Happy New Year!
Did you know Ramen is considered one of the hottest food trends of 2016? Since it is Neil's favorite, we have been on the quest for the Best Ramen in Denver. Neil has waited in a two hour line at Rokurinsha Tokyo (六厘舎 • ロクリンシャ) for the best bowl of ramen known throughout all of Tokyo. Unforunately, I have had to miss many opportunities to travel with him there because of my former job but I cannot wait for the next opportunity. That being said, Neil is my Ramen Connoisseur with very high expectations and I take his opinions very serious. We are on the search for the best Ramen!
UNCLE:
This is the only time I will say that I was excited to be on a waitlist for more than an hour! I kept thinking, this could be it...the best Ramen of Denver. We loved Uncle! Neil felt the broth needed maybe a few more hours of soaking up the flavor of the pork but he was not complaining.
Typically we will share a ramen bowl so that we can taste more items on the menu like the amazing softshell crab steamed buns, but tonight we were both wanting different ramens so we belly'd up. Neil ended up finishing my Miso Ramen while giving me a Slurping 101 lesson. Did you know the bigger the slurp the better because it opens the palate and increases the aromas entering the mouth.
TOKIO:
Located in the LoDo neighborhood behind Coors Field is Tokio. You almost don't know it is there until sunset when the two-story restaurant is filled with guests. I was just getting over a cold and felt that spicy ramen was the perfect meal. We had the tonkotsu ramen and it was really good. Neil felt it was missing so much but I thought it was delicious, had a great kick and was full of flavor. Since we have only heard people raving about this place we are going to go back for round 2 and re-judge it.
BONES:
Bones is located right down the street from our house and was on our bucketlist of places to try for months. We kept trying restaurants outside of our neighborhood just to get away, but Bones has done an amazing job at bringing to life the Japanese Ramen scene to Denver. You can sit at the bar and watch the two-chef team make your bowl of Ramen within 7 minutes of ordering. Although we did not stick with the typical tonkotsu ramen and ordered the Pork Green Chili, Neil said it was one of the closests to tasting authentic. He claimed the broth is on the perfect track. I of course loved it! I wanted my own bowl.
Places to still visit and put against the rest of the competition.
DOMO
OSAKA RAMEN
KATSU RAMEN
OTOTO
TENGU DENVER
FINAL BITES:
We don't have a favorite (sorry!). There were so many great restaurants and the only way to pick the Best of Denver is to sample all the bowls next to each other at the same time.
The ramen scene is out of control in Denver. These are only a few of the places we have visited and I know we have left several off this list. The one disappointing thing about the Ramen Craze is that in Japan ramen costs between $4-8 USD and in Denver it starts at a minimum of $11 with most bowls costing $15 or more. We would love to see an authentic, small ramen shop with a line out the door for the best tasting tonkotsu ramen and prices more closely related to that of Japan's pricing. While you may argue the price of ramen could be related to the cost of living in Denver, just remember that Japan is considered one of the most expensive countries to live in.
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