Ramen in Hong Kong is not hard to find. The city has hundreds of Japanese noodle shops spread across every district, ranging from fast-casual chains to serious independent counters. What has been harder to find is a bowl that competes with the best in Tokyo. Ramenya Shima (らぁ麺や 嶋) changes that conversation. The Shibuya counter that held a place in Tabelog’s top three ramen rankings for five consecutive years opened its first overseas location at Sugar+ in Causeway Bay on 7 March 2026, and the queues started forming from day one.
Why Shima Matters in Tokyo
Chef Hiroshi Morishima opened Ramenya Shima in Shibuya’s Daikanyama neighbourhood in 2020 and won the Tokyo Ramen of the Year Newcomer Grand Prix in its debut year. Tabelog Bronze Awards followed in both 2022 and 2025, placing the counter consistently among the most respected ramen shops in a city where competition is relentless. The Tokyo location serves only 60 bowls per day, and the queue is a given. Hong Kong is the first city outside Japan where Morishima chose to expand, a deliberate bet on a market where diners take Japanese food seriously and are willing to pay for quality.
The style is tanrei, a refined, clear broth that relies on precision and ingredient quality rather than the heavy, opaque tonkotsu that dominates most ramen menus in Hong Kong. If your reference point for good ramen is a rich pork bone soup, Shima will recalibrate your expectations. The broth here is lighter in colour but deeper in layered flavour, the kind of bowl that rewards slow, attentive eating.
The Broth: 30 Ingredients, No Shortcuts
Every bowl at Ramenya Shima starts with a soup base built from roughly 30 premium ingredients. The foundation is Japanese chicken stock, layered with aged bonito flakes, scallops, clams, sea-bream head, kombu, and fresh vegetables. The result is a broth that tastes clean but carries remarkable depth, each spoonful revealing a slightly different note depending on what rises to the surface.
The menu offers three signature broth styles. The shoyu is the flagship: a soy-based soup with robust, savoury complexity that balances salt, sweetness, and umami without any single element overpowering the rest. The white shoyu strikes a finer balance between salt and soy, lifted by white truffle oil and black truffle paste for a more aromatic finish. The shio is the purest expression of the base stock, a salt soup that strips everything back and lets the quality of the ingredients speak without interference.
The Noodles and Toppings
The noodles are made in-house daily from a blend of five flours, with no additives or alcohol. They are smooth, with an al dente bite that holds up in the hot broth without turning soft. The texture is distinctly different from the mass-produced noodles used at most ramen chains, and the difference is noticeable from the first strand.
Toppings include four varieties of chashu, each prepared differently: soy-braised pork belly, lean pork, chicken, and a duck option that rotates seasonally. Handmade shrimp and pork wontons are available as an add-on, and we recommend them. The wonton skins are thin enough to be almost translucent, and the filling has a satisfying snap. A side of Japanese rice (HK$28) is worth ordering to finish the broth.
What to Order
The menu is compact and focused. The Wonton Ramen and Chashu Ramen both start at HK$118. The Premium Ramen at HK$138 adds extra toppings, while the Ultimate Ramen at HK$158 is the full experience with all four chashu types and the complete topping set. For a first visit, we recommend the shoyu in the Premium or Ultimate format to get the fullest picture of what the kitchen can do.
The Hong Kong menu also includes several items not available at the Tokyo counter. The homemade Japanese pork dumplings (HK$38) are crisp-bottomed and juicy. The chicken nanban (HK$48), deep-fried and finished with a nanbanzu sauce, makes a good shared starter. Rice bowls, including a diced chashu donburi (HK$58) and a truffle oil and akatsuki egg donburi (HK$68), give you a way to extend the meal without ordering a second bowl of ramen.
The Space
The Causeway Bay location takes up around 1,200 square feet on the ground floor of Sugar+ at 31 Sugar Street, with 24 counter seats arranged in the intimate, single-row format that defines serious ramen counters in Tokyo. The design is modern Japanese minimalism: warm wood tones, clean lines, and a classic noren curtain at the entrance. The counter faces the open kitchen, so you watch your bowl being assembled from broth to final garnish. It is the kind of setup that encourages focus on the food rather than lingering conversation, and table turnover is fast.
There are no reservations. It is walk-in only, which is standard for high-end ramen counters in Japan. Queues form at weekends and during peak lunch hours, but weekday visits are generally manageable. Arriving at 11:30 am when the doors open gives you the best chance of walking straight in. If you are exploring Causeway Bay’s food scene, combining a ramen lunch with a walk through the surrounding streets is easy.
Getting There
Take the MTR to Causeway Bay station and use Exit E. Walk east along Sugar Street for about three minutes and Sugar+ is on your left. The restaurant is at ground level with a noren curtain marking the entrance. If you want a different meal on a separate visit, Lai’s Kitchen in Wan Chai is one MTR stop away, and Um Yong Baek in Central is a short ride on the Island Line.
Quick Info
| Japanese Name | らぁ麺や 嶋 |
| Address | Shop 1, G/F, Sugar+, 31 Sugar Street, Causeway Bay 銅鑼灣糖街31號Sugar+地下1號舖 Google Maps |
| Nearest MTR | Causeway Bay (Exit E), 3-minute walk |
| Hours | Daily: 11:30 am to 3:00 pm, 6:00 pm to 9:30 pm |
| Phone | 2602 7068 |
| Price | HK$118 to HK$158 per ramen bowl; sides from HK$38 |
| Must-Order | Shoyu Ultimate Ramen (HK$158), Shrimp and Pork Wonton Ramen (HK$118), Pork Dumplings (HK$38) |
| Payment | Cards accepted; walk-in only, no reservations |
