In the true spirit of how anything that goes viral on social media works, we walked past at least three restaurants that were rated higher on Google than Menchirashi, where we were headed. We knew we had arrived when we saw the queue in the distance.
Menchirashi, a ramen canteen, is famous for a carbonara made with udon noodles, and despite there being plenty of other dishes on offer, this was what everyone was ordering. We queued for around forty-five minutes in Tokyo’s frigid night air, legs achy from a long hike up two hundred steps to Atamo Shrine in rural Okutama.
Back in very un-rural Shibuya, everyone was suffering. People dropped out of line, others were sneezing. Noses were blowing. Near the front of the queue (mostly made up of Westerners), our pre order was taken, a clear warning sign of “eat your shit and get out swiftly so we can turn the tables!”
Speaking of tables, once we were in, we were seated at a two-top in the doorway. We were already cold, and our location failed to warm us up. The door continuously opening and closing due to the stream of diners made our udon, a normally hearty and warming hug in a bowl, cold and unpleasant. This was not the only issue with the signature dish. The noodles were overdone and chewy, the puddle of broth was flavourless, and the carbanarary bits like the guanciale and pecorino were applied sparingly – I daresay stingily – and faded into obscurity.
The best thing about the experience was the plate of vegetable tempura that was served alongside our Italian-Japanese monstrosity that only a mother could love, as well the round of beers, a welcome reward for the day of hillwalking.
This was the last night of the vacation, and I checked us onto the flight home before we left, before embarking on the chilly walk through Harajuku. The obligatory and whimsically overwhelming final night souvenir stop at Donki was bookended by us passing many other restaurants, thinking about our last supper and what might have been, if we didn’t keep tagging each other in wanky posts on Instagram.
The food thing. 
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