Ramen we know today is a Japanese adaption of Chinese wheat noodles. It is basically a combination of noodles, soup and toppings.

For people with food restrictions, they must be aware of the various possible combinations.

Firstly, the noodles, unless specified otherwise usually contains wheat flour.

Secondly, the soup usually uses pork stock as base, boiling the pork and the bones to create the Ramen’s well-known rich soup. The variety of stock includes: pork (most common), seafood, beef (rare) and vegetable (rare).

• Pork = とんかつ (ton-ka-tsu)
• Seafood = 魚介 (gyo-kai)

Lastly, the toppings typically consists of long green onion (neh-gi), boiled egg (you-deh ta-ma-go), Japanese braised pork belly (cha-a-shu), lacto-fermented bamboo shoots (men-mah) and fishcake (nah-rue-toe).

In case you are unable to eat any of the toppings, asking the staff to remove them is generally possible.

Simply saying “No {topping name} please” (in English) would work in places where English communication is difficult. Emphasising on “No” and pointing at a picture of the topping would help.

Please note that this blog was created without much research, just includes what I generally understand to be common knowledge. If there is error please comment below!