{"id":562,"date":"2020-01-28T06:35:17","date_gmt":"2020-01-28T06:35:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/willchews.com\/?page_id=562"},"modified":"2020-07-18T17:45:48","modified_gmt":"2020-07-18T17:45:48","slug":"ramen-tiers-guide","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/willchews.com\/index.php\/resources-guides\/ramen-tiers-guide\/","title":{"rendered":"Ramen Tiers Guide"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Ramen Tiers Background<\/strong><\/p>

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?\u00a0 Since ramen prices were pretty uniform across all shops\u2013a tokusei<\/em>\u00a0\u7279\u6027<\/span>\u00a0<\/em>bowl with all the fixin\u2019s usually running in the \u00a5950-1200 ($9-11.50 USD)\u2013price would not offer much differentiation between shops.\u00a0\u00a0Instead, I increasingly found that when I was assessing how good a shop was, it was on the basis of,\u00a0<\/span>\u201cWas what I ate worth the trip?\u201d<\/span><\/p>

To better evaluate the ramen I\u2019ve 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.\u00a0 Japanese rail links ensure that shops of note are pretty accessible, and more importantly, means that you can choose from\u00a0dozens of shops if you are willing to take a 15-minute subway ride.\u00a0 So the question becomes: \u201cis the shop I just went to worthy of Tier 2, 35-minute train ride or is it only worth going to if it\u2019s a few stations away from me?\u201d<\/p>

Non-Japan Shops:<\/span>\u00a0Shops 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.<\/p>

The Binary System:<\/span>\u00a0The tier system works on a roughly two-step binary system: 1) Would I eat this willingly, yes or no?\u00a0 2) To what degree would I eat\/not eat this?\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Tier 4-5 will be broader in scope, since detailed definitions aren\u2019t as necessary for bowls that you don\u2019t particularly want to eat.<\/p>

The Tiers:<\/strong><\/p>

Tier 5 \u201cGo anywhere but here\u201d:<\/span><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Strongly recommended against eating here.\u00a0 Bowls that are seriously wrong from a gastronomic or a health standpoint fall into this tier.\u00a0 I don\u2019t care how hungry you are, eat something else.<\/p>

Tier 4 \u201cIt\u2019ll do in a pinch\u201d:<\/span><\/a>\u00a0Soft non-recommend.\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s a mediocre bowl that isn\u2019t egregiously bad in any particular way, but why settle when there\u2019s a probably a Tier 3 ramen shop a 10-minute walk away?\u00a0 Only come here if you\u2019re hungry, in a hurry, or have an incredible ramen fix.<\/p>

Tier 3 \u201cA good bowl nearby\u201d:<\/span><\/a>\u00a0A solid, recommended bowl worth going to if it\u2019s about 15-20 minutes away, usually 3-4 train stations away.\u00a0 A tasty bowl, but there are a few things I wish were better or improved.\u00a0 Likelihood of revisit is low given the multitude of great ramen choices in Tokyo, but the calculus is different in the US and overseas.<\/p>

Tier 2 \u201cWorth travelling for\u201d:<\/span><\/a>\u00a0Specifically, a very good bowl worth a 30-40 minute trip.\u00a0 It\u2019s a really good bowl, but there are just a few things I would prefer differently, or just didn\u2019t quite hit the high notes I was looking for.\u00a0 Worth\/willing to visit again.\u00a0 This is generally the tier where you start seeing awards ffrom Michelin Bib Gourmand or Japanese review sites such as Tabelog or Ramen Database.<\/p>

Tier 1 \u201cHere\u2019s an unprompted recommendation\u201d:<\/span><\/a>\u00a0A truly excellent bowl that is worth traveling over an hour for.\u00a0 I don\u2019t like to given unsolicited restaurant advice since it\u2019s arrogant to give suggestions when you don\u2019t know what someone can\/wants to eat.\u00a0 But these Tier 1 places are good enough that I\u2019m willing to take the risk of unsolicited advice.\u00a0 Tier 1 bowls do not have to be flawless, but usually they have a component or two in the bowl\u2013broth, noodles, chashu\u2013that really pop and can be described in near-superlative terms.<\/p>

There\u2019s a small subsection of Tier 1 of places that I consider \u201cbest of the best,\u201d that quickly come to mind when people ask me for my top 5 places.\u00a0 Qualitatively they\u2019re not different from other Tier 1s, but these are the places near and dear to my heart.<\/p>

___<\/p>

Note on Subjectivity:<\/span>\u00a0Tiers can be somewhat fluid: a shop may be having a bad day, my own subjective preferences, or if I\u2019ve been too long without ramen or had too much recently.\u00a0 I\u2019ve waffled and revised plenty before, particularly between tiers 1 and 2, and 3 and 4.\u00a0 But that\u2019s 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.\u00a0 Don\u2019t be slaves to the tier system!<\/p>

Note on Quality and Selection Bias:<\/span>\u00a0 An overwhelming number of my ramen reviews\u2013especially the Japan ones\u2013will fall into Tiers 1-3 because of selection bias.\u00a0 As my metabolism is slower than a sloth and there isn\u2019t a money tree in my yard, I tend to do plenty of research before selecting a shop to visit.\u00a0 In real life, most shops are Tier 4s.\u00a0 So while I might not gush about a Tier 3 ramen, rest assured it\u2019s actually quite good and worth visiting on its own merits.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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?\u00a0 Since ramen prices were pretty uniform across all shops\u2013a tokusei\u00a0\u7279\u6027\u00a0bowl with all the fixin\u2019s usually running in the \u00a5950-1200 ($9-11.50 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":554,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"0","ocean_second_sidebar":"0","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"0","ocean_custom_header_template":"0","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"0","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"0","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"0","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-562","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/willchews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/willchews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/willchews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willchews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willchews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=562"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/willchews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/562\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1172,"href":"https:\/\/willchews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/562\/revisions\/1172"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willchews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/willchews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}