Ramenya Shima is a reservation-only ramen shop about five minutes on foot from Nishi-Shinjuku-Gochome Station on the Toei Oedo Line, along Honan-dori Avenue. Built around tanrei (clear-style) shoyu (soy sauce) and shio (salt) bowls, it took the overall Rookie Grand Prize at the 21st TRY Ramen Awards 2020-2021 just four months after opening, and its reservation slots have filled quickly ever since.
The story
Owner Hiroshi Morishima trained at Shinasobaya — founded by the late Minoru Sano, at its Shin-Yokohama Ramen Museum branch — and at Kashiwagi in Higashi-Nakano before opening his own shop in June 2020. He runs the roughly six-seat counter almost single-handedly.
Awards and listings followed soon after opening: beyond the TRY Rookie Grand Prize, the shop has been repeatedly selected for Tabelog's official Top 100 Ramen TOKYO list (most recently the 2025 edition) and received Bronze at The Tabelog Award 2026. In March 2026, its first overseas branch was reported to open in Hong Kong's Causeway Bay.
What to order
The signature is the shoyu ramen: a clear, tanrei-style soup layering chicken stock with seafood and other ingredients, finished with a blend of several soy sauces. The shio ramen combines multiple salts with a seafood-forward broth — the shop placed high in both the shoyu and shio rookie categories at TRY.
The chashu is seared over charcoal just before serving. Upgrading to the tokujo (deluxe) version adds three kinds of pork chashu, chicken chashu, two types of wonton (pork and shrimp) and a seasoned egg — a 2024 visit report listed the deluxe shio at 1,900 yen. White-shoyu bowls and konbu-water tsukemen (dipping noodles) appear on select days, and an official frozen version of the white-shoyu tsukemen is sold through Takumen, a ramen delivery service.
Tips for visiting
The shop is fully reservation-only — the old same-day walk-in sign-up sheet has been abolished, per the official X account — and slots fill almost instantly, so plan ahead.
- Book online via TableCheck; reservations have opened the morning before the visit date
- A small booking deposit and a cancellation fee have been reported — always check the terms on the booking page
- Open weekday lunchtime only; closed Saturdays, Sundays and national holidays. Your entry time is assigned by your reservation slot
- Visitors report payment by a cash-based ticket machine (shokkenki); cashless acceptance is unconfirmed
- Temporary closures and the day's menu are announced on the official X account (@ramenya_shima), so check before you go