The Ultimate Bowl: Tenkaippin, Ichiran, and Ippudo in the Rich Ramen Three Kingdoms
The three national chains with "ichibu" in their name have three different ways of fighting: the largest number of stores in Japan with "one and only soup," a secret sauce and a "private room counter," and overseas expansion with the hit "soft tonkotsu" (pork bone).
I’m happy to drink all the rooibos tea I can drink while eating tonkotsu (pork bone) ramen.
Ippudo Lumine Tachikawa is located on the 8th floor of Lumine Tachikawa, adjacent to JR Tachikawa Station (Tokyo). The stylish black-based store is crowded with female customers and jazz music is playing in the background. If it were not for the sign bearing a large logo, it would look like a café.
A large monitor near the kitchen shows the business scenes of restaurants in New York, London, and other cities around the world. Food journalist Junnosuke Nagahama speaks while operating a touch panel on the table.
I can drink a lot of rooibos tea, which is rich in polyphenols, so I don’t feel like I can offset some of the calories in tonkotsu ramen (laughs). The stylish décor and background music, the creamy, odorless soup, and the attentive customer service have made the restaurant a hit not only with female customers, but with people from overseas as well.”
At the store in New York, a waiting bar is provided, and it is common for customers to enjoy drinks until a seat becomes available, then eat an appetizer and main course of ramen, and finish with dessert. Overseas, Ippudo is an upscale restaurant where the price per customer is sometimes close to 10,000 yen per person.
How has Ippudo changed the image of tonkotsu ramen, which was once considered a “greasy, fatty, peculiar, old man’s food?
The founder, Shigemi Kawahara, 71, originally ran a restaurant bar in Tenjin, Hakata. Mr. Kawahara asked female customers there, ‘Why don’t you eat tonkotsu ramen? The women replied, ‘Because Hakata ramen restaurants are dirty, smelly, and scary. Kawahara then set out to develop a “soft tonkotsu ramen” that would be as odorless as possible, with special attention to background music and décor. The catchy product names, such as ‘Akamaru’ and ‘Shiro-Maru,’ also made it easier to gain the support of female customers,” said restaurant producer Mitsuhiko Suda.
Ippudo was founded in 1985, but a turning point came in 1994. It opened a store at the Shin-Yokohama Ramen Museum as one of the most famous stores in the country. In 1997, Ippudo won the “TV Champion Ramen Chef Championship” (TV Tokyo). His name became famous throughout Japan. However, Mr. Kawahara did not rest on his laurels. He was determined to take on the next challenge.
In 2003, he established a joint venture with the Shanghai-based Xiaonanguo Group. The following year, in 2004, we opened ’78 Ichiban Ramen. Mr. Kawahara put in so much effort that he moved to Shanghai with his family, but not only was he unable to name the restaurant ‘Ippudo,’ but he also lost the management rights and ramen-making know-how to Konangoku. Ippudo’s official website states that “Ippudo opened its first overseas branch in New York in ’08,” but in fact, Ippudo had made a painful mistake five years before that. It was because of this experience that Ippudo was able to successfully expand overseas smoothly, including the U.S. in ’08, Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia, and the U.K. in ’14, and France in ’16”.
Ippudo is currently expanding its stores in Asia in partnership with Maxim, the largest restaurant company in Hong Kong. The number of Ippudo stores overseas has grown to 142. This is the highest among Japanese ramen chains.
While Ippudo has expanded its presence by targeting women and foreign customers, Tenka Ippin, which originated in Kyoto, has 219 stores in Japan alone, thanks to the overwhelming strength of its products.
The company was founded in 1971 by Tsutomu Kimura, 88, the current chairman. The reason for this was the bankruptcy of the company I was working for. I had 37,000 yen in my pocket at the time. He had a friend who was a sheet metal worker assemble a food cart from scrap wood he had found. After starting with soy sauce ramen, he began to develop his own original soup, aiming for a “taste that makes you want to eat it again. He created Tenka Ippin’s eponymous “kottori” soup, which combines the same chicken stock and vegetables as today’s ramen,” said economic journalist Takai Naoyuki.
