Menbakaichidai Fire Ramen
We couldn’t go to Kyoto without trying out the famous Fire Ramen of Menbakaichidai. It’s a small shop located a street away from Nijo castle. When you enter, they give you a small cloth box where you can put your bags and a hair tie so your hair is safe from being singed, and an apron to wrap around yourself to avoid stains from the oil that bounces. All seats in the restaurant are at the counter and you can see various burn marks from previous fire ramen customers there.
Instruction Safety Cards in different languages!
Then the staff ask for your nationality and then pull out these translated instruction cards to adjust to your language. I got quite excited when there was a Filipino one! These were more for safety such as putting your hands behind your back, leaning backwards and avoiding taking pictures while the ramen is in flames. Don’t worry, their kitchen has built in camera pods so they can hang your phone to take videos while they’re doing their job.
Camera pods at the kitchen area
Once you’re briefed, you’re given a laminated menu with your options. It merits getting your own Ramen instead of sharing because you can individual videos of it being in flames, but if your appetite isn’t super big, there isn’t a need to do the sets as it’s quite filling on it’s own.
We ordered 2 Fire Ramens, Gyoza & Karaage on the side! We were already quite full.
They serve the base of the ramen first and then adds the flaming oil. It gets quite hot, a little scary and slightly shocking. Watch the video of our Fire Ramen experience below.
We honestly didn’t think it would be more of theatrics than taste, but were surprised to see that the ramen and side dishes were actually quite good! It’s one of the best Ramen we had in Japan (and we tried a lot). Definitely a must try!
It was fun and I super recommend it to people looking for a different kind of Ramen experience in Kyoto!
Wayne and I post-fire Ramen
