Ramen in Kurume
Kurume is often called the birthplace of tonkotsu ramen: a pork-bone broth richer and earthier than Hakata's, from the city that started it.
Soupmap lists 81 ramen places in Kurume, Fukuoka.
Kurume, inland from Fukuoka city, is often cited as the place where tonkotsu ramen began. The story usually told is that a street stall here served a clear pork-bone soup in the late 1930s, and that the milky broth came about after the war, when a cook let the pot boil too hard and found customers liked the cloudy result. Whatever the exact history, Kurume ramen is the root of the Kyushu family: Hakata's and Kumamoto's styles are generally described as its descendants.
Compared with Hakata ramen, Kurume's bowl is often thicker and stronger, with a deeper pork flavour, and some shops keep an old practice of topping up a long-running pot with fresh bones and broth instead of starting from scratch each day, so the soup develops over time. Noodles are thin to medium, toppings simple: chashu, green onion, nori, sometimes crisp fried pork fat. Shops are spread around the city, near JR Kurume and Nishitetsu Kurume stations. Read Hakata tonkotsu: pork bones, thin noodles and the art of the refill for the family tree, or make it at home with our tonkotsu ramen recipe.
By the Soupmap editors · Updated 29 October 2026
About ramen
Wheat noodles in a seasoned broth with toppings such as chashu pork, egg and spring onion. Japan's most common noodle-shop bowl, and one that changes from city to city.
Read in the journalHow ramen became Japanese A traveller's map of Japan's regional ramen Shoyu, shio, miso, tonkotsu: a field guide to ramen's four big flavours
- Chains
- Ringer Hut 4 · Taiho Ramen 4 · So Otto Koi Onojo Ten - Ion Mae 2 · Aji Sen Ramen Chen Honbu Shigemitsu Sangyo Kabushikigaisha 1
- How we matched
- The record's category or name says ramen. Not a menu check.
The list: the first 24 of 81
Soupmap selections come first, then independent places with the most complete records. This is an order of detail, not a ranking of bowls.
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Soupmap selection
A Kurume tonkotsu house that began as a street stall in 1953 and still tops up its broth the old way, adding fresh bones and stock to a long-running pot so the soup deepens over time.
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Plus 57 more places. Search all of them in the catalog ↗
About this guide
Built from Soupmap's catalog: our own selections plus open-data listings from Overture Maps and OpenStreetMap contributors. Open-data listings are reported locations, not independently checked; menus, prices, hours and current trading status are not verified. Styles come from shop names, so a place can serve more than its name says, or less.
Places are grouped by the municipality in their record. English municipality names come from official kana readings (localgovjp, CC0). Generated romanizations of shop names are approximate; the Japanese name is kept on every card. Sources and credits.