Local Eats Japan

Located in a residential area relatively close to Kanazawa station is Ramen Hikari. 

They serve Jiro-Kei ramen which is a popular ramen in Japan with a cult following known for its ridiculous portion sizes and highly customizable toppings. If you want to read more I recommend checking out this blog I wrote: Buta-Yama

I go into depth about the ordering process and the intricacies of this ramen! 

While it may seem really daunting, Ramen Hikari actually makes it a lot simpler to order than how it usually is with other restaurants, because instead of calling out your order you will write it on a piece of paper and hand it to the chef. 

When you walk in, there will be a ticket machine on your right hand side, and it is there that you will order your ramen. It is a classic ticket machine with the buttons all in Japanese, but there are pictures so it isn’t too hard to order! 

The place is a local favourite so depending on the day and time it can get busy. Because of this it is rare that you will be immediately able to sit down and may be asked to line up with your back to the wall behind the people eating or, if really busy outside. If the lineup is out the door, then you will wait until you have room to enter and wait in the restaurant to buy your ticket. 

The most unique part of this restaurant perhaps is the fact that the shop’s owner is the only one working. Everyday. 

It is quite crazy to believe with the amount of time you have to devote to running a restaurant, or ramen restaurant at that, as well as managing the huge amount of customers and staying open 7 days a week. It is truly admirable. 

But because it is only a one man operation, it is one of the main reasons why the turnover of customers can be a bit slower than other restaurants may be. So if you go make sure to just stay patient and your turn to eat will come around. 

This also plays into the aforementioned food ticket that you circle your preferences on as opposed to yelling them out – it makes it easier for the chef. 

With this as well, the garlic is freshly cut and it self-serve. So is the water! So you will be able to attempt to offset your garlic breath with water to your hearts content! 

But no seriously, this is honestly a great system and doesn’t feel like you have to limit yourself to the amount of water you are likely going to need to drink from all the sodium. 

The bowl of ramen itself was great. The Shoyu (soy-sauce) based soup was the one recommended, and it is the most common soup base for jiro-kei ramen. 

The soup had a strong umami punch to it, and it was balanced well with the bean sprouts and soaked into the thick, al-dante noodles really well. 

The chashu pork was also very tender tender and a had a nice meat feeling to it which helps offset the amalgamus portion of noodles. 

Everything is topped off with perhaps Jiro-Kei ramen’s most identifiable feature which is heaps of se-abura or back fat and the amount of flavor (and calories) is incredible. It is very addicting. 

Even for those of you that have confidence in how much you can eat, Jiro-Kei has ridiculous portion sizes. Especially here. 

That is why the owner recommends you get the mini size instead of the normal if it is your first time. 

Even for me who had eaten Jiro-Kei previously, I still struggled with the normal size a bit so do be warned! 

This is a really solid spot, and while exploring Kanazawa why not walk or bus down and take the trip! It is also located next to Kanazawa prefecture’s number 1 ranked high-school too, so I guess that’s cool!

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More about me

Different types of ordering systems in Japan explained

Purchasing an onigiri to keep me fuelled throughout my journey 🍙