Ramen Tiers Background
I first began developing this guideline when I lived in central Tokyo and was confronted with a dilemma: with so many terrific ramen shops, how was I to decide where to eat? Since ramen prices were pretty uniform across all shops–a tokusei 特性 bowl with all the fixin’s usually running in the ¥950-1200 ($9-11.50 USD)–price would not offer much differentiation between shops. Instead, I increasingly found that when I was assessing how good a shop was, it was on the basis of, “Was what I ate worth the trip?”
To better evaluate the ramen I’ve had, I created a system of tiers based on how long I would be willing to travel on the excellent transit systems in Tokyo and other metropolitan areas in Japan to eat these bowls. Japanese rail links ensure that shops of note are pretty accessible, and more importantly, means that you can choose from dozens of shops if you are willing to take a 15-minute subway ride. So the question becomes: “is the shop I just went to worthy of Tier 2, 35-minute train ride or is it only worth going to if it’s a few stations away from me?”
Non-Japan Shops: Shops located outside of Japan are rated using the same system since I believe in universal qualitative standards, so I rate them as if they were hypothetically located in Tokyo.
The Binary System: The tier system works on a roughly two-step binary system: 1) Would I eat this willingly, yes or no? 2) To what degree would I eat/not eat this? The first question splits the ramen into tiers 1-3 and 4-5, and the second question accounts for why a bowl is a tier 2 instead of a 3 or a 4 or a 5. Tier 4-5 will be broader in scope, since detailed definitions aren’t as necessary for bowls that you don’t particularly want to eat.
The Tiers:
Tier 5 “Go anywhere but here”: Strongly recommended against eating here. Bowls that are seriously wrong from a gastronomic or a health standpoint fall into this tier. I don’t care how hungry you are, eat something else.
Tier 4 “It’ll do in a pinch”: Soft non-recommend. It’s a mediocre bowl that isn’t egregiously bad in any particular way, but why settle when there’s a probably a Tier 3 ramen shop a 10-minute walk away? Only come here if you’re hungry, in a hurry, or have an incredible ramen fix.
Tier 3 “A good bowl nearby”: A solid, recommended bowl worth going to if it’s about 15-20 minutes away, usually 3-4 train stations away. A tasty bowl, but there are a few things I wish were better or improved. Likelihood of revisit is low given the multitude of great ramen choices in Tokyo, but the calculus is different in the US and overseas.
Tier 2 “Worth travelling for”: Specifically, a very good bowl worth a 30-40 minute trip. It’s a really good bowl, but there are just a few things I would prefer differently, or just didn’t quite hit the high notes I was looking for. Worth/willing to visit again. This is generally the tier where you start seeing awards ffrom Michelin Bib Gourmand or Japanese review sites such as Tabelog or Ramen Database.
Tier 1 “Here’s an unprompted recommendation”: A truly excellent bowl that is worth traveling over an hour for. I don’t like to given unsolicited restaurant advice since it’s arrogant to give suggestions when you don’t know what someone can/wants to eat. But these Tier 1 places are good enough that I’m willing to take the risk of unsolicited advice. Tier 1 bowls do not have to be flawless, but usually they have a component or two in the bowl–broth, noodles, chashu–that really pop and can be described in near-superlative terms.
There’s a small subsection of Tier 1 of places that I consider “best of the best,” that quickly come to mind when people ask me for my top 5 places. Qualitatively they’re not different from other Tier 1s, but these are the places near and dear to my heart.
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Note on Subjectivity: Tiers can be somewhat fluid: a shop may be having a bad day, my own subjective preferences, or if I’ve been too long without ramen or had too much recently. I’ve waffled and revised plenty before, particularly between tiers 1 and 2, and 3 and 4. But that’s entirely the point of these pictures and reviews: to give readers enough details about these bowls so they can make their own choices whether or not to visit a specific shop. Don’t be slaves to the tier system!
Note on Quality and Selection Bias: An overwhelming number of my ramen reviews–especially the Japan ones–will fall into Tiers 1-3 because of selection bias. As my metabolism is slower than a sloth and there isn’t a money tree in my yard, I tend to do plenty of research before selecting a shop to visit. In real life, most shops are Tier 4s. So while I might not gush about a Tier 3 ramen, rest assured it’s actually quite good and worth visiting on its own merits.