation

Edited: Should be Quartier latin not le Marais.

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Didn’t you mean the Quartier latin?

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Mince, yeah I messed up. Thanks for the correction.

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Our visit to Ito Chan was end of February. This canteen style restaurant is located in Pigalle in the 9th district. A very small joint with a few bar seats and tables all closed to each other. A simple menu: mainly 2 choices a set menu with several options of dishes, served with rice or ramen.

Both of us ordered Ito Ramen, I had Kimchi and egg as supplement. Corns were not available that day. I was extremely hungry and asked for an extra portion of ramen, the server assured me the portion was enough. I don’t think they have this option available.

I liked my soup a bit more, the kimchi in the broth added extra flavours. The broth was light and mild. It is Shoyu style ramen serving here, more plain when compared to the pork based tonkotsu ramen.

Onigiri was home made, quite good. Although on display they used some industrial ones.

Gua-Bao is available only on Friday and Saturday evening.

IMG_3543

The chef.

The soup is decent if you are in the area. It is also the cheapest among all the different noodles places we have been. Choice is limited if you are coming only for ramen.

Ito Chan
2, rue Pierre-Fontaine
75009 Paris
Opens every day, except Sunday and Monday
12:00 - 15:00, 19:00 - 23:00
No reservation
https://www.itoeats.fr/itochan

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Tonight, there was a special event in the newly opened Ippudo République, the 3rd restaurant of the group in Paris. The founder Shigemi Kawahara and his Japanese team was cooking! The theme tonight was cooking inspired by the 12th century Shojin cuisine with Buddhist origin, harmony with nature.
Obviously it was a vegan meal.

A glass of Bollinger champagne was offered at the start of the meal.

Vegetables Umami and Sakura Wasabi Inari - Inari sushi are made with bean curd sheets, with sakura and chopped wasabi on the top, white radish and asparagus in the bowl. The inari was interesting, the wasabi was not aggressive like those tubes in stores but fresh and much more subtle.

Shojin ramen, 5-colour kakiage

Very fine noodles with vegetables soup including mushrooms and seaweed. I don’t think I ever tasted Japanese noodle in this style, it is a bit similiar to the Chinese wanton noodle but less elastic. Cooked al dente.

Kakiage is a tempura with bell pepper, onion, leek… chopped finely, delicious. But I want more!

Shigemi Kawahara

“Zuzutto” - Paris ramen week

We had our dinner at 18:10 to avoid queue. Around 18:40, we saw a short line.
Interesting that actually you ate everything apart and not like the classic way of ramen. Maybe the criticism is the portion was small (maybe the monks were small eaters). Since they were doing this special event, we could not order more food. Menu was 15 euro. Tomorrow they would have a different theme, this time with Bresse chicken. If possible, we will return.

Ippudo République
6 place Jacques Bonsergent
75010 Paris
Open every day 12:00 - 16:00, 18:00 - 23:00
No reservation

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We did return for the chicken ramen at Ippudo République for the second day of special event. Very different from the zen experience we had the day before. (See the post above.)

Kiwami

Lovely broth made from the famous Bresse chicken with chicken oil. The toppings include steamed egg custard with mushroom, mizen, daikon seedlings, red radish, egg, 2 slices of chicken chashu and deep fried burdock root. The noodle is made of wheat and rice.

Sided with a rice ball topped with bamboo seedlings and yuzu. We were asked to put the rice in the broth for the degustation.

Excellent broth, very solid chicken taste. We didn’t feel the broth greasy, that can easily be the case of broth made from Bresse chicken. The chicken chashu was tender and basically melted in the mouth, I don’t think they use sous-vide to cook this (the kitchen was too small to have SV settings) just very good ingredients. It was new to me to see custard and rice in a ramen. The yuzu in the rice added a slightly tangy taste that was quite pleasant. If the day before’s the ramen we were lukewarm, today we were convinced. The bowl would have been perfect if the broth were slightly less salty, someone was a bit heavy hand. We noticed that both days, the broth were served extremely hot.
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I asked the staff if they would put this on their menu, unfortunately no! This ramen will be something I will try to reproduce if ever I buy a good chicken.

Note that unlike the other Ippudo in Louvre and Saint-German that serve pork based broth ramen, Ippudo République only serves chicken broth ramen. I haven’t taste their regular chicken ramen, but I guess we will be back soon.

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Lunch at Kodawari the other day. Ground floor were full, we were led to the brighter and calmer first floor, which was much better for conversation. Like our first visit, food was well cooked : Shoyu ramen (with 3 sojas, seashells and crab dashi with pork chashu, and our favourite Niboshi Patina ramen (with thick sardine broth and chashu). Very aromatic soup, the chashu was sliced thickly, which unlike some places, too thin.

No queue for Monday lunch. Still highly recommended.

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Sanjo was a pseudonym of a Japanese fashion designer turned chef, his obsessions was to try to solve the mystery of good traditional broth and home made noodles. Newly opened in June, the place was an instant hit among the .

Gyoza - steam pork dumplings with a spicy sauce 7 €

It wasn’t grilled on one side like in most places, a different style but flavourful.

Chashu Ramen with pork broth, house made ramen 15 €
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Sanjo Ramen with pork broth, house made ramen, chashu, black mushroom, seaweed and egg

Coedo beer Beniaka - a malt and sweet potato brew

Noodles were cooked al dente.

On the whole, the food were well cooked, the broth was rich and flavourful and in good equilibrium, not oily like in some other places. It was made with pork cooked 8 hour without special additions. The place was packed with a young well-dressed trendy crowd, including many Japanese, especially working in the fashion area in the nearby streets.

The wait was long since, I believe, the place was positioned more like a restaurant than a ramen joint. Note that the restaurant accepts no reservation, we arrived around 20h45 and waited until 21h30 to be seated. We noticed that around 21h45, people were seated instantly. Try to arrive early, as the entrée that I would like to order, Ikejine was sold out that night.

Sanjo
29 Rue d’Argenteuil
75001 Paris
www.sanjo.fr
Opens on Monday.
No reservation.

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Our both visits to Kodawari Ramen - Tsukiji.

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Just read that Guy Savoy, yes the 3 stars chef, has opened a Japanese ramen - Supu Ramen at his ex Les Bouquinistes space in the 6th district.

I read that you can have foie gras as entry…

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Wow. Maybe they’ll even take reservations!