Midtown Lunch

I was truly giving up hope. Every time I had ramen in the city I was totally let down. When Nom Nom Ramen had its soft opening in March, I didn’t run over as soon as possible like I did with Ramen Boy. I was scared of being disappointed yet again. After getting sufficient reports from trusted friends that it was not crap ramen, I made my visit. I hoped to find love in a hopeless place.

The menu is all ramen, save for a single pork bun appetizer. Inside there are plenty of tables but no waiter service, which I have no problem with; order at the counter and wait for your name to be called.

All of the ramens are pork based, sorry vegheads, though the team is currently working on veggie based broths. The Miso tonkotusu ramen was my bowl of choice. This one comes with pork, bamboo, mushrooms, fish cake, scallions, and black garlic sauce. The regular bowl is a random $8.33.  Larges are a few dollars more, but the regular was perfect for a filling lunch. Ramens should really come with a soft boil egg, I was a little ticked that it cost extra to have one added in (93 cents) but I had to have it. Whereas other local ramen joints get real lazy with it and give you a hard boiled eggy, this one was actually soft boiled. Its worth it.

Beyond the slightly oozy egg, the noodles were bouncy and the pork was tender. As for the broth, the thing that everyone in this town gets so wrong- I was pleasantly surprised. I could tell from the milky color alone this was more on track than any other bowl I have tried in this city. Would I say its the best I have ever had? Nope. But it was working for me with the fatty salty pork richness without the murkiness from MSG related shortcuts.

Feel free to add Sriracha to your soup, or order the Karai Miso for extra jazzed up spice.

Pork buns come with 2 in an order for $5.56. The pork meat was good, though I was pretty full from the work I did devouring my entire bowl of soup. Also the iceburg lettuce is a poor edition. Since all of the ramen bowls have roast pork in them, these are just unnecessary. Stick to the ramen, its the best under $10 bowl in town.

THE + (What somebody who likes this place would say)

• Finally, affordable ramen that tastes like its supposed to

THE – (What somebody who doesn’t like this place would say)

• No vegetarian options yet
• Pork buns, the only app,  are unnecessary

Nom Nom Ramen, 20 S 18th St, 215 988-0898