What I remember from Japan are ramen restaurants where you buy tokens from a vending machine before you go into the restaurant. Seemed pretty efficient and tho

What I remember from Japan are ramen restaurants where you buy tokens from a vending machine before you go into the restaurant. Seemed pretty efficient and those places kept simple ramen at around $6-$8 per bowl in Osaka. You would then go into the restaurant and hand in your token (IIRC it was colored to denote the dish you ordered).