Ramen Kuon 久遠 @ Osaka

After a tiring three days exploring Himeji Castle and other parts of Osaka, I wanted to a have slow day in town. As the Osaka History Museum only opens at 9.30 am (and it isn’t a huge museum), I decided to sleep in and wake up in time for my ramen fix.

The ramen in question is Ramen Kuon, a Michelin Bib Gourmand shio soba specialist that is found in the basement of the reverent Sembiru (as the local refers to the Semba Center Building) right next to where I was staying in Hommachi.

I was still too early when I reached Ramen Kuon (which opens at 11am, and usually closes at 3pm or when the ramen ran out, close on Sundays and Public Holidays), and had to loiter around the building, observing the other shopkeepers opening their shops for business.

Normally, a tourist will not come to this place although it is right next to Dotonbori. The place rehoused the merchants and businesses displaced by the building of the highway that ran through the place. A building was built directly under the highway, and an iconic location that kept the charm of the neighbourhood was born. It opened in 1970 for the last Osaka Expo, and was refurnished in 2015 with the cladding you see today. But when you walk inside, it feels that time has stood still in the place.

It felt like a different era, one that was calmer and more civilised, one with more hope for the future. The mall is made up of mainly clothing stores, and general stores selling household items. There are also several wholesalers that stock food packaging and restaurant signs, perhaps for the thousands of restaurants in the nearby Dotonbori.

Promptly at 11am, they opened, and just like all ramen shops in Japan, they do not take orders inside the restaurant. You buy tickets from a vending machine outside the shop, and then hand them over to the staff who will then prepare accordingly. I picked the Premium Salt-Based Ramen 特選 塩そば (¥1,680)

And before you have the meal, everything has been spelled out to you (in four languages no doubt). No photos of the kitchen, the staff, the customers, but you can take pictures of whatever is in front of you. And keep quiet. Eat and go, the place sits only 8 people.

Their signature ramen is Shio Soba (salt-based ramen) features a soup with carefully layered umami from Omi black chicken, dried sardines, and clams, paired with homemade high-hydration noodles made from three types of domestic wheat. Water used in the restaurant is specially filtered π-water, or “living body water” because its structure and properties closely match the water inside healthy plants, animals, and humans that was discovered in 1964 by Dr. Yamashita of Nagoya University, while studying plant physiology and flower budding.

The noodles are homemade using a noodle machine customised for them that mimics the hand-made noodle process. High-hydration noodles are made with a water-to-flour ratio typically exceeding 37% to 40%, resulting in a smoother, softer, yet elastic and chewy texture. They also blend well with the soup, creating a stretchier, translucent and slippery strand that resists getting soggy until the very last bite. If you have not asked, they will cook the noodles to slightly softer than al dente, which is more friendly to foreigners like me.

And then there’s the soup. The base stock is made from chicken, clams and dried sardines (no pork), and then pork fats are added when they are assembling the bowl of ramen. So if you want a bowl of ramen without pork, they can accommodate that but it is still not Halal-certified if you are concerned about those things. Japanese ramen soup is typically much more robust (ie saltier and richer) than the ones outside of Japan, as it is typical for the Japanese to finish the meal with a bowl of rice dumped into the soup. So if you are worried it’s too salty for you, you can ask for them to water it down. For me, it was perfect for slurping the noodles.

The premium option came with three types of meat – (L-R) the half-cooked chicken breast, the chicken charsiu and the pork charsiu. You can taste the quality in these different cuts of meat, especially the chicken breast. The chicken breast was really juicy, and the texture can only come from sous vide method of preparation, but it was still pinkish.

The egg is usually weakest link in a bowl of ramen, and more often than not I find the egg overcooked or flavourless. I wasn’t sure where I would put this egg; yes, it’s flavourful and no, it wasn’t overcooked. But it wasn’t that wow either. Perhaps I was asking too much from a humble egg, but hey, you got a Michelin so you will get inspected with a magnifying glass.

Many comments online recommended their braised pork belly as a side to the ramen. I ordered a portion (¥450) and was surprised by how much pork there was. It was a generous portion, and the pork belly was on point. The braise uses Marushima soy sauce, a traditional soy sauce made using a time-consuming handmade process which is directly shipped from Shodoshima Town. The fats rendered perfectly, and disintegrated in the mouth without any effort. The meat was not dried out, like the ones I made and then reheated at home. I understand now why everyone would order a bowl of rice with the pork and it was really rich and umptious.

Usually at this point in time, I would add a bowl of rice to the remaining soup, but I am really satisfied from the noodles and braised pork. I felt a lot of remorse for leaving behind so much broth. You can taste the sincerity and effort put into extracting those goodness from the ingredients used to make the stock.

I am glad that I took the time and effort to go try this bowl of ramen. Unfortunately my appetite wasn’t as big as I used to be so I didn’t try their yuzu pepper chazuke. Definitely will come again. For tourists who do not want to get in line, you can either follow my lead and get here really early or make a reservation online (minimum two pax, service charge applies and collected by the service provider).

Ramen Kuon らーめん 久遠
B2F, Semba Centar Bldg Sangokan, 1-4-3 Sembachuo, Chuo-ku, Osaka, 541-0055, Japan
大阪市中央区船場中央 1-4-3 船場センタービル3号館 B2F, 大阪, 541-0055, 日本

Visited Aug 2026

Michelin Osaka Guide Bib Gourmand 2021-2026

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