Afuri Harajuku

In order to utilize the pristine clear waters of Mount Afuri, Afuri's Central Kitchen is set up in Kiyokawa, in the Aiko district of Kanagawa Prefecture (神奈川県, Kanagawa-ken). There they use the waters of Mount Afuri, domestically produced chicken, seafood, and vegetables in order to produce the soup. By even boiling it just a little, the taste and fragrance of the soup will change, and so to produce the ideal delicate taste, the climate, humidity, heat, and time, are all taken into consideration, and adjusted throughout the year to keep the quality up. The noodles, the tare (たれ, Sauce), the chashu (チャシュウ, Chashū, Roasted Pork) are all cooked in the central kitchen in order to be adjusted for the best quality in relation to the conditions that day.

Afuri focuses on the "natural quality of the ingredients" (素材のちから, sozai no chikara), and so they don't use any sort of colourings, preservatives, MSG, or any form of artificial seasonings in their foods. Their goal is to make food that even kids can eat healthily and safely. More than anything, for their signature dashi (出汁) the goal is to make it right before serving to the customer so that the fragrance and taste and can be just right.

Afuri's yuzu-based ramens are probably one of the most "fruity" ramens that you'll find in Japan, with the citrusy fragrance permeating throughout the dish.

For us, we find it really easy to recommend the Yuzu-tsuyu Tsukemen (つけ麺, Dipping noodles) because it's absolutely delicious. The rich and thick flavor of the shoyu (醤油, Shōyu, Soy Sauce) dare (たれ, Sauce) comes through exceedingly well, and the yuzu (柚子) infuses very well, allowing each bite to be both salty and refreshing at the same time. The cold version also provides a nice lightness to the dish, and the noodles have just the right amount of bite while being coated by the sauce. This is absolutely our favourite dish at Afuri.

We find it abit harder to recommend the ramens though. While Afuri is definitely the more assari (あっさり, Light) type of ramen, the taste of the soup might be a little too light for some and considered bland. For us at least, both the shio ramen (塩ラーメン, Shio Rāmen, Salt Ramen) and shoyu ramen (醤油ラーメン, Shōyu Rāmen, Soy Sauce Ramen) were abit too light on taste, and we tended to get a bit sick of the dish halfway through. It's not a bad bowl of ramen, it's just a bit mediocre as compared to how amazing the tsukemen version is. If you're ordering the soup version, go for the Maroaji (まろ味) version which is richer with more of the chicken oil, rather than the Tanrei (淡麗), which is abit lighter on the taste.

For the noodles, we recommend getting the regular type of noodles rather than the konnyaku (蒟蒻, Konjac) noodles. While the idea of a zero-calorie noodle is enticing, for us, the jelly-like texture of the noodle was quite off-putting as a dish. Typically, noodles should have a nice chewiness when you bite into it, and be easily coated with some of the sauce. For the konnyaku noodles, it was like biting into jelly, and the sauce didn't get absorbed into any of the noodles. It was just a bad dish, and it's extremely hard to recommend it, unless you need a gluten-free alternative.

Bonus Tip: If you're looking for a vegan ramen option in Tokyo, Afuri has a vegan offering on their menu. The vegan ramen uses a 100% vegetable based broth, served with fresh seasonal vegetables, and substitutes the egg in the noodles for lotus root, so that it's 100% vegan friendly.