A note on the words: Kamukura is an Osaka ramen chain named after Dotonbori, the canal-side eating street it started on, and its bowl is built on napa cabbage rather than the usual soy or pork-bone broth. Jiro, mentioned in passing, is Ramen Jiro, the Tokyo chain famous for mountainous piles of bean sprouts and cabbage. Azabu-Juban is a well-heeled neighborhood south of Roppongi. Prices are as of this writing (August 2026), and the shop prints them before tax.
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Dotonbori Kamukura, Azabu-Juban on Tabelog (English) — opening hours, payment details and the Japanese address are kept up to date there, not here.
This is Hangover Meshi! This time, Dotonbori Kamukura in Azabu-Juban. I ate at one a very long time ago — Shinjuku, or perhaps Ikebukuro, I genuinely cannot remember where. A gentle-tasting ramen built mainly on napa cabbage. I have a feeling there was something written somewhere in the shop along the lines of: even if it does not grab you the first time, go three times, or five, and it will (the nuance may not have been quite that, mind lol).
I had been thinking I did not see them around much lately, and then they opened in Azabu-Juban!
“Oh, Kamukura,” I would think, glancing over as I passed, but somehow never got round to eating there, and two years have gone by since it opened lol
Inside you order from a tablet. You settle up yourself as well, which is easy enough.
Oishii ramen, the “delicious ramen”: 850 yen
Vegetable-loaded ramen: 1,100 yen
I do wish they would stop printing the pre-tax price in huge type lol
You pay the tax-inclusive price in the end, so it is hard to read it as anything but an attempt to mislead! I understand the thinking behind it, but it makes me wonder whether this is what it takes to survive. I should like it displayed more clearly! The noodles can be increased but not reduced, which is the usual pattern. Well, I wanted vegetables, so I went for the vegetable-loaded ramen!
Right, a short wait.
Even so, the Azabu-Juban branch of Kamukura is hot lol There is an electric fan going, but — a fan?!
The air conditioning does not seem to be working at all. Perhaps it is broken.
And here is the vegetable-loaded ramen.
If you come in imagining something like Jiro you may think, is that all? But this is plenty lol
Tasting the broth for the first time in years — mm, that is good. Distinctive, rather. Neither soy nor pork bone: a clear flavor that nonetheless has depth to it, layered with the natural sweetness of the vegetables so that it settles into you easily.
It is, apparently, an original broth devised by a French chef and never let out of the house.
True enough, Western cooking does draw a good deal of stock from vegetables!
The napa cabbage is simmered soft while keeping just enough crispness, and it goes superbly with the noodles.
Light, yet a flavor you do not tire of to the last mouthful, with a gentleness that makes you want to drain the bowl. Ramen it may be, but you can eat properly without it sitting heavy, and it is easy to see why it is popular with women and with the health-minded.
Though Kamukura themselves may not quite realize how popular they are with those customers lol
If they did, I feel they would offer fewer noodles, or no noodles at all, that sort of thing lol
At any rate, a gentle ramen that warms you through, body and soul!
Although being warmed through in a hot shop in hot weather is a slightly mixed blessing lol
Kamukura after all these years — it was good! If they did a no-noodle version with double vegetables I could come every day. Provided the air conditioning worked lol The vegetables probably cost more than the noodles, so the price might go up, but around Azabu-Juban I suspect there would be surprising demand for it. I decided that once summer has passed and it has cooled down, if I fancy a bowl I shall go to the Azabu-Juban Kamukura.
Dotonbori Kamukura, Azabu-Juban (Ramen / Azabu-Juban Station, Roppongi Station, Akabanebashi Station)
Tabelog lunch rating ★★★☆☆ 3.5
I ate here and paid for it myself. Nothing on this site is a comped meal.
One more for the road?
