Less time commuting, home baking, more opportunities to watch the kids grow up — there are only a few high points of the devastating coronavirus pandemic. A newly added, tiny gain is that ramen restaurants that previously never permitted their respected bowls of art to be sold to-go have reconsidered and adapted to carryout and delivery models.
A wheat noodle soup served in rich umami broth, ramen is a symbol of Japanese cuisine today, but its origins go back to China, according to George Solt’s book, The Untold History of Ramen: How Political Crisis in Japan Spawned a Global Food Craze.
As told in the book, the soup made its appearance in Japan in the late 19th century, when migrants from China worked as cooks in the port city of Yokohama. The dish spread throughout the country after WWII, when emergency wheat from the U.S. military was imported to offset failed rice crops and starvation as a result of the war. By the ’60s, ramen sold from push carts became a standard blue collar lunch, and in the ’80s, trendsetting youth gave it new prominence.
“Its appeal among young people, its regional variation, and its roots in China and Japan as opposed to Europe or the United States allowed ramen to gain traction as an archetype of native inventiveness, entrepreneurship, and cultural resilience in the age of McDonald’s and Denny’s,” writes Solt, an assistant professor of history at New York University.
All of this to say, ramen is an adaptive and constantly evolving dish, even here in Dallas-Fort Worth, where you can find classic ramen made by trained masters, as well as inspired spin-offs, like hatch chili tonkatsu ramen, gumbo ramen, and ramen with Korean barbecue bulgogi and kimchi — all sold to-go.
These darker days are going to call for warm bowls of first-rate comfort food, so here is a guide to some of the area’s best, from Deep Ellum to Lewisville, Arlington and Fort Worth.
Wabi House
Wabi House serves reliably tasty bowls of the three main types of ramen: tonkatsu (pork broth), shoyu (chicken broth), and spicy miso.
Our Lowest Greenville status report first shared the news about the move to delivery ramen in October. Before then, the Greenville Avenue location as well as the Fort Worth location only offered their izakaya-style small plates for to-go. Delivery is now available from both locations through Caviar; the Fort Worth location additionally uses DoorDash.
Ten Ramen
In any discussion of the city’s best ramen, Ten is bound to come up. Chef-owner Teiichi Sakurai is a James Beard Award nominee from Tokyo who still remains in charge of the elegant soba noodle house, Tei-An. When Sakurai opened Ten in 2015 on Sylvan Avenue, the elbow-to-elbow eatery had ten rules posted on the wall. Rule #1: No to-go. Now, it’s the only way to go.
Orders can be called in or ordered on iPads inside. Antimicrobial copper covers have been installed around each door handle, and bottles of hand sanitizer sit beside ordering devices. Those wanting to slurp their noodles as soon as possible — as ramen is meant to be eaten — can stand at the simple bar outside or at tables situated in the courtyard of the Sylvan Thirty shopping center.
Sure to please is anything with Sakurai’s chasu (pork belly slices). Chasu is usually braised for ramen, but at Ten, it’s cooked on the grill until it achieves a perfect, smoky char.
Ramen Izakaya Akira
Less well-known and totally worth the drive is Lewisville’s Ramen Izakaya Akira in the upscale Castle Hills neighborhood. Before opening the restaurant in 2018, chef-owner Akira Imamura had a ramen restaurant in Los Angeles, as well as an Italian restaurant in his hometown of Nagoya, Japan, which he ran for 20 years. During most shifts, you can see chef Imamura laboring behind steaming vats of broth, taking orders and bussing dishes.
Ramen Izakaya Akira reopens Dec. 15 after being closed while Imamura received medical treatments. It’s open for dinner only right now, as well as takeout and delivery.
On weekends, check out specials like the roast beef ramen and pork shabbu shabbu ramen, as well as fancy Japanese appetizers like yellowtail with saikyo miso, and tofu balls in octopus vinegar.
Delivery is available through UberEats to nearby Carrollton and The Colony addresses. To enjoy carryout orders quickly, the peaceful Lake Avalon is across the street, and there are outdoor tables at the Castle Hills Village Shops & Plaza.
Bols
Bols, a Korean rice and ramen restaurant in Plano’s Prestonwood Park, has delightful build-your-own ramen bowls for contactless pickup and delivery via Caviar, Grubhub and DoorDash.
All bowls come with a noodle option: curly, straight or gluten-free. Choices continue with 15 toppings and 6 animal and vegan proteins.
Plant-based people will be happy here with vegan shoyu and miso broth. For non-vegan barbecue lovers, start with pork miso broth and add barbecue beef bulgogi and sautéed kimchi for a delicious and rare bowl of Korean-style ramen.
Oni Ramen
Named after the horned trolls of Japanese folklore, Oni Ramen in Deep Ellum and Fort Worth is where ramen lovers who like it hot can get “demon spiced” miso broth, set ablaze with scorpion and Carolina reaper peppers. There’s a 1 to 5 spice level option included for each bowl of ramen, whether you opt for the spiciest, the Oni Reaper, or something more mild, like the vegetarian bowl in a cabbage and soy milk broth (which can also be prepared vegan and gluten-free). Particularly good is the Tokyo Black, a spicy garlic chicken broth with double-ancho glazed pork belly and lots of black garlic oil.
Delivery is available from both locations through Caviar, DoorDash and Favor.
Ichigoh Ramen Lounge
A fun thing to do is to order from both Oni Ramen and Ichigoh Ramen Lounge and decide among household members which place is currently selling Deep Ellum’s best ramen. You won’t find competitively spicy ramen here, but you will discover perhaps the most authentic Japanese ramen in Dallas, made by Japanese chefs.
After departing from the famous Japanese tonkatsu chain, Ippudo, owners George Itoh and Andy Tam reopened the space formerly known as Tanoshii in 2019. At Ichigoh, noodles are imported from Sapporo, Japan, and aged in wooden boxes before going in delicate chintan (chicken) broth or vegetarian apple fennel shio. Itoh says he wants to “stop influencing the dish and go back to as hard core Japanese” as he can.
Because he can’t justify the cost of third party delivery services, Itoh is offering Ichigoh’s menu for carryout. He says the pandemic has “severely affected” business, but now that ramen season is beginning, he remains hopeful as he brings back staff to prepare.
Kintaro Ramen
Gumbo ramen, Jamaican goat curry ramen, Vietnamese bò kho (beef stew) ramen. There’s no question that chef Jesús García’s rotating specials at Kintaro Ramen are among the Metroplex’s most creative dishes.
García is a Fort Worth native who attended Le Cordon Bleu in Austin before returning to become the head chef at the highly-rated Little Lilly Sushi. García later moved to Seattle to work in Japanese restaurants, and then took a ramen class in Takamatsu, Japan, to focus on a new specialty.
After returning from Japan, García created the menu at Oni Ramen. Now he’s growing even more imaginative at Kintaro, which opened during shutdown measures in April.
Kintaro has two locations: a ghost kitchen in Fort Worth and a restaurant in Arlington. Both offer carryout and delivery through UberEats and Grubhub; Arlington additionally uses DoorDash. García says sharing profits with third-party delivery companies wasn’t a part of the restaurant’s original plan, but opening mid-pandemic forced him and his partners to adapt since they didn’t want to deal with the added expense of delivery employees and insurance.
García says at Kintaro, he wants to “show the differences and similarities between world cuisines and how they can be applied to ramen.”
