Rising prices are making it harder to live in Japan. One of the country’s beloved dishes, ramen, hasn’t proven immune to the price hikes. But as more ramen shops close their doors due to financial pressure, one joint in Tokyo’s Meguro is bucking the trend.
The question is: is it worth the price? I decided to find out for myself.
Breaking beats and avoiding ramen ruin
Ramen has a reputation in Japan as a hearty yet cheap meal. Even today, amidst rising wholesale and utility prices, the average cost of a bowl is only 860 yen, or around USD $5.76.
A rising number of stores say they can’t stay in business at these rates. However, many of those same businesses also say they can’t raise their prices. Japan’s service industry refers to this as the “1000 yen wall” (１０００円の壁; sen-en no kabe). The belief is that, if a store raises its rates above 1000 yen, it’ll lose too many customers to justify staying in business. (Given the country’s stagnant wages, it’s not an unfair assumption.)
As a result, more ramen restaurants than ever are closing. 74 went bankrupt or dissolved in 2023. That’s a rise from the pre-health crisis era, where 62 went out of business in 2019. (Fewer did in 2021 and 2022, which may reflect government subsidies designed to keep businesses alive during the crisis.)
However, not every store’s shy about raising their rates. Ramen Break Beats in Tokyo’s Meguro City unabashedly charges more for its bowls. Chef Yanase Takuro, who doubles as a DJ (hence the store name), serves bowls at around the 2000 yen (USD $13.50) mark. That’s more than double the average cost of a bowl of ramen – and double the so-called “1000 yen wall”.
Yanase’s obviously doing something right, though. His restaurant opened two years back, and it’s still going strong. It’s listed in this year’s Michelin Guide, a privilege only doled out to around 500 restaurants in this sprawling metropolis. The shop also clearly caters to visitors to Japan, with menu items and signs printed in both Japanese and English.
The first hurdle at Ramen Break Beats: Getting a reservation
So what’s all the fuss about? Eager to try for myself, I looked into how to pencil it into my schedule.
And here I hit the first wall. Ramen Break Beats only accepts guests by reservation. What’s more, slots only open up every Sunday at 10am Japan Standard Time. That means you need to be on the ball to grab a seat before they book up.
A little over two weeks ago, I set a phone alarm to remind me when reservations opened. Shortly after 10am on March 3rd, I went to TableCheck to see what was available. It booked up quickly. For a reservation for one, the earliest available seat was on Wednesday, March 13th (the following week).
The ordering process
Ramen Break Beats (which encourages people to tag it online as #ブレビ, or bure-bi) is nestled in Meguro’s Aburamen Jizo-Dori shopping district. It’s not the kind of neighborhood you’d pass as a tourist. In contrast to other popular shopping streets, it’s very sleepy and quiet, nestled off of the main streets of Meguro in a residential neighborhood.
On the day of my reservation, I biked over from Minato City to Meguro, giving myself some time to spare. (If you’re traveling by transit, there are a few bus routes from Meguro Station that will take you to the Motokeibajo-mae stop. The store is about a 10-minute walk from there.)
I waited in line with others who had made the pilgrimage. After confirming my reservation, the waiter went back inside to help other customers. Shortly after my designated 1 p.m. appointment time, he ushered me in.
Once inside Burebi, you’re greeted by a traditional site: a ticket machine. Many fast-food joints in Japan still use these vending machines. You put in cash, select the items you want, and hand your tickets over to the chef to prepare. The only difference in this case was the price: 2000 yen for the store’s flagship ramens.
(Fair warning: Burebi is cash-only. You should bring 1000 yen bills, as the machine can’t accept 5000 or 10,000 yen slips – though the waiter will happily break bills for you in a pinch.)
I bought a ticket for the double chicken special shoyu (soy sauce) ramen. After taking my ticket, the waiter asked me to wait outside again until my seat was ready.
Fortunately, Tokyo had broken out of its fierce February cold snap, so the wait wasn’t unpleasant. I watched as others who’d arrived earlier for their appointments milled around until it was time to stand in line. No one wanted to risk being late, for reasons that would soon be obvious.
Finally, around 1:10pm, the waiter showed me to my counter seat. There are only around eight seats inside of Break Beats – four to five at the main counter and another four along the far wall. Chef made my bowl to order and served it to me by around 1:15pm.
The ramen itself is worth every yen
After all of that, how was the ramen?
Ladies and gentlemen, it was out of this world.
True to its name, the double chicken ramen was chock full of protein – both a nice lean serving of chicken along with the traditional roasted pork fillet (char sui) common in ramen. According to the menu description, the soy sauce broth contained locally raised chicken from Kyushu as well as Rausu kelp (kombu) from Hokkaido.
The broth’s rich taste and sheen comes, not from an off-the-shelf soup base, but from the fat of Tengusa Daioo chickens from Kumamoto Prefecture. It also contained two tantalizing dumplings. The bowls themselves were also beautiful – order-made specifically for the store from the chef’s home prefecture of Fukuoka.
The quality of the locally-sourced ingredients made this ramen stand out from an 800 yen bowl. I could’ve eaten the rich, oily soup broth all day long. The noodles themselves were fantastic – not only artfully arranged in the bowl, but delicious and filling. I left feeling, not only like I’d had a meal, but like I had enjoyed an experience.
Slow food in a fast world
Ramen is often thought of as “fast food.” It’s meant to be cheap and quick. But Ramen Break Beats shows off the slow food side of ramen. It also shows how ramen shops can buck the low-price trend by offering a carefully curated experience that’s a cut above the ordinary.
Coordinating a reservation at Ramen Break Beats is a pain – but not impossible. If you’re planning a trip to Japan, give yourself plenty of time – a two-week lead time at least. While it may be far from the usual tourist traps, it’s worth the journey.
Sources
今年の最優秀ラーメン候補！ ラーメン官僚が祐天寺『Ramen Break Beats』の醤油＆塩らぁ麺を実食レビュー. Syokuraku Web
