Would you be surprised if I told you that Justin Holt tests his ramen broth with a refractometer?
That, unlike at any other ramen shop in Dallas, the noodles at his tiny Bishop Arts restauruant, Salaryman, are made and crimped by hand, in-house, in a process that takes at least four days?
That when a bowl is set down in front of you, the server will purposely wait two minutes before delivering any sauces, so you’ll first experience the ramen as God and Holt intended it, before you go and adjust it to your liking?
Even if you already know that Holt is a ramen obsessive — and after almost seven years of phenomenally popular pop-ups, a lot of us do — Salaryman is still likely to surprise you in any number of ways.
After three years of construction and delays, Holt finally opened the doors on this beautiful 27-seat izakaya over the summer. The timing couldn’t have been better: It arrived just as North Texas was entering a serious ramen phase with a flurry of impressive new shops including Ichigoh, Hinodeya and Marufuku, all making faithful renditions of Japan’s most popular export.
Holt is doing something different, paying meticulous attention to the traditions and techniques of ramen and izakaya fare, but building every element of his menu from scratch, with an astonishing level of commitment.
That ranges from making and aging his own soy sauces and tares to creating an incredibly aromatic seasonal togarashi (this month, the spice is made with dried yuzu and sudachi enlivening the Texas chiles and sesame seeds), to continually re-engineering every element in his three bowls of soup, each based on chicken broth.
His whole-animal philosophy means you’ll also find most other parts of the Cartermere Farms bird on his yakitori menu. And the terrific cocktails by Madeline Russell are largely based on the Japanese spirit shochu and Japanese whisky (naturally, the perfectly clear ice cubes are also made and cut in-house).
One result of all this precision and commitment: Salaryman is making some of the most ambitious ramen in the country, backed up by a menu that is artfully, and deliciously, both Texan and Japanese.
Another result: There are some rigid rules that are going to annoy a lot of you. Salaryman takes no reservations, and on busy nights you’ll have to write your name and number on a sign-up sheet by the door and then leave until you’re called back. The menu — filled with dozens of tempting items, all cooked in the open kitchen at the center of the restaurant — warns you to “order responsibly” because Salaryman will not box up any leftovers to take home. Servers tend to be fussy about where you might set down a plate or a glass and rearrange your tabletop to fit some secret aesthetic.
So no, this isn’t your usual loose, casual izakaya experience, for better and for worse. But it is astonishingly delicious, and over the course of a couple of months, it got better and better.
That came into sharp focus with a bowl of chintan shio ramen. It had been good before, but not like this: This light version of chicken broth was luminous with delicate flavor, crystalline and brighter than before. The noodles were now slightly crimped instead of straight, with more chew and a bigger, toastier flavor. Finished with the simplest adornments — a velvety slice of poached chicken breast, a bundle of fresh spinach, a frill of green scallion — it was as if every element had clicked into place.
Sitting at the bar another night, my friend began mm-hmm’ing over his bowl of paitan ramen, a richer chicken broth that’s boiled long and hard until it transforms into milky white lusciousness, like pork tonkotsu. I took a spoonful, and yes, it too had evolved: the flavors a little fresher yet still rich, the pork belly chashu meltingly soft yet bearing the trace of the grill, the seasoned egg as savory as I’ve ever had.
There were many small adjustments in the dishes, Holt told me later, beginning with brightening the chintan with an apple and ginger sofrito (a totally nontraditional move, inspired by Ivan Orkin of Ivan Ramen in New York City). And now Holt is crinkling the noodles by hand, so the inconsistent kinks can grab more of the soup’s surface fat and flavor. He also began using a whole egg instead of just a yolk, to give the noodles a “fudgier” texture.
The milky paitan gets a shorter cooking time — 12 to 15 hours, instead of 18 to 20 — in an effort to keep more flavors in the broth. And he’s monitoring the density of each batch with a refractometer, the same gizmo winemakers use to determine the sugar concentration in grape juice.
The third ramen on the menu, chintan shoyu, made with the clear chicken broth amped up with several aged soy sauces and chicken garum, has a weight in between the other bowls, with slices of pork belly chashu, crisp nori, bamboo shoots and a seasoned egg. It was the least focused of the three, and later Holt said it is the one he is still tinkering with.
Before the ramen, you’ll want to start with some small dishes, including the pickles (and at $5 each, maybe all of the pickles). Each is distinctly flavored, with the current menu featuring misozuke, with chunks of radish and turnip pickled in house-made miso and mirin, and shibazuke, with refreshing bites of lightly brined cucumber contrasting with the intensity of fermented Japanese eggplant.
The standout, though, is a variation on Texas chowchow made with chopped cabbage, carrots, peppers and kombu — each pickled separately or fermented, creating a dish that’s fascinating bite by bite, with acid, heat, sweetness, funk and even floral notes.
There are 19 different yakitori skewers, grilled over clean-burning binchotan charcoal, and if you think of chicken as containing only white meat or dark, they can be revelatory. Here you can order skewers of thigh, or the softer inner thigh, juicy breast skin or the crisper back skin. If you’re into crunch, go for the knee bone, for softness, the tender heart.
Though ramen and yakitori are the focus, there are other items not to be missed, and two of them involve koji bacon, a miracle ingredient Holt makes by curing pork belly with salt, sugar and the umami punch of koji. More flavors are built in with gochugaru, the gently hot Korean red pepper blend, plus smoke, for a bacon that is beyond even the usual salty-sweet deliciousness of, well, bacon.
Thick slices are wrapped around a bundle of enoki mushrooms, skewered and grilled (the best $3 you’ll spend). And it’s the key ingredient in one of the two entree-type dishes on the menu: chahan, a super-rich version of fried rice that involves plenty of butter, chunks of koji bacon, vegetables and good soy sauce.
Maybe the biggest surprise of Salaryman is that Holt, who is cooking so skillfully here, has never been to Japan. He says he sharpened his palate by eating in Japanese restaurants here, by reading as much as he can and by “using Google Translate a whole lot.”
One day soon he plans to go. And when he does, no doubt, the tiny world of Salaryman will become much bigger.
Salaryman
Rating: Three stars
Price: $$ (pickles and small salads $5, yakitori and grilled items $2 to $7, ramen $16, main courses $10 to $16, soft-serve ice cream $6)
Service: Precise to the point of arranging and rearranging the plates on your table, but in a friendly way
Ambience: In this 27-seat nook of a restaurant, which shares a kitchen with its 18-month-old sibling, Macellaio, chef Justin Holt is turning out some of the most ambitious ramen in the country, all of it based on chicken broths and Holt’s handmade noodles. His whole-animal philosophy means you’ll also find most parts of the bird on his yakitori menu, along with broader izakaya fare and some deliciously balanced cocktails. On a weeknight, grab a stool at the bar, or a spot at the communal table or one of three individual tables. On weekends, Holt’s clipboard waitlist may annoy some, but it creates the hum and energy of a tiny restaurant at full capacity, without the crush of a crowd.
Noise: Loud (81 decibels)
Drinks: Clean, focused cocktails ($13) and two Japanese beers ($8 and $12) make an excellent match for the food. The signature chuhais, highballs made with the Japanese spirit shochu, are lightly sweet and flavored with citrus or ume. Two other standouts pack more of a punch: the Old Dragon, a spin on an Old-Fashioned tinged with Okinawa black sugar and Sichuan peppercorn, and a shiso mojito with lemon grass syrup and shiso leaf in place of the usual mint. All are well-made and served over perfectly clear hand-cut ice.
Recommended: Enoki mushroom with koji bacon; chowchow and other pickles; yakitori; chintan and paitan ramen; chahan (fried rice); shiso mojito and Old Dragon cocktails
GPS: A seat at the bar in front of the yakitori grill gives you a real-time preview of the menu and the best view of the room (plus extra noise from the exhaust hood and a smoky perfume by the end of the night).
Address: 287 N. Bishop Ave., Dallas; 214-364-8902; salarymanoakcliff.com
Hours: Tuesday-Thursday from 6 to 11 p.m., Friday-Saturday from 6 p.m. to midnight. (Note: On slow weeknights, the restaurant may close at 10:30 p.m. On weekends, last orders are taken at 11:30 p.m.)
Reservations: Not accepted. Put your name and number on the clipboard hanging by the door and you’ll be called when your seats are ready.
Credit cards: All major
Health department score: A (96, July)
Access: Restaurant is on one level; most seats are at a low bar or tables.
Parking: Free lot behind the restaurant and street parking
Ratings Legend
4 stars: Extraordinary (First-rate on every level; a benchmark dining experience)
3 stars: Excellent (A destination restaurant and leader on the DFW food scene)
2 stars: Very Good (Strong concept and generally strong execution)
1 star: Good (Has merit, but limited ambition or spotty execution)
No stars: Poor (Not recommended)
Noise Levels
Below 60: Quiet. Maybe too quiet.
60-69: Easy listening. Normal conversation, with a light background buzz.
70-79: Shouty. Conversation is possible, but only with raised voices.
80-85: Loud. Can you hear me now? Probably not.
86-plus: Deafening.
Prices
Average dinner per person.
$ -- $19 and under
$$ -- $20 to $50
$$$ -- $50 to $99
$$$$ -- $100 and over
