Takayama ramen: what it is, where it is from and what a bowl costs

From

Takayama, Gifu

Soup

soy sauce

Noodles

thin, curly

Also

locals call it chuka soba

Checked

18 October 2026, the Gifu Tourism Federation

• Gifu's tourism site says Takayama ramen is a simple pairing of soy-sauce soup and thin curly noodles.
• Locals call it 'chuka soba', not ramen.
• Gifu's tourism site calls it the local ramen of the Hida region.

The government's retail price survey records the price of a bowl of chuka soba (ramen) at ordinary shops every month in 81 cities. In August 2026 it was 662 yen in Gifu City (capital of Gifu), 66 of 81 from the highest. Tokyo's 23 wards were 620 yen, 73 of 81, so ramen in Tokyo is not more expensive than in most cities. This is an average of the shops in the survey, not the price at a famous shop.

The survey does not cover Takayama, so this is the price in Gifu's capital, Gifu City.

Spending on eating out at ramen shops

8,512 yen a year per household in Gifu City (2023–2025 average; 23 of 52 cities; Japan 8,752 yen)

Ramen shops

286 in Gifu in 2016, 14.1 per 100,000 people (28 of 47; Japan 14.3)

Spending is from the household survey of two-or-more-person households in 52 large cities, so it is the city's number, not the prefecture's. Ramen shops are the 2016 Economic Census count of businesses classified as ramen shops; some ramen shops are counted with Chinese restaurants, so the real number is higher. Per-person numbers divide by the 2016 population (our calculation).