Our selection of Asahikawa’s unusual ramen shops

In front of Asahikawa's West Aeon Mall is located "Ramen Dojo Rakan”.

The little ramen shop is working hard to stand strong near those fierce opponents as it is located next to "Ryu no Namida,” and the Chinese food restaurant “Wonryu”. In the Aeon Mall are situated "Koubou Kato Ramen" and "Gyoza no Ohsho”, also strong rivals.

At Ramen Dojo Rakan, there are several types of arranged ramen such as motsuni (offal stew) salt ramen, curry ramen, and seafood chirashi ramen, but our recommended flavour is the wasabi soy sauce ramen.

Lately, Secomart is also selling "Yama Wasabi (mountain wasabi/horseradish) salt ramen", but "Ramen Dojo Rakan" has been serving their "Wasabi soy sauce Ramen" for many years. This ramen will makes you at best, grab your nose, at worse you will lightly choke when the horseradish scent comes to your nose.

Don't panic and eat slowly.

And if you really like spicy food, you can add a "bomb" toppings, which is a combination of doubanjiang, mustard, wasabi, and pepper.
Three types of “bombs” are available:
Lightly spiced bombs for people who can’t handle well spicy food, medium spiced bombs, and super spiced bombs are available, so try it out!

Name: Ramen Dojo Rakan
Address: Asahikawa-shi Midorichō 23-chōme 2196 - 274
Phone: 0166-53-5858
Business hours: 11: 00-15: 00, 17: 00-19: 30
Regular holiday: Wednesday
Parking lot: Yes

Speaking of unusual ramen, "Asahikawa Ramen Daikichi" in Hokumoncho is famous.

It used to be open at night, but since recently it opens only during lunch from 11:00 to 15:00. This place is so popular that it fills up the large parking lot.

We don’t know if the owner of "Asahikawa Ramen Daikichi” did a lot of research or is just playful, but "Pumpkin Ramen”, "Yogurt Ramen”, "Sake lees ramen” and "Black soybean miso ramen” are flavours that not a lot of people had the chance to see in their life.

Our reporter ordered the lemon ramen.
It was like a salt ramen but with the refreshing sourness and aroma of lemons with some lemon jellies on the top. The ramen aftertaste is refreshing and the whole bowl was easy to eat.

If you order between 11:00 and 11:30, you will get a 50 yen discount on your ramen.
Going right after the store opens is the time to aim if you want to eat there.

Name: Asahikawa Daikichi Ramen
Address: Asahikawa-shi Kitamon-chō 14-chōme 2145 - 72
Phone: 0166-53-0044
Business hours: 11: 00-15: 00
Regular holiday: Monday
Parking lot: Yes

The last bowl of ramen is at "Ichiban Nagayama" along the Nagayama loop road.

Surrounded by the "Asahikawa Ramen Village", "Yoshino", "Ramen Darumaya", “Menya Ikki", and "Ramen Tomikura", "Ichiban Nagayama” is standing on a fierce ramen battlefield.

The shopkeeper and his mother are running the shop together. Our reporter, Tora, used to work with the shopkeeper in the same workplace.

During that time Tora worked in the kitchen and the nowadays ramen shopkeeper was a waiter.
It's like they traded position now!

The slightly unusual ramen of "Ichiban Nagayama" is its milk butter flavoured "Ranch Ramen”.
It looks cloudy like a Tonkotsu ramen, but the soup is made from Hokkaido’s milk topped with butter.

You might think that a milk-based ramen sounds disgusting right ? But surprisingly, it’s not bad.
In Hokkaido, some people used to eat rice with milk. Don’t worry this is way tastier than that.

Name: Ichiban Nagayama
Address: 5-1-13 Nagayama 8 Jo, Asahikawa
Phone: 0166-48-0758
Business hours: 11: 00-21: 00
Regular holiday: Wednesday
Parking lot: Yes

This time, we introduced three different types of ramen: Ramen Dojo Rakan's "Wasabi soy sauce Ramen", Asahikawa Daikichi Ramen's "Lemon Ramen", and Ichiban Nagayama's "Ranch Ramen".
The usual soy sauce, salt, and miso ramen are surely good, but trying out a new flavour once a while may be a refreshing experience. And who knows ? Maybe you will get addicted to one of those “weird” ramen flavour!