Eat This Now: Ramen at Ramen Bowls
Spicy Chicken Curry Ramen at Ramen Bowls // Photo by Sarah Sipple
Ramen Bowls recently moved from one hoppin’ Mass. St. location to another, less than a block away. Now inside Mariott’s TownePlace Suites at 9th and New Hampshire, the restaurant has filled the larger space with bright colors, unique light fixtures, and tropical motifs.
The Hawaiian-Japanese fusion menu is limited to a few confident sections of appetizers, ramen bowls, sweets, and cocktails. The tropical cocktail menu includes drinks like Rosemary Paloma, Tokyo Sidecar, and Pineapple Wine Punch, and more ranging from $8-12.
I kicked off the meal with a trio of apps: Pickle Plate ($5), Chicken Wontons ($7), and Edamame ($6). All three are now locked in as must-orders for me.
The Pickle Plate is more like a pickled bowl. It offers a crunchy kick with pickled cucumbers, onions, bell peppers, and kimchi. For a savory partner to the vinegar dish, the Chicken Wontons were clutch. Think crab rangoon, but less cream cheese and more chicken! Lastly, a green element to the app trio is the Edamame. I chose spicy over regular, but calling this spicy is like calling black pepper spicy. Nevertheless, it was my favorite edamame of any restaurant yet. Which bade well for me since the portion here was so generous.
For the main course, ramen selections are broken down by protein—chicken, beef, pork, seafood, and veggie/tofu. It ranges from $10-15 per bowl, with a wide variety of add-on choices like fried egg, extra scallion or corn, tofu, and more.
I opted for the Spicy Chicken Curry Ramen dish ($13) with wavy ramen noodles, chicken curry broth, corn, scallions, spinach, napa cabbage, chicken, and carrots.
As far as curry dishes go, this lands at the lightest end of the spectrum. The broth has an enticing and approachable scent of curry, but with the consistency of a thin chicken broth. As far as heat or spice level, I’d give it a 2/10. (The Pad Thai Ramen was closer to 3.5/10.)
Wavy yellow ramen noodles were plentiful and firm, and the finely shredded chicken made it easy for each bite to encompass many flavors and textures. Maybe it is the small-town Kansan in me, but I love corn in ramen dishes. The sweet and structured pop adds a diversity of texture.
Like most ramen bowls of this style, I found it to be comforting and satisfying. I couldn’t finish the whole dish, but enjoyed the remaining third as leftovers for lunch the next day.
Strawberry Malt Cake at Ramen Bowls // Photo by Sarah Sipple
Ordering dessert was a non-negotiable at our table. Ramen Bowls recently brought on Steph Castor as head Pastry Chef. You may recognize that name–Steph was formerly the Managing Editor of The Pitch! While we miss her keen eye for editing, grounded energy, and–of course–her bringing artful and scrumptious goodies to the office, we’re happy for her new role at Ramen Bowls closer to home.
The Strawberry Malt Cake ($6) exceeded our expectations. Made of fresh strawberry cake, pineapple puree, fresh berries, and malted buttercream, the chilled dish mixed nostalgic familiarity with unexpected delight. It was sweet and brimming with natural strawberry flavor. The cake itself was moist and dense, almost like the texture of a cake pop. The only condition under which I would recommend sharing this is if you ordered more desserts for the table and shared them all. Kudos, Steph!
Ramen Bowls is located at 900 New Hampshire St, Lawrence, KS 66044.
