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The story
A price list from a famous ramen shop posted on 5ch’s Hello! Project board has gone viral. The tsukemen (dipping noodles) was priced at 4,250 yen, prompting shocked reactions like “That’s not a tsukemen price” and “For that much you could eat an unagi rice bowl or a steak.” Some in the thread pointed to soaring costs of wheat, vegetables, and meat as the reason behind the hikes, while others argued that for a shop with lines out the door, the price is fair given supply and demand. Still others noted that at the same price, other popular chains like Jiro or Tonyama start to look like a bargain by comparison — opinions were split on how to judge ramen pricing.
What people said
That's not a tsukemen price, lol
And it never comes back down.
But to someone who doesn't care, paying 2,000 yen after waiting in line looks almost masochistic.
Other shops' prices are only going to keep climbing — it's a one-way street.
Wheat, vegetables, meat — every ingredient is getting more expensive, so of course prices go up.
Prices are only going to keep rising from here, so if you want to eat it, now's probably the time.
Five years from now it'll be even pricier, so looking back from then, today might still count as cheap.
Overseas trips, sports cars, fashion, surfing, fine dining, chasing women — I did it all.
Now that we're in this brutal inflation era, I'll just coast through my remaining years.
Make it all table seats.
Then the ramen shop would probably whine about turnover dropping instead.
But since the famous owner himself works the kitchen, hours are short, demand can't be met, and they need to use price to keep the chaos in check.
You lot were never going to set foot in that ramen shop in your whole life anyway.
Because Japan's inflation is going to keep running for the next 5, even 10 years — seriously, unfortunately.
Unlike the everyday ramen you can casually grab anytime,
it's moved into the category of a “feast” — on par with a traditional ryotei restaurant or French dining.
The bad shops like that are the first to go under.
The ones that genuinely win customers' hearts are the ones that last.
If that's true, this price makes sense.
I don't get why people hype it up this much.
But if you skip them, people will probably think you're lame for not getting the works.
I recently ducked into a popular tsukemen shop on a whim when I was hungry, and it was the same fish-based flavor as everywhere else.
It's already lasted a long time — that's exactly how it got here.
once or twice in your life is plenty.
It's not something you need to eat over and over.
You just dump the ramen sauce sitting on the table all over it and it sort of becomes ramen.
Could you please stop looking at Riko Riko like that?
Is the main shop actually any good?
Background and Key Points of This Debate
The price list behind this uproar is said to belong to the ramen shop Tomita, and commenters in the thread pointed out that “it’s not just Tomita” — other famous shops are also raising prices due to soaring ingredient costs. Ramen has long been an affordable, everyday meal for ordinary people, but shops where a celebrity owner does the cooking face limits on operating hours and output, creating a structure where demand easily outstrips supply and pushes prices up. Opinions in the thread split between those who see this as a “fair price” set by market forces as long as the lines keep forming, and those who weigh it against the everyday instinct that the same money could buy an entirely different meal. It’s worth noting that the claim floated in the thread about the shop having won the “Ramen Japan Championship” is just one poster’s comment, not a confirmed fact.
※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Hello! Project board) thread “The Prices at This Famous Ramen Shop With Lines Out the Door wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.”
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