T’s Tan Tan came to us through word of mouth, a vegan restaurant serving Ramen, right in the centre of Tokyo. Finding it was a struggle, our assumption that it would be one of the many restaurants in the meandering alleys below Tokyo station turned out wrong. We finally asked the person manning the ticket counter a dn he told us that we would need to enter the ticket gates to reach the restaurant.
It took some more walking, stopping for directions, in Tokyo station, before we found the restaurant. The easiest way to find the place is head towards Keiyo Line 京葉線. Anyone who wants to reach Disneyland Tokyo by train needs to use this line and on most days, especially weekdays, if you follow families with children dressed as Disney characters you are heading towards the Keiyo Line.
Once you see the escalators leading down to the Keiyo Line, the restaurant will be on the left side. The entrance can be a bit difficult to find, it does not stand out, the signs are mostly in Japanese, which is surprising considering that the clientele has a large share from overseas tourists.
The restaurant has an English menu and the staff are quick to bring this menu when they see a foreign face. The striking part of the menu is the Ramen and Gyoza set. The sets provide value for money however the customer can order each item separately.
The service is efficient on most days, however weekends tend to be crowded and it might be a while before you get served. I eat a lot of Ramen and Gyoza, most of which is not vegan or even vegetarian, so a vegan ramen as an option is always welcome. However given a choice I would prefer to experiment and widen my gastronomic choices more.
The biggest advantage of the restaurant is that it is located within Tokyo station, so the tourist arriving into Tokyo or leaving by train and looking for a filling vegan meal has a great option in this restaurant.
T’s Tan Tan also sell packaged, instant ramen coming in a few flavours. Travellers worried about the food options when traveling within Japan, the food choices do get limited as you head into rural Japan, can carry a few of the instant ramen packs.
The restaurant survived the Corona epidemic, the stoppage of inbound travel into Japan should have affected the business terribly, but the good news is that it survived, unlike a few other restaurants which survived the pandemic due to a monthly grant from the government, but collapsed when Covid ended, the grants stopped but the customers still did not return.
For T’s Tan Tan, there are enough loyal customers to keep them busy and with inbound tourism recovering with a bang, the customers are coming back in larger numbers!