What could prompt an hour-long lineup on a small, residential side street in eastern Tokyo nearly every single day? How about Menya Kissou, a noon-only noodler with the #1 all time rating on Japan’s foremost ramen website? 120 million people can’t be wrong… or can they?

Change is upon us, top-down, in the form of… Obama Ramen! This brand-new Tokyo noodle shop has been chosen to usher the world into a brave new future of global unwarming, diplomacy, and flying cars. Oh yea, some guy got elected president recently. This ain’t about him. I hear he’s awesome too, but whatever. I’m hungry.

Midtown Manhattan’s Menchanko-tei (say that three times fast!) serves up a sumo-style stew of traditional Japanese hot pot and ramen noodles. They’re also from Hakata, so expect an attempt at tonkotsu ramen. But does it fall flat like a teetering yokozuna? That thundering sound you hear might well be the din of a few bowls breaking…

Sapporo Restaurant is as old as Times Square itself, a noodle shop from the days when the Dutch purchased New Amsterdam for trinkets and a few slabs of chashu. Ok, so I lie. But this veritable New York landmark has indeed been around for years, and has even been featured on the big screen! How’s that for coming to America in style?

Fire up the smokestacks, Minca Ramen Factory is operating at full capacity. This off-the-beaten path East Village ramen shop is still unknown to quite a few of rameniac’s New York friends. But what’s in a name? If Minca is a truly a ramen factory, then assembly-line noodles never tasted so good. Or so authentic!

Curry is a staple, if relatively underrated dish in the pantheon of Japanese cuisine, and Nissin Cup Noodle’s variation on the theme is right up there in terms of popularity as an quick instant ramen fix. It’s not the sort of thing that rameniac eats every day, but when you’re hungry, it’s best not to ask too many questions and just slurp it all down.

At long last, rameniac takes a bite out of the Big Apple with a whirlwind tour of New York’s finest noodle shops! First at bat, Menkui-Tei, a decidedly humble abode in Manhattan’s Asian hipster haven, the East Village. Real estate is expensive around here, at these prices, how fare the eats?

A full-blown Chinese restaurant that serves authentic Japanese ramen? Instinct might tell slurpers to stay away. Yet Seattle has but a handful of ramen shops to its name and Fu Lin rates a visit, according to the locals. How does one jaded rameniac handle slippery plastic chopsticks and xiao long bao?

Hakata Ikousha represents the new wave of post-boom regionalized tonkotsu ramen, with a solid foundation in pork bone basics, innovative presentation, and the savvy to branch out across Japan. Next stop, the world? Judging by the youthful enthusiasm of Ikousha’s staff, the future is in good hands.

Shinpuku brings a taste of Kyoto to the hallowed environs of Raumen Stadium 2. How do the mellow, shoyu-infused stylings of one of Japan’s oldest ramen shops play in a town known for its pork bones? Don’t forget your passport on the way through the noren...

Ramen worth a ransom? You bet! Ever wonder what might happen when one jealous ramen chef accuses another of stealing his precious recipe? You get a double-soup doublecross that involves kidnapping, beating, and *ahem* apparent nekkidness. I couldn’t make this stuff up if I tried… 

Nestled in the heart of Tokyo, Ramen Jiro honten lands the first perfect score on our rating system. It was inevitable that the day would come, and this hugely influential ramen shop lives up to all expectations and then some. Some people won’t feel the appeal, but rameniac, for one, is a full-blown convert…

Samurai Noodle is the shop of the day here in Seattle, a beachhead for tonkotsu ramen as the pork bone craze makes its way across America! Watch the waribashi fly as diners do battle with extra oil, spicy cod roe, and all the trappings in a masterpiece worthy of Toshiro Mifune, if only he’d been a ramen chef...

Rameniac can’t sleep in Seattle, not after a late-night flight and definitely not when Tsukushinbo serves up a once-a-week ramen and gyoza lunch special. But is it worth waking up for on an overcast Friday morning in the Pacific Northwest? All signs point to staying in…

A multi-meal afternoon at Yokohama’s famed Raumen Museum yields a bounty of noodle-slurping treasures, beginning with Asahikawa’s Hachiya. Sixty years strong and what do you have to show for it? Burnt oil, saltwater, and a whole lot of flavor to be sure…

Shinsengumi 2go, the no-nonsense faster food outpost of SoCal’s most popular purveyor of Hakata-style ramen, takes a left turn towards Tokyo with a limited-time trial run of tsukemen dipping noodles! Money can’t buy happiness, but for $3.33, you really can’t go wrong, can you?

From the murky waters of Toyama City, Menya Iroha’s Kuroshoyu ramen is on the rise! This little package of nama noodling is an eclipse in a bowl, a black lagoon of… well, you get the point. Black shoyu ramen. Now I’ve seen everything but the Loch Ness Monster.

Rameniac is kickin’ it old school with Umemura, the ramen shop he grew up with. Well, that might be stretching the truth a bit, as he’s one of those guys that hasn’t really grown up all that much. But has one of Southern California’s oldest and most venerated ramen shops matured any over the years? That’s a good question…

A rameniac fails when Kujiraken prematurely closes up shop at the Mitsuwa food fest! What to do? Sulk and fume? Absolutely. But then he gets down to business with a bowl of instant Kujiraken Kaoridashi Shio ramen! Not bad for a consolation bowl. Not bad at all!

It sure wouldn’t seem so, but this is instant ramen! Tokachi Nitsu must be employing some state-of-the-art technology in assembling wonders such as Menya Miyabi Yaki Shoyu, a thoroughly respectable replicant of famed noodles from Sapporo’s “Ramen Republic” ramen stadium. If it looks real and tastes real…