Ramen Man

I finally made it to the new ramen joint in Wallingford, Ramen Man (1616 N 45th St). I pronounce it delicious.

It’s a small and simple shop with just four tables up front (and a few more tucked in back), but the food exceeds the digs. The menu is simple: they do ramen, but certainly not the freeze-dried noodle kind you may remember from college. It’s a rich bowl of hearty, creamy goodness. It was so creamy, in fact, that I assumed there was coconut milk or similar in there, but was re-assured it was just chicken broth. The meat (chicken and pork), while not hugely flavorful by itself, was tender and melty. And broth and noodles were stupefyingly good.

I admittedly don’t know much about ramen, so I’m going to crib a review that Frankie left in the comments section of a previous Wallyhood article:

The broth is based on a famous Kumamoto restaurant recipe, famous in part because it eschews the normal Kyushu Tonkotsu broth in favor of a very rich chicken bone and marrow stock. It’s creamy, silky in texture and very, very rich.

Noodles are traditional thin Kyushu style, supplied by a famous LA place that creates noodles for a few Japanese places in SoCal. Perfectly cooked with just enough bite.

There is beer, Sapporo in cans to be specific, and maybe teething troubles, but it wasn’t served with a glass, which was suboptimal.

Couple of sides, including rice and (not today) Kimchi. Free unlimited hard boiled eggs with a bowl for peeling (but no soft boiled Ajitsuki Tamago, which is a shame) for eating on their own, cool Hand Luke style, or better yet, put the cold, peeled egg right in your broth and eat it a few seconds after it’s immersed. Which is a Tokyo tradition.

I sucked the whole thing down quick, and left very satisfied and only $12 poorer.