Ramen Ray- Revisit

Since COVID and quarantining began, we have developed a pretty regular list of places we get carry out from on a regular basis. Ramen Ray is one of these. They do a great job with carry out and even though it has to use a few more containers than is ideal, by keeping the noodles and everything else separate from the broth, it keeps the perfect consistency of the noodles and the eggs don’t get overcooked. And if I want to heat the broth up separately for a minute when I get it home to make it a bit warmer, I can easily do that too. My only complaint is they aren’t open Sunday nights which always seems to be the night we want ramen. They also do delivery through some of the third party services.

My regular order is a half order of miso ramen with an extra egg and chopped pork. The noodles are tender and great, the eggs are perfect and I really enjoy the chopped-up pork over the big slabs of pork which are more challenging to eat with a spoon and chopsticks. Hubby also gets the miso—sometimes a full order, sometimes half, depending on his mood. There is a spicy miso option as well, but last time I had it, it was so spicy, it was almost too much.

The kids both prefer the shoyu, which is a soy sauce type broth—and they also get an extra egg—which gives you three halves…just the right amount if you ask me. We also usually get at least one order of dumplings—you can get pork or veggie—we always get the pork. They are lightly pan fried and I like the vinegar/soy dipping sauce to give a little bite of acid to go with the rich ramen.

All in all, a solid experience—and the guy in there is starting to recognize me which shows you how much we get it. One of the things I like about it, is that it is carry out that isn’t pizza or fried food and feels a little healthier. So, let me know what your favorite slightly “healthier” options are these days. 

Actually, please tell me new and unusual places you have found good carry out. I need some new inspiration---but something I can carry out. At least for now. 

Ramen Ray

5628 East 71^st Street

Indy 46220

317-288-7120

https://ramenray.com/

Yujo Ramen and Boba Tea

I met a friend for lunch the other day at Yujo. I am always game for a new ramen place. This is more of your quick service type of place where you order up front and then pay and they bring it to you. The interior is pretty simple and straightforward.

So their main thing is ramen and boba tea but they also offer a few other things like Japanese fried chicken and gyoza. However, we just tried the ramen. They had some interesting varieties of ramen, but we both ended up going with the spicy ramen ($13.50)—it is sort of the classic ramen that you think of—a miso and pepper-based sauce with wavy noodles, a slice of pork, a marinated egg, corn, fermented bamboo shoots, sliced scallions and charred beansprouts. There was also a garnish type piece of nori but I popped it out because I don’t like it when it starts to get kind of fishy tasting, but that’s just me. They also use some spicy chili oil on top. 

This was a very solid bowl of ramen. I added an extra egg (+$1.50) because that’s just what I do. The broth was extremely flavorful and the eggs were cooked just right. I really liked the crunch from the charred bean sprouts as well. Now I know that the big slab of pork is traditional, but I had a bowl in Rhode Island that had little bits of ground pork and that was so much better to me. I hate using chopsticks to try and bite off pieces of the pork.

However, overall, a very good bowl of ramen. Plenty of noodles, plenty of flavor and some unique takes—like the bean sprouts. There are also several other options that are a little more unique—one ramen that was yuzu-infused. Another is topped with black garlic oil. There’s also a veggie ramen. All sound very worth trying.

One thing I would change/add is to offer a smaller size option for lunch and maybe make a combo like some of the other places do with a couple of gyoza or a couple of pieces of fried chicken perhaps? Because I try to eat somewhat light for lunch, and I don’t know that this place has a real going out to dinner vibe for me. Speaking of which, there’s no alcohol. Like I said, lots of boba tea if that’s your thing though.

Let me know if you’ve tried this place—especially if you have tried some of these other items. I’m intrigued!

Yujo Ramen and Boba Tea

9431 N. Meridian Street

Indy  46260

317/669-0315

https://www.facebook.com/yujoindy/

Meet Noodles

Struggling for a place to get a quick dinner on Sunday, I remembered reading about Meet Noodles and so we headed over there. It was impressive to see such a large crowd for a small local place in Castleton on a Sunday. It’s a warm feeling interior—more so than many of the Asian places we like on this side of town. The wood tables are cute, but strangely awkward to sit at if you are on the booth side as you can’t cross your legs under the table. But I switched to a chair and was good. 

Shoyu

So they specialize in ramen and noodle bowls made with homemade noodles. We got 2 of the ramen choices—the tonkatsu ($12) and the shoyu ($12) as well as the lanzhou la-mian with the hand-pulled noodles ($12).  Honestly, they were all good, but if I had to pick a favorite it was probably the shoyu ramen. It was a clear soy-based chicken bone broth base with the classic ingredients—sliced pork belly, corn, bamboo shoots, soft boiled egg, scallions and black mushrooms. I loved the crispy garlic bits that were sprinkled on top. I really enjoyed the salty taste of the broth and even if the noodles aren’t hand-pulled, they are quite tasty. And I preferred the soft-boiled egg to the one that came with the hand-pulled noodles. 

The Lanzhou la-mian was also very tasty—these were the hand-pulled noodles and I liked the slightly different texture to the noodles—not sure how to describe them exactly, but they were a little softer and more delicate. The beef bone broth in this dish was really good—deep and rich even though overall it was a more delicate flavor as well. The thin sliced marinated beef was very tender even though it was thoroughly cooked. It was paper thin. While I appreciate the idea of the soy marinated egg, it was more like a hard-boiled egg and didn’t have that rich creaminess like the soft-boiled egg. I liked the freshness of the bok choy and the cilantro. It needed a little of the chili oil from the table to jazz it up a bit, but it was good. Simpler but good. It was more like a pho than a ramen.

Tonaktsu

The tonkatsu ramen was similar in toppings to the shoyu but had more of the garlic and was in a pork bone broth. I am not sure why, but this was my least favorite—the broth had a slightly fishy taste maybe? Maybe fish sauce? Maybe from the nori in there? It was just a little unexpected I guess. The rest of the ingredients were really good—and the pork that they use in the ramen is cut very thin, making it easier to eat with chopsticks and a large spoon.

All in all, a really nice addition to the Castleton area which is so notorious for bad food and chains (with some distinct exceptions of course). It’s beer and wine only if that matters to you—and when they say wine, they mean sake and that’s it. The service is fast and friendly and the place is already seemingly very popular.  Who else has been? I am curious about the appetizers… what have you tried?

Meet Noodles

6368-B 82^nd Street

Indy 46250

317/863-8058

https://www.meetnoodlesusa.com/

Ukiyo -- revisit

Recently I met a friend for lunch at Ukiyo. It has been quite a while since I was there, and the cold days make ramen sound good. I was happy when we got there to see they have sort of condensed the lunch and dinner menu into one and include ramen for both. I love the new small plates format as well. Of course, they still have the full sushi menu, but the rest is focused on shareable plates.

At lunch I had a half portion of the pork shoyu ramen ($9) and my friend the half order of chicken ramen ($9). They also have a vegetarian option, and I love that they offer the half portions, because I think they are plenty big. Plus, then you don’t feel like you’re over ordering if you want to try something else, which we did. The ramen is good—it is not spicy at all but has a nice depth of flavor in the broth. They were both on the mild side, but all the ingredients were tasty—I liked the fact that the slices of pork in mine weren’t fatty and were very tender. The only bad part of the ramen was in my friend’s chicken version. The pieces of chicken suffered from being a little gristly. 

We also had the bacon and cheese okonomiyaki ($10), which was the standout. So glad I ordered this, and the feeling was held by my friend as well. So okonomiyaki are Japanese pancakes made with shredded scallions and cabbage, and I believe some mountain yam was in there. Plus, of course, the bacon and cheese. There was a sauce drizzled on top and bonito flakes. This was the reason that I went back less than a week later with my daughter. That pancake was so tasty. Lots of flavors in there, lots of umami as they say. Seriously, next time you go, give it a try. It is rich though, so you will want to share it.

So at dinner, we ordered it again, and enjoyed it just as much except that it came at the very end of our meal and we had overordered and were getting pretty full. The first thing that came out was their version of tuna tartare called maguro zuke ($16). It is large cubes of tuna with chunks of nagaimo, which is a type of Japanese yam. These chunks are raw and it has a really interesting light and crunchy texture that is a cool contrast to the tuna. Not going to lie though, I would rather have more of the tuna and a little less of the yam. There were also some Chrysanthemum greens. It had a light shoyu sauce, that was maybe just a little light for my taste. I appreciate the freshness of the fish etc., but I would have loved a little more of the salty flavor of the sauce. 

We also had a hot chicken bun to share ($3), which was also quite delicious. I love a good Japanese bun, and this was a good one. The bun itself was really tender and I appreciated that it wasn’t as fat as some I have had, so it had a good ratio of bun to fried chicken. The crispy coating on the fried chicken was so crisp it just shattered when you bit into it. It was coated in a kind of hot honey sauce that didn’t feel ridiculously hot at first but built up in your mouth. Add some pickles, and you have a great little bite. 

We also shared the pork katsu donburi ($14), which I also really enjoyed. The pork was breaded and fried crisp, egg, and these melty sweet soy onions. It was all served on top of steamed rice. A really nice dish with crunchy bits and lots of smooth silky texture as well. It had a good, slightly sweet flavor, but also with the hit of soy. We both really enjoyed this. 

We also felt like we should order a sushi roll as well, since well, it’s a sushi place right? My daughter picked the crab, avocado and salmon roll ($17). The ingredients are some of the freshest around, and I love the actual crab in there—but I guess maybe I am realizing that I like some of the gooey sauces on my sushi. This one had a very light sauce on top, but honestly, it was so light, it isn’t particularly memorable to me. I get letting the fish shine, but I like a little burst of flavor too I guess. Bottom line, I think there’s a lot more flavor in the small plates, and I would probably just stick with that part of the menu on future visits. It is certainly the part of the menu that lures me back in.

All in all, it’s a great addition and I like that we have a lunch and dinner place with such an interesting Japanese menu. I like that you are no longer limited to only ramen for lunch and that you can get ramen at dinner and have more options than just sushi as well. It’s funny, because my first review I thought the sushi was the star compared to the other dishes we had, but now I think my opinion has flip flopped.

I am excited to see how the menu keeps evolving and changing with the seasons. I look forward to checking it out again soon. Let me know your menu favorites.

Ukiyo

4907 49^th Street

Indy  46205

317/384-1048

www.ukiyoindy.com 

Kizuki Ramen and Izakaya

Everyone is talking about the new ramen place in Carmel—Kizuki. It’s a chain that actually originated in Japan—good timing for them to open in Indy when everyone is now finally getting ramen crazy. I met my friend Suzanne there because she lives not too far away and loves to try a new restaurant as much as I do.

There are a LOT of ramen choices on this menu. Almost too many to know which to choose. Plus, all those small plates on the menu make you want to order them as well. Luckily, Suzanne is a good sharing friend, so we decided to get a couple of the small plates and split a bowl of ramen.

I asked our server for recommendations for which ramen to try and she recommended the garlic tonkotsu shoyu ramen or the spicy miso ramen (both $13). I was kind of already thinking about the garlic tonkotsu one she mentioned because it is described as “extra rich” and is made in limited quantities. Nothing like making something sound rare to make it alluring. Plus, my one complaint about some ramen I have had is that it’s too bland, so “extra rich” sounded good. It was a good bowl of ramen. Would I say it was great? Eh, not particularly. The broth actually tasted a little muddy if you know what I mean.  The slice of pork in it was nice (except I still always wonder exactly how you are supposed to eat them—they are too big for one bite, but chopsticks and a spoon make cutting it difficult). There was also bamboo shoots and some bean sprouts, which were fine. The star of the dish was clearly the egg. It was soft boiled as it usually is, and done nicely, but it was also seasoned in some sort of marinade and was super delicious. It was unique from most ramen in that the egg itself tasted so good on its own. Next time, I would go with a spicy broth and an extra egg. I also liked that there were lots of different seasonings to use in the ramen on the table--I used a couple and it helped jazz it up a bit.

We also got the chicken karaage ($6.50) and the pork gyoza ($5). I really enjoyed the gyoza—the dumplings were very hot and tasted very fresh. The skins were thin and had the exact right amount of crispiness on the pan-fried side. The vinegar soy sauce was nicely balanced and had enough vinegar to it that you could actually taste it. I would get these again.

Karaage chicken is Japanese fried chicken—it’s typically breaded with starch instead of a bunch of flour, so it has this lighter, crispier crunch to it. They also marinate the chicken beforehand. The chunks here seemed a mix of light and dark meat—some bites were really tasty and some a bit dry, but it was a decent dish. They served it with a spicy mayo that took it a step further in taste. I enjoyed the mayo.

There are a lot of people working here, (you might be startled by how many of them say hello to you in Japanese when you walk in) and they are more than happy to help as much as possible. They are doing a decent business as well. Overall, I enjoyed my visit, but wasn’t blown away.

Would love to know what you have had if you have been as well.

Kizuki Ramen & Izakaya

2450 E. 146^th Street

Carmel, IN 46033

www.kizuki.com 

Ramen Ray-Quick Revisit

Hubby wanted to try out Ramen Ray since I had gone with girl friends for my inaugural visit. And I was interested to see how the new opening hours would affect the wait time, etc. They now open at 11:00 for lunch, and we got there about 11:25 and walked right in and ordered right away. There were other people there, but not a lot. I have a feeling this change will greatly benefit the crowding issue.

I was also happy to see some additions to the menu. They have added a few new flavor combinations as well as the option of adding some ingredients. Hubby got the shio with the yuzu option and I got the spicy miso option with an extra egg (they give you a whole egg when you get an extra one, so I gave hubby half so we both ended up with one entire egg in each soup.

I really, really liked the spicy miso better than any of the first versions I had. It was, well, spicier. And just overall more flavorful. I also liked being able to add more egg, because that is my favorite bite—a bite of noodles with a little bit of the egg. And this broth was just more interesting. Not burn your mouth spicy at all, just more going on.

I was torn on hubby’s yuzu shio. I enjoyed the addition of the citrus flavor from the yuzu, but it was pretty subtle. And it seemed like this time the dish had a lot of seaweed in it, giving it a bit of a fishy flavor. He really enjoyed it, but it was a little dominating for me. I’m not sure if they add more with the yuzu variation or it was just a fluke, but I know what I would order on my next visit, and it’s the spicy miso. For sure.

Glad to see they are getting a handle on the business and offering a little more options and flexible hours. I know a bunch of you have been here—I’ve seen your pictures on instagram. So tell me what you think.

Ramen Ray

5628 East 71^st Street

Indy 46220

www.facebook.com/ramenrayindy

Rook - New Location Revisit

I was excited to meet a friend for lunch the other day at Rook—I hadn’t been yet to their new location. Wow, so much more sophisticated. I always felt like the old Rook’s location didn’t do enough to live up to the interesting food.

It’s a more spacious place as well, with individual tables, a bar area (looking into the open kitchen) and some larger communal tables. The menu is larger as well, although you will recognize many items from the old Rook location.

One of these return items also happens to be one of my favorites—the mushroom dumplings ($6). These are so delicious. They wonton skins are thin and delicate and having a mushroom filling gives it a fairly intense earthy flavor, but without the routine pork dumpling taste. They’re rich, but not typical. The light sauce is made with soy and vinegar and even the chunks of cucumbers (which aren’t typically my favorite thing) were tasty. I love these things and was glad they are still on the menu. 

I ordered one of the two ramen bowls ($14). It was a very interesting bowl of ramen. Besides the obvious broth and noodles, there were pickled greens, mushrooms, cabbage and a chicken rillettes with pickled mustard seeds on top. Oh yeah and one of those wonderful 63 degree eggs that are soft and just the right amount of runny inside. The flavor of the dish was very deep and almost grassy with all those greens, but I really enjoyed it. The one thing that didn’t really do it for me was that chicken rillette. I couldn’t quite figure out what I was supposed to do with it. If you cut into it in the broth, it just sort of dissolved and lost most of its flavor. It was difficult to eat. I sort of wished I had a side plate to put it on separately. I mainly just didn’t eat much of the rillette, but enjoyed the rest.

My friend had the Galbi rice bowl ($16) with Korean short ribs, avocado, pickled cucumbers, kim chi and pork cracklings. This is a solid choice—and I liked all the texture variations. It was maybe a little dry before you cracked into the egg on top, which gave it some more moisture. I loved the addition of avocado, as I always do—but in this case it lent a little bit of creaminess that was nice.

Rook is a cool spot—again one of the more interesting and creative menus you’ll find in Indy. I also appreciate that they change it up a bit all the time. And there’s beer and wine as well as cocktails now in the bigger space, which is really nice. Mostly, I appreciate the feel of the new space because it feels like it can easily be a dinner spot as well as a lunch spot. In the old location, it was hard to imagine it feeling like a destination for dinner for me anyway. Glad to see the progress.

Rook

501 Virginia Ave

Indy 46203

317/737-2293

www.rookindy.com 

Ramen Ray

Ok, I broke my rule about waiting a couple weeks before going somewhere new here, but I figured with the massive amounts of business they’ve had, they probably have lots of practice by now right? Plus, this place is right by my house and I have been waiting patiently (or not) for months for it to open.

I went with two friends and we tried everything on the menu. There are only three choices on the menu, so it’s pretty easy to do. We each got one of the different flavors of ramen and I tried them all (the bowls are around $13 each). I had the shio broth (which means salt) and my friends had the shoyu (soy) and miso (which is fermented bean paste). I think the shio is kind of the purest of the forms maybe, and the most delicate of the flavors. I enjoyed it and all the little bits of pork that were in there mixed with the noodles, but if you are looking for that big slice of pork on top, this one doesn’t come with it. Instead, there’s a little slice of fish roll. The broth did have a nuanced flavor and the bites with the egg were superb, but if you’re looking for something more in your face flavor-wise, you might want to try one of the others.

shio

The miso (which contains fish sauce and peanuts for those with allergy concerns) tasted heavily of miso—you know, like the soup you get before your sushi. I happen to really enjoy miso soup, so I thought this one was good, and it was certainly a stronger flavor than mine. This one had the pork slice as well as the egg and it’s unique topping was corn, which I will have to say is not my favorite ramen ingredient.

miso

I tasted the shoyu last, and after eating mine for several minutes beforehand, the soy flavor really whopped me. It’s definitely a darker and stronger flavor. Also good. This one also has the egg and pork (and they all had fresh bean sprouts and noodles obviously) as well as some seaweed. Speaking of noodles, they import their noodles from Japan, and apparently age them in the front counter. The noodles were good—they had some toothiness to them and didn’t just kind of dissolve the way rice noodles do. The only option they were offering when we were there was to add extra noodles, but honestly, there were a lot of noodles and I don’t know how they could even fit more in the bowl. You really don’t need extra in my opinion. The half soft-boiled eggs were also just right, with a just set yolk. One friend also snuck in a jar of togarashi to jazz up the soup after reading that it was a good idea. It was. We all used it.

shoyu

So overall, what do I think? I think Ramen Ray is certainly some of the best ramen in Indy (along with Rook) not that there are really many other places to compare to. I enjoy a nice bowl of noodles as much as the next gal, but I still haven’t found a bowl of ramen in Indy that can compare to the ones I have had in New York and Chicago (honestly, the best so far being Yusho in Chicago). And judging by the enthusiasm and crowds at this place (the entire restaurant was full before they even started serving at noon), Indy is itching for more ramen choices. Hopefully this starts a trend.

I do think they would do themselves a favor opening earlier than noon (the current hours are 12-2:00 and then reopening at 5:00 for dinner). Allowing people to get there earlier than noon, when a lot of people are just starting a lunch break would break up the crush of people all arriving at the same time I think. They are very friendly in there though and do everything they can to keep things moving along. I will certainly go back at some point when the crowds die down, as it is so convenient for me. However one of my friends, who lives near Westfield, said she’d be hard-pressed to come all the way to this side of town for this meal again (she has eaten a lot of the ramen I have had in other cities right alongside me).

the line at noon

I’m sure they will do well though, and it’s a decent ramen option. And I love that they focus so much on just doing the three types of ramen. To me, that shows real passion for the actual product they are making by not overextending themselves into areas where they may not shine. 

On the other hand, if you get tired of waiting at Ramen Ray, head across 71^st Street to Long Thanh and get some great Vietnamese food (don’t get the Chinese food though) without any wait. They even have noodles.

Ramen Ray

5628 East 71^st Street

Indy 46220

Apparently no phone, no website, but they are on facebook

Rook - Revisit

One of the good things about having my birthday around Christmas (ok, and pretty much the only good thing) is that my birthday lunches manage to get spread out over a few weeks because people are busy and all those damn snow days didn’t help either. But on the brightside, my birthday was like 3 weeks ago and I’m still enjoying the benefits.

My friend Suzanne took me to Rook, because I had been itching to try their ramen. You know I have been complaining about why Indy doesn’t have a ramen bar for months now (even if according to David Chang, ramen is dead, I prefer Peter Meehan’s take. “Long live ramen!”). Anyhow, at least for now, you can get your fix at Rook. (They say they will be changing their menu routinely, so no guarantees how long they’ll have it).

We started with the mushroom dumplings ($5), which have been on the menu for a while, and which I saw on another visit, but did not get to try. I have been wanting them ever since. I was not disappointed. The dumplings were tender, but with a really nice seared side that remained crisp because it wasn’t soaked in the sauce—the sauce was in the bottom of the bowl. It was a “san bai su” sauce, which is a soy-based sauce that tasted also of vinegar and ginger. It also had a touch of sweetness and a slightly smoky taste as well. After we had eaten the four dumplings, I did not hesitate in picking up the bowl and dumping the sauce directly on my last one. The dumplings taste nice and meaty, even though they are filled with mushrooms.

I ordered the ramen tonkatsu ($14), or ramen with pork cheeks. It’s a darn tasty ramen with a truly silky (as the menu says) pork broth. The broth is the big deal with ramen and this one is done really well—lots and lots of flavor. There was a nice little bit of fat on top of the broth adding to that richness. There were two big hunks of very tender pork cheeks in the soup--I appreciated how tender it was, you could pull it apart with your chopsticks. This has not always been the case with pork I have had in ramen. Of course, I loved the 5-minute egg in there. It was super delicious and if you want to talk about something that was silky, that egg yolk certainly was. It was also drizzled with a sauce—guessing this was the black garlic soy. There was corn in there, and sautéed veggies (cabbage and carrot) and some pickled mustard greens. I liked getting a crunch from the greens and the sautéed veggies. The only part I wasn’t sure about was the corn.  I guess it is often in ramen, but I just couldn’t decide how I felt about it. Maybe if it were super fresh right off the ear super-crisp. I couldn’t decide if it added anything for me. And of course, there were the noodles, which are my favorite thing about the whole dish (well, next to the egg) and which were plentiful and had soaked up lots of that delicious broth. A perfect lunch for a cold winter’s day.

Suzanne had the bulgogi rice bowl ($13)—it was served in the style of a bibimbap with a bowl of rice topped with flank steak, pickled cucumber, kimchi, avocado, bok choy and pork cracklings. You can also add an egg as well (and who wouldn’t? You’d have to be crazy) ($1.50).  This was also a really good dish. The only thing I have about dishes like this is you really gotta mix them up and dig in to get all the flavors together. The bite I had with some kimchi was nice and spicy with a bit of crunch—and I loved the pork cracklins sprinkled on top giving it a surprising crunch but without the use of nuts, which was kind of nice. It also gave a nice salty kick. I also thought the avocado was a nice touch, as you may or may not know, I view avocado as a nearly perfect food. The flank steak is cooked a fair amount, but with a nice caramelized crust to it. It’s a very good dish as well. It’s hard to say which I would have liked it better based on the couple of bites of it I had,

but I would happily eat either.

I was happy to see the varying menu Rook has for lunch—I was also happy to see table service, the artwork on the previous white walls, and the fact that the place was jammed. Most of the time we were there, pretty much every table was full. The service is fast though and the tables tend to turn over pretty quick. I love all the creative dishes being served, and now with the alterations to service and décor (and the fact that they have beer AND wine), I look forward to trying it, and the even more expanded menu, for dinner.

Rook

719 Virginia Avenue

Indy 46213

317/759-5828

www.rookindy.com