You expected a ramen chef, but is was him, Dio!

While you can expect great-tasting noodles in Japan’s ramen restaurants, you generally shouldn’t expect all that much in terms of special ambiance. The food really is the main thing, so it’s a quick order, quick service, and a quick, slurping meal at most ramen joints.

Osaka’s Reiwa, however, is not most ramen joints. The restaurant’s full name is “Kuse ga Tsuyoi Menya Reiwa,” meaning “Reiwa, a Noodle Restaurant with a Highly Unusual Personality,” and they’re not kidding.

For starters, one of the house specialties is cilantro ramen, which is an unusual dish for Japan, and the shop’s interior and exterior are covered in word balloons and sound effects. But what really sets Reiwa apart is what happens after you place your order, and if you’re a sharp-eyed anime/manga fan, the font on those sound effect signs should give you a clue as to what’s coming next.

“Three seconds left,” says Reiwa’s chef in the video posted by Japanese Twitter user @o0teto0o. “Two seconds left…one second left,” he counts down dramatically, and when a timer goes off indicating the noodles have finished cooking, it’s time to removed them from the pot and shake off the excess water he does so while shouting:

“MUDAMUDAMUDAMUDAMUDAMUDAMUDAMUDAMUDAMUDAMUDAMUDAMUDAMUDAMUDAMUDAMUDAMUDAMUDAMUDAMUDAMUDAMUDAMUDA!!!”

No, he hasn’t snapped after an overly stressful day in the kitchen. Instead, he’s reenacting the The World Stand Cry of Dio Brando, archvillain of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure whose signature superpower has achieved worldwide meme status from his repeated cries of “muda” (“it’s worthless”).

▼ Another “Mudamudamuda!” from Reiwa’s chef

Customer videos stretching back several months show that this wasn’t a one-time show of JoJo fandom exuberance, either. Sometimes the chef even mixes things up by shunning the sinister Dio and instead invoking the “Oraoraora!” of the series’ titular hero Jotaro Kujo’s Star Platinum Stand.

▼ “Oraoraoraoraoraoraoraoraora!” And yes, that’s line of JoJo collected manga volumes on the counter.

https://twitter.com/Ry92906097/status/1161249193249218560

While it’s the chef’s performance that’s getting the most buzz, it’s not like Reiwa is trying to give you some extra laughs while shortchanging you on flavor. Customer reviews on Japanese restaurant site Tabelog are positive, and photos of the food itself look powerfully tasty.

Reiwa just opened in May (which explains why its name matches that of Japan’s new imperial era, which also began in the spring), but with its one-of-a-kind dining experience, hopefully it can match the longevity of the JoJo manga, which has been running since 1987.

Restaurant information
Kuse ga Tsuyoi Menya reiwa / クセが強い麺屋 れいわ
Address: Osaka-fu, Osaa-shi, Chuo-ku, Bakuromachi 4-7-1
大阪府大阪市中央区博労町4-7-1
Open noon-2 p.m., 7 p.m.-11 p.m.
Closed Sundays, Tuesdays

Restaurant information
Kuse ga Tsuyoi Menya reiwa / クセが強い麺屋 れいわ
Address: Osaka-fu, Osaa-shi, Chuo-ku, Bakuromachi 4-7-1
大阪府大阪市中央区博労町4-7-1
Open noon-2 p.m., 7 p.m.-11 p.m.
Closed Sundays, Tuesdays

Source: Twitter/@o0teto0o via Twitter/@yeskiri

Follow Casey on Twitter, where the very first piece of JoJo’s anime he ever saw was The World, and he had no idea what was going on.