Ramen Jiro: the mountain, the garlic and the call
A heap of sprouts, back fat and garlic over thick noodles, plus a ritual of called-out toppings. Inside the Tokyo bowl that grew a cult, and how to order without panic.
Fans like to say that Jiro isn't really ramen at all. It's its own food, and that food is called Jiro.
Once a bowl lands in front of you, you'll see what they mean. A tower of bean sprouts and cabbage rises above the rim, pale slabs of pork lean against it, a spoonful of back fat glistens on top and raw garlic sits at the side like a warning. Somewhere underneath, there are noodles. A lot of noodles.
A student bowl from Mita
The original Ramen Jiro stands in Mita, in Tokyo's Minato ward, close to Keio University, and it has been serving its towering bowls since around the late 1960s. Its reputation grew with the students who packed in for something hot, filling and outrageous, and the Jiro name spread to a number of other shops over the decades.
It's hard to think of another Tokyo bowl with such a devoted following. Its most committed fans are known as Jirorian (ジロリアン), and Jiro has inspired countless shops in its image. Those are called Jiro-kei (二郎系), "Jiro-style", and you'll find them all over Japan, serving their own takes on the mountain.
Anatomy of a mountain
A Jiro bowl breaks most of the rules of elegant ramen, cheerfully and on purpose.
- Noodles: very thick, chewy and robustly wheaty, closer in heft to udon than to a delicate Tokyo ramen.
- Soup: a pork-based broth, heavy on soy and often rich with fat, salty enough to stand up to everything piled on it.
- Pork: thick, tender chunks, usually just called buta (豚, "pork") rather than chashu.
- Vegetables: a heap of boiled bean sprouts, moyashi (もやし), with some cabbage.
- Garlic and fat: chopped raw garlic and soft back fat, seabura (背脂), both added to taste.
The portions are famously enormous. Even a regular-sized bowl is far bigger than ramen elsewhere, and first-timers routinely underestimate it.
The call
Here is the part that makes newcomers nervous. You don't choose your toppings when you buy your ticket. Instead, as your bowl is nearly ready, the staff will ask something like ninniku iremasu ka? (ニンニク入れますか), "Will you have garlic?"
That question is your cue for the call (コール, kōru). You answer with a short list of what you'd like added:
- Ninniku (ニンニク): garlic
- Yasai (ヤサイ): extra vegetables
- Abura (アブラ): extra back fat
- Karame (カラメ): a splash more seasoning, for a saltier bowl
Add mashi (マシ, "more") or mashimashi (マシマシ, "lots more") after any of them, as in "yasai mashi, ninniku". If you don't want anything extra, sono mama (そのまま, "as it is") is a perfectly respectable answer.
The details vary from shop to shop, so the best tactic is to watch and listen to the people ahead of you. And wait to be asked. Calling out before the question comes is the classic beginner's slip.
How to survive your first Jiro
A few practical tips, gathered from the way regulars do it:
- Buy your ticket first. Most shops use a machine by the door; if that's new to you, see how a ticket machine works.
- Ask for fewer noodles. In many shops you can request sukuname (少なめ, "less") when you hand over your ticket. If you're unsure of your appetite, do it. Leaving a mountain unfinished is considered poor form.
- Flip it. Fans have a name for pulling the noodles up from underneath the vegetables before they turn soft: tenchi-gaeshi (天地返し), "turning heaven and earth".
- Eat steadily. Thick noodles keep soaking up soup, and seats are in demand. This is not a bowl for lingering over your phone.
- Tidy up. Many regulars place their empty bowl up on the counter and give their spot a wipe when they're done. Follow what others do.
It's also a fine bowl to tackle on your own. A Jiro counter is a place for eating, not chatting, which I find rather freeing; there's more on that in eating alone. When you're ready, our Jiro search shows Jiro and Jiro-style shops across our Japan catalog.
The appeal of excess
Jiro is not subtle, and it doesn't pretend to be. But I think its appeal goes beyond sheer size. It has a ritual, a language and a community, and finishing a bowl feels a little like passing a test you set yourself. Plenty of food is designed to please everyone. Jiro is designed to be loved completely by some people, and that may be exactly why it has lasted. Go hungry, and be honest about it.