Is any meal worth queuing more than an hour for? Yes, these ones

You get plenty of time to think when you’re standing in a queue for ramen for more than an hour.

You can ask yourself the hard questions. What am I going to do about superannuation? What am I going to buy for my kids to make up for being away from them for so long? And is it reasonable to spend more than an hour in a queue for ramen?

Hungry customers wait at Honke Daiichi-Asahi in Kyoto for their turn to taste its legendary ramen.Credit: Alamy

I know the answer to the final question. Yes, it is more than reasonable to stand in line for noodles. Particularly when they’re famous noodles, ranked the best in Kyoto by Tabelog, the foodie Bible for anyone exploring Japan.

The venue is Honke Daiichi-Asahi, a Kyoto temple for those who worship at the altar of broth and noodles rather than the ancient capital’s more familiar deities. This restaurant, about a block from Kyoto’s main train station, has been dishing up pork-based ramen since 1947, and it’s still so incredibly popular that there are queues up the street for almost every minute the store is open from six in the morning until 1am.

The cafe next door to the ramen shop has essentially given up attempting normal service, given there’s a wall of people camped out front all day, and instead offers takeaway beers to those standing in the Honke Daiichi-Asahi queue.

I will line up for ramen, and I’m clearly not the only one – though, that’s hardly surprising given Japan is surely the spiritual home of the queue for cuisine. People in this country will wait patiently in line for anything that’s good, from ramen to udon, katsudon to kakigori, gyudon to gyoza.

The Japanese will queue for something if it’s good, whether from ramen (above) to udon, katsudon to kakigori, gyudon to gyoza.Credit: iStock

Some may consider this, particularly for travellers, a total waste of time. Your hours are severely limited when you’re in Japan as a visitor – 60 minutes in a food queue is 60 minutes you could have spent doing something else, experiencing something else, maybe even eating something else.

But then, you haven’t tasted the ramen at Honke Daiichi-Asahi: umami-rich and laden with pork belly.

There are some food experiences that are not worth waiting in line for. Social media tends to create some strange and pointless foodie sensations. There were Sydneysiders queuing up for Cinnabon when it opened in Haymarket, which is bonkers (this is dodgy airport food in the US). There are embarrassing queues around the block any time In-N-Out Burger does a pop-up in Australia (be cool, guys). And just last week, people in Perth queued from 4.30am to visit the city’s first Starbucks (umm…).

West Australians queueing for Starbucks in Perth.Credit: Anne Barclay/6PR

Ramen in Japan, however, is definitely worth lining up for. It depends on the shop and my other goals for the day (and whether my kids are with me), but I would be happy to spend an hour in a queue for ramen in Japan. It will be worth it. These bowls are works of art.

Ramen shops also rely on this high turnover of customers to keep their prices down. You can reliably get one of the tastiest bowls of ramen you have ever eaten, made using artisanal produce by absolute masters of the craft, for less than $15 – and the only way to do that is to ensure you’re serving hundreds of bowls a day, even if your restaurant only seats 10 people at a time.

In Tokyo, I’ve also spent at least half an hour lining up to eat katsudon (deep-fried pork cutlets served topped with a very lightly cooked, flavoured omelette atop a bowl of rice) – at Katsudonya Zuicho in Tomigaya. Worth it, for sure.

Speaking of omelettes, Raan Jay Fai in Bangkok is notorious for its queues, with many customers lining up for three hours or more to try Fai’s signature, Michelin-starred crab omelettes (crisp on the outside, gooey in the middle, and packed with an outrageous amount of crab meat).

Is it worth three hours of your time to queue for an omelette in a city packed with purveyors of fine food served at low prices? Honestly, not really. But the only way to know that for sure is to go through the experience, which is why so many do.

In North America, carnivorous folk will typically queue for at least three hours, though often up to six hours, to dine at Franklin Barbecue in Austin, Texas. I haven’t done that yet, but I plan to. I will happily take a folding chair and a six-pack of beer – as is the custom – and sit around with a bunch of fellow barbecue nuts for half a day just to get my hands on what is supposed to be the best brisket on the planet.

Anyway, I’ve queued for meat before. Bar Nestor, in San Sebastian, has become increasingly popular in recent years, to the point where entry to this simple Old Town bar is now regulated to a certain number of customers, meaning those hoping to get inside have to form a line and wait.

It’s worth it. Even in San Sebastian, where the food across the board is so good, there’s no one doing gigantic steaks and tomato salads like Nestor.

And then we have Australia, where our key queue-worthy obsession seems to be French pastries. Lune Croissanterie in Melbourne is famous for its daily lines, and when it finally opens in Sydney – scheduled for late next month – you can be sure there will be people lined up around the block.

I’ll probably be one of them.