From crispy Kakigori, to creamy Chocolate, and even crunchy crickets, noodles in Japan have been fused with almost every imaginable dish. And yet, once again we find ourselves salivating over a scrumptiously simple new pairing of tantanmen and hamburg steak from a popular Kyoto hamburger steak restaurant.

“Hamburg Ichijoji” is a hamburger steak restaurant located in the Ichijoji district of Kyoto, famous for its many delicious ramen restaurants. Facing tough business conditions during the COVID-19 pandemic, Hamburg Ichijoji took inspiration from its noodle serving neighbors and created a special tantanmen noodle dish topped with a delicious Ichijoji Hamburger steak.

Hamburg Ichijoji is ordinarily renowned for its patented meat juice filled hamburger steaks. Serving tantanmen, a spicy sesame noodle dish originally from China, peppers up their menu with a kick of surprise and intrigue likely to attract many customers that come to Ichijoji hungry for ramen.

The Hamburger Tantanmen dish has been lovingly created by the restaurant to combine 3 stages of flavor. Firstly an Ichijoji hamburger steak is grilled in front of the customer on a 7cm thick iron grill. It is then placed on a bowl of lightly spicy home made mapo soup (麻婆, Mapo) filled with succulent noodles. By breaking open the Ichijoji Hamburger steak, it’s rich, thick juices mix with the mapo soup to create an extra stage of flavor. Finally you can add the restaurant's homemade chili oil to spice up the dish which starts out lightly flavored so customers who have low spice tolerance can also enjoy it.

The special menu item went on sale July 13th and is available until September 30th, but only at lunch time. Each bowl costs ¥850, or ¥1050 for a double helping of Hamburg. The dinner menu contains a special Mapo Hamburger steak which is a Hamburger covered in the spicy sauce used in the ramen.

For customers that want to spice up their Hamburgers or add extra niku to their soup noodles, Hamburg Ichijoji’s Hamburger Tantanmen is just what the doctor ordered.

Store Details

• Location: 59 Kyoto Karaoke SOM 1F 59 Ichijoji Nishisuginomiyamachi, Sakyo Ward, Kyoto Prefecture.
• Access: About 5 minutes walk from Eizan Electric Railway Ichijoji Station
• Business hours: Lunch 11:00-15:00 (Last order: 14:30) / Dinner 17:30-22:30 (Last order: 22:00)
• Website