Ichiran Shinjuku

Ichiran's whole design exists so that you never have to speak to anyone. Buy a ticket from the machine, get shown to a booth with wooden dividers on both sides, fill in a paper form, and hand it under a bamboo blind that a pair of hands then lowers. The bowl arrives through the gap. When you want more noodles you press a button. The chain is from Fukuoka and the ramen is Hakata style: pork bone broth, thin straight noodles, a scoop of the house red chilli paste in the middle. The form lets you set seven things, including how rich the broth is, how much garlic, whether you want spring onion, and how firm the noodles are. Order them futame or katame; the default is softer than most people from Fukuoka would accept. Kaedama, a second helping of noodles, comes on the same button and takes about a minute. Ramen people will tell you there are better bowls within five minutes' walk, and they are right. What Ichiran sells is consistency and a complete absence of social pressure, which is why the booths were designed in the first place, and it is the easiest possible introduction for someone eating ramen alone in Japan for the first time. The form is available in English. Around 1,000 yen and up. Several branches around Shinjuku, some open 24 hours, and the queue at 2am on a Saturday can still be twenty people. Cash and cards both work at most machines.