At eStart4 we always want to celebrate great establishments old and new, to hear their stories of how they came to be and how they provide their great meals, their inspirations and how our service is used to benefit their business.
This week we stopped at the popular ramen bar, Ajitama. Located near the Picoas metro stop. Ajitama is striking at first glance. With a clean black and red exterior, the building occupies the entire street corner with a decking seating area outside the building which is imposing and demands the attention of people passing by. The Ajitama logo plays to the Asian aesthetic expected from a ramen bar but with the sophistication that not only the street food biters crave but the connoisseur would have their eye on.
Upon entrance the Japanese experience did not let up from its authenticity. The architectural aesthetic is probably the first eye catching feature in the restaurant. Large wooden spherical structures cover most of the space on the ceiling, although from description this does not obviously bring visions of Japan to the forefront of your mind, when sat down and looking at these structures one does get the immersion of that culture largely when staring at them, this was further brought to our attention when we met Antonio Carvalhão (pictured), who explained the wooden structures were designed to resemble the egg used in the ramen, an Idea I personally loved.
After greeting at the bar, Antonio took us to a table to dive deeper into the origin of the business and how it has gone in Lisbon. Ajitama began when Antonio and his long-time friend, João Azevedo Ferreira spent time in Asia and found the popular Japanese dish Ramen. After both developing an obsession with the dish, they became passionate about developing a ramen recipe that could compare to the ramen they ate in japan and to bring it back to Portugal.
This endeavour would take 13 months until they finally developed what Antonio calls their signature dish, chirimen in his apartment which at the time they would invite friends and family over to taste their dishes to get approval, but this is where the popularity grew, as time went on they became a local success, feeding people in their local area and even having a waiting list of 1876 people! So naturally after that the need for a restaurant was apparent, which would become Ajitama.
Ajitama today is a success, bringing an authentic Japanese ramen experience to the people of Lisbon, Antonio also expressed a desire to open another store in a separate location as he does not wish to over sell with excessive reservations as this would mean a decrease in the quality of the food Ajitama offers. Authenticity is key to this establishments success which demands attention to detail which does make the meal a more sincere and personal experience.
And finally, onto the food! I asked Antonio for the most authentic dish he could offer me as I wanted the essential ramen experience, what I got was Hakata tonkotsu. Hakata tonkotsu ramen is a rich, comforting pork bone broth with thin, straight ramen noodles and the Ajitama egg.
I had it served with an Ajitama own brewed craft beer that was infused with seaweed from japan. Another team member ate Shio ramen, a bend of chicken broth and dashi — which is made from seaweed and fish.
If you are yearning to try something new in Lisbon or in particularly miss authentic Japanese ramen, visit Ajitama ramen Bistro and you shan’t be disappointed!
