We're out for ramen
At Ramen Street
Which is in Tokyo Station
There's one place here
That has vegetarian options
And vegan options
Which is really rare in Japan
Mostly ramen has meat stock
Or fish stock in it
So it's not suitable for vegetarians
So this is a rare find
Ramen Street is a collection of ramen restaurants
In Tokyo Station
It's near Character Street
Which I showed you a few weeks ago
Where you can buy lots of cute character merch
Now there's so much underground in Tokyo Station
And it's a complete maze
So I'll show you how to get there at the end
Here's the ramen restaurants in Ramen Street
There's a collection of 8 of them
How to enjoy Tokyo Ramen Street
You order your ramen at a vending machine
Always fun
Vending machines are actually quite common at ramen restaurants
In Japan
It means the staff don't have to handle cash
So they can concentrate
On making delicious ramen
The place we're going is called Sora no Iro
Which means colour of the sky
They have regular meat ramen
And vegetarian & vegan ramen too
The sign's in Japanese
So look out for this big mural of Mount Fuji
And all the blue swirls
Here's the menu for Sora no Iro
This whole right hand side is the vegetarian ramen
There's veggie ramen with extra vegetables & egg
Veggie ramen with brown rice noodles
Veggie ramen with egg
And vegan ramen
There's also a salad smoothie
Very green!
The veggie ramen with brown rice noodles
Is vegan as well
They're all around 1000 yen
The top one's 1100 yen
They've also got meat ramen
They've got salt ramen
Soy sauce ramen
And stewed pork soy sauce ramen
Here's the vending machine where you place your order
All the writing on the buttons is in Japanese
So you need to match that up with the menu
Or if you're ordering one of these dishes on the top
It's got a picture for you
Here's all the buttons on the vending machine
And just below it
They've got a key to them in English
So you can work out the location of the button you want
And match them up
Here's how to order
First put your money in
Usually they don't take cards
So you will need cash
Then press the buttons for the items you want
Sometimes there's a member of staff there to help you
Then take your tickets
And hand them to the staff when you go in
If you press the wrong button
A useful phrase is:
Chigaimashita
Which means "I made a mistake"
Or "I did it wrong"
Chigaimashita
Here's my tickets
I'm having the veggie ramen with egg
And a whiskey highball
They give you water on the table
A nice big jug of ice water
There's garlic chips
And there's this little pot of hair bands
So you can tie your hair up
And really get stuck into your ramen
Some toothpicks & salt
Tissues
Useful if you make a mess
What's this? Vinegar
I wouldn't have thought of putting vinegar in ramen
Pepper & red chilli pepper
Is it pepper or is it...
Shichimi?
Shichimi is a sort of - it's red pepper!
Sometimes it has a bit of yuzu in it as well I think
They've got some really cute decorations in here
It's really nice
Phil's got the soy ramen
Soy sauce flavour
With pork & egg
And these swirly things
Are a type of fishcake
Here's my veggie ramen
Or veggie soba as they call it
It's got lots of things in it
I've got egg
I'm not sure what that is
It looks like it might be a bit spicy
They do have a separate version that's the spicy one
It's got some cabbage
Sweet potato, tomato
Grated carrot
That looks like some sort of grain
And there's some fried renkon in there
Looks really good!
I can really smell that pepper on the top
Here's the broth
It's really different from other veggie ramens I've had
It actually tastes a bit of carrots
Maybe that's why it's orange
It's quite thick in a way
It's got some oil in there
This paste on the side is quite spicy
It has a bit of a yuzu flavour
Really nice
And these grains
Are in pesto
Which is kind of unusual
An unusual mix of flavours there
But they do taste really good
And here's the most unusual thing
The noodles are orange as well
Everything orange!
Now most restaurants in Japan
Don't have any vegetarian options at all
So I've made a list of places that do
It's useful if, like us
You're a vegetarian & a meat eater
Travelling together
I'll put a link in the description for you
I really enjoyed that
That was really good
It wasn't like a vegetarian version of a normal ramen
It was like - something else
A new creation
The soup is all made of vegetables
Mainly carrot
It does have a carroty flavour
You can kind of see carrot puree round the outside
Like they have actually juiced the vegetables
It was really strange the noodles were orange
They're made with red paprika
Kneaded into the noodles
I thought they tasted pretty much the same as normal ramen noodles
It's just great to have a nice vegetarian ramen
Without worrying what's in it!
So if you want to come here
This is in Tokyo Station
Head towards Ramen Street
Or First Avenue
And you'll find it right here
Sora no Iro
The sign is all in Japanese
But you can look out for this mural
Of Mount Fuji
And all the blue swirls outside
And the logo is blue & round
Ramen Street actually isn't the only place I've found like this
In Japan
In Kyoto Station
There's a whole floor of ramen places
There's a ramen stadium in Canal City, a mall in Fukuoka
And a ramen alley in Sapporo
Which you can see in my new series of videos
From Hokkaido, coming up soon
And not forgetting the Ramen Museum in Yokohama
Where you can try ramen from all around Japan
There's lots of other videos about Japan on my channel
Including lots of other vegetarian food
And I've also made a video with tips for vegetarians coming to Japan
And on my website there's a list
Of all the restaurants I've found in Tokyo
That have vegetarian options