A taste of FUUNJI (風雲児)
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Fuunji is a very small establishment in West Shinjuku and apparently one of the best Tsukemen (Dipping Noodles) restaurant in Tokyo. With seats of about a dozen only it's not uncommon to see people lining up outside the restaurant waiting for their turn. I went there together with some of my friends.
People lining up across the street
After a few minutes we were right outside the door, as you can see there's more people standing inside waiting as well.
Then it was our turn to buy the ticket/stub from the vending machine. Here you have four(4) main buttons to choose from, as far as I understood the choices are Regular Ramen (JPY700), Special Ramen(JPY900), Regular Tsukemen(JPY750) and Special Tsukemen(JPY950). Then below them are several other smaller buttons for the extras that you want to put in on your order such as Egg, Nori (JPY100-200) etc. Since this place is known for its Tsukemen, all of us ordered the regular one.
You can actually see some award recognition of the place above the vending machine, unfortunately I was not able to check from which organization it was.
After buying the stub you once again fall in line behind the people who are eating, most Japanese eat really fast and are usually done in 10 minutes or so. While we were waiting one of the staff took our ticket/stubs and asked us if we want a big portion or small portion, all of us got the big portion. In case you are wondering, yes both portions are the same price.
It did not take long before we were seated and served our order... a huge plate of Noodle together with a separate bowl of soup. The soup's flavor and scent is really strong, you can easily notice the powdered dried fish. The Noodle is very firm, heavy and good too.
All in all I would say Fuunji is worth all the hassle. It was actually my first Tsukemen in Tokyo and all I can say is I will never look at Tsukemen the same way again. :D
All photos were taken with the Galaxy Note II as I was not able to bring my camera with me so the pictures are quite noisy.
Here's a map of Fuunji (風雲児)
Comments
What I usually do is remember the price of the dish I want, in this case I ordered the basic Tsukemen (750yen) and pressed the button with that price. On other ramen shops it might be more complicated though...
There are more buttons below the 4 major ones, you have options for toppings such as eggs, nori, negi etc. etc.
hope this helps :D