António Carvalhão and João Azevedo Ferreira lived in Asia for several years and fell in love with the most popular dish in Japan: Ramen. In 2015, they created the first Supper Club de Ramen in Portugal and harboured the dream of opening a space with the most authentic Ramen in Lisbon.
Faced with an increasingly demanding waiting list, they decided that it was time to open their own restaurant, Ajitama Ramen Bistro, and after taking a formal course for ramen chefs in Tokyo led by sensei Takeshi Koitani.
The boomerang shaped place is completely different from everything that existed in Lisbon, with elements of light wood. The duo challenged the architects to represent the eggs – Ajitama – in the restaurant. The outcome is the wooden piece hanging from the ceiling, which gives a very strong personality to the place.
Also new in this space is their capacity to make their own noodles (with alkaline water, which they say is the secret to their springiness), something that had been a missing link in the original restaurant, where everything else was proudly made from scratch.
Chicken Gyozas
Stuffed with chicken meat, cabbage and onion, their gyozas were prepared in house from scratch. Prepared with a craft Japanese technique which resulted in a crusty base, it could do with longer period of pan frying. It was served with a homemade spicy sauce.
Padron Togarashi
Padrons are green peppers similar to the Japanese shishito. They are grilled and tossed with toragashi spice.
Red Tonkotsu Ramen
At Ajitama, ramen is cooked with artisanal Japanese techniques and includes five elements: fat (animal or vegetable), stock, noodles, tare (seasoning and the heart of the broth) and toppings.
The toppings included miso-infused pork chashu, bamboo shoots, seaweed strips and a dollop of spicy chilli. The chashu was tender and juicy, which demonstrated the artisan characteristics of this ramen shop.
The egg was supposed to be a highlight of the bowl of ramen, given that they claimed to have perfected the egg and named their restaurant after it. However, ajitama
If you do not like alkaline noodles, then their ramen is not for you. The kansui process, a method of using alkaline solution for the dough, gives these noodles a beautiful yellow sheen and a bite to it unlike fresh pasta. They are chewy, springy, and the perfect slurp consistency.
The pork broth cooks for at least 18 hours at controlled temperatures until it reaches the perfect creamy density and white colour. The red colour comes from the spicy tare used for the red tonkotsu.
It was the only bowl of ramen I ate in Lisbon so I could not say if it was the best. I would placed it above Ajisen but below Ippudo.
Ajitama Ramen Bistro
Av. Duque de Loulé 36, 1050-091 Lisboa, Portugal
Tel : 96 776 1997
Visited Aug 2023
@ajitamapt #ajitamaeggtemple #ajitamanoodletemple
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