Ramen Shop Private Booth

Ramen Shop Private Booth

This ramen shop in Shibuya has individual booths with walls so that the people next to you can't see you and you also can't see the staff due to the curtain. Based on my ramen eating experience this type of shop is fairly uncommon but it was quite interesting.

After waiting for your seat to open up - a map of the seating arrangement with lights for open seats lets you know - you fill out the small piece of paper shown in the picture with information like: how much garlic and onion you want, if you want pork, how much oil in the soup, how spicy, etc. Then you press a button which calls the staff and a ghostly hand reaches out and grabs the paper.

After waiting a few minutes a bowl of ramen slides from under the curtain and then a mini wall slides up to close the gap. It's the first time I've eaten ramen in a little private booth but I had to wonder what the purpose of this system is.

I asked my friend Kouji who went with me and he said lots of women are embarrassed to eat ramen in public because of slurping and the general messy image of eating long noodles dribbling in soup. Interesting! Also I have to imagine part of it is making your own small little oasis in the middle of the millions of people of Tokyo. Even if that oasis' purpose is only to give you a private place to eat a bowl of ramen.