Touhichi (らぁ麺 とうひち)

Chicken and water. That is the foundation Touhichi builds its shoyu ramen on, and the restraint is deliberate. The broth draws from locally raised free-range chicken, finished with a raw soy sauce kaeshi, producing a bowl that the Michelin Guide summarises as ramen "all about the goodness of chicken." There are no pork bones, no complex multi-protein stocks — just a clear, clean tori shoyu that has earned the shop a Bib Gourmand listing held continuously since 2017, seven consecutive years of recognition at the time of writing. The counter setup in northern Kyoto's Kita-ku puts the chef in plain view, a format that suits the transparency of the cooking. The restaurant's name is said to derive from the house where the chef was born, which gives the place a personal logic that extends to the menu: alongside the signature soy-sauce ramen, the kitchen offers chicken-boiled ramen, cold noodles with kombu dashi, and chicken-oil noodles served without soup. Each variation stays within the same single-ingredient philosophy rather than branching into unrelated territory. The address places Touhichi in the Shugakuin area, within reach of Shugakuin Station and the broader Ichijoji corridor that has become one of Kyoto's more concentrated ramen districts. Pricing sits in the ¥1,000–¥2,000 range per person, consistent with the Michelin Guide's single-¥ designation, which makes the Bib Gourmand recognition here something worth noting: it is not a consolation tier for affordable venues but a specific citation for quality-to-value ratio, applied here to a bowl that competes on craft rather than complexity. For anyone spending time in northern Kyoto, the shop warrants a specific detour rather than a casual passing visit.

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