The broth of Japanese ramen is usually either pork base or chicken base. However, AFURI's ramen has a unique broth which is Yuzu in fresh chicken broth! Such broth base could actually give a hint of freshness to the ramen. This restaurant made their broth with pure natural water from the foot of Mount Abi (also called “Afuri”). This was how they got their restaurant name.
Luckily, the queue wasn’t too long when I reached the restaurant on a Saturday afternoon. There was a vending machine at the end of the queue. English words were available on the vending machine which made ordering not too difficult. Just insert your money and press what you want. I ordered the Yuzu Shio Ramen (one of their signature ramen) for JPY980.
After the vending machine process, you need to move to the seating queue. The restaurant staffs will attend to you once there are available seats. They could only speak limited English words but they were very friendly and attentive. Once seated, the staff collected the order which I bought from the vending machine. She also asked me to select the amount of Chi-yu (chicken oil blended with dashi) I want in my ramen. I asked for her recommendation which she recommended Tanrei. I believe that the staffs will probably recommend the light taste if it is your first visit.
The ramen was quite unique as I have never tried this combination before. The soup base was a bit light but there was a salty aftertaste. Slight yuzu taste could be tasted at the beginning but the shio taste stronger overall. The ramen noodle was quite nice as it was thin and springy. The chashu was just alright but it wasn’t the “melt-in-your-mouth” type.
Overall, it was just an average ramen for it. The only thing I like about the ramen is the noodle. Nothing really impressed me other than the soup based which was quite special. This was the first time I ate a ramen with yuzu in the soup base.
AFURI @ Harajuku
Address: 1F Grandeforesta, 3-63-1 Sendagaya, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo
Operating hours: 10.00am - 3.00am (Daily)
Contact No.: +81 03 6438 1910
Website: http://afuri.com/
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