When it comes to ramen, Ippudo is one of the most popular restaurant chains.
Known for serving Hakata tonkotsu ramen, the restaurant chain has literally sprouted throughout Japan since the first restaurant opened back in 1985 in Fukuoka City. And in 2008, the restaurant opened its first restaurant overseas in New York City’s East village. Then onto Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand, Australia, France, Vietnam, China and in London. As well as opening several restaurants in California.
In 2016, IPPUDO launched its first 1/2PPUDO (pronounced as Nibun-no-IPPUDO) restaurants, with the concept of a ramen shop targeting young women in fashion centers, first as Lumine Est Shinjuku, Lumine Tachikawa and at Shibuya Hikarie.
The concept for 1/2PPUDO is ordering a half portion of noodles, which means half the amount of carbs. The menu concept is meant for everyone but also something that women would enjoy as well.
So, at 1/2PPUDO, IPPUDO developed ramen noodles with half the amount of carbs. And also, for some women, a full bowl of ramen is too much and they leave with a lot of noodles still in the bowl, so with 1/2PPUDO, it’s half.
The concept for ordering is easy, choose with a main and two deli items for Y1100, main and three deli items for Y1400, two main sets for Y1000 or three deli items for Y900.
So, you choose your main, which can be their IPPUDO signatures: Shiromaru Classic Half, Akamaru Modern Half, Toriton Half, Coriander Tantan Half or Tori Shoyu Half.
You can also ask for half-carb noodles, traditional Hakata-style noodles, tofu and also request for your noodles to be Bari Kata (very firm), Kata (firm), Futsu (Normal) or Yawa (Soft).
I ordered the main + 3 deli set because I figured the items would be small for me and I was hungry!
So, you have a good number of deli items to choose from and then you can order your drink.
Tables are as expected, table for two or table seating for multiple guests.
The restaurant was clean, customer service was good and there wasn’t a long wait for the food to arrive.
I ordered the Shiromaru Classic Half and as expected, the wonderful IPPUDO Hakata ramen taste!
For those who have never been to IPPUDO, they serve Hakata Bite-Sized Gyoza Dumplings, but the gyoza is quite small. Delicious, but small, as what I expected at 1/2PPUDO.
They also serve cheese gyoza dumplings, truffle gyoza dumplings, boiled gyoza dumplings, boiled gyoza dumplings with coriander, boiled dumplings with spicy pork and I decided on the cheese gyoza dumplings.
While I considered a salad, I saw the Chashu Taco and figured, I had to give that a try.
For the most part, the food at 1/2PPUDO was good. While the serving side was much too small for me (while normal IPPUDO fills me up), this restaurant is great for those who don’t eat that much, those wanting to eat with friends without spending a whole lot.
How many times have you hung out with friends who were hungry but “not that hungry”, 1/2PPUDO no doubt fits that occasion of having good food with friends at the trendy Shibuya Hikarie!
