A few days ago I had dinner with my family in the ramen restaurant Kyuramen in Portland, and I wanted to give a brief review about it here. Keep in mind ramen is one of my favorite Japanese foods and I’ve tried many of the ramen places around Portland, so I am somewhat picky about my ramen (:
To begin with, for some reason this restaurant is written in Japanese as 九湯ラーメン. This is odd first because “九湯” is typically pronounced “kyuutou”, but also because 九湯 is apparently a name of an onsen in Japan. I am not sure where this naming came from, but it seems somewhat random. However, the naming may make a bit more sense when you consider this is apparently a Taiwanese chain (that has over 100 locations worldwide). Anyway, I didn’t let the weird name bias my evaluation of the rest of the place.
The first thing you notice when entering is the unique architecture that has heavy use of wood and a mix of things that are quasi-traditional along with modern design elements. The booth we sat in honestly looked like something out of a spaceship. But to be honest I really enjoyed the architecture as well as the overall atmosphere (the tasteful calligraphy of the wall helped).
The menu was pretty interesting as well, especially how there were kanji names of many of the dishes. Honestly they didn’t really make sense, since they were mostly names of cities like 大阪 (Osaka) but perhaps the name was related to where the recipe came from, or where it was popular at other locations.
Although the waiter didn’t look Japanese, at least he seemed Asian so we asked him if he was Japanese, and he said he was Chinese. I’ve given up on expecting Japanese people to work at places like Ramen restaurants (though some of my favorite places generally have at least a few Japanese people), but my stance is that as long as the food is good, I won’t have any issue.
Anyway, we asked this Chinese guy if they had regular “Shio Ramen” because the menu only had “Yuzu Shio Ramen”, after which he responded plainly he had no idea what “Shio Ramen” was. This was a pretty major annoyance, but again I forced myself to focus on the quality of the food. Still, it’s a little odd that the waiter of a ramen restaurant doesn’t know what “Shio Ramen” is, even though “Yuzu Shio Ramen” is on the menu.
I ended up getting a basic Tonkotsu ramen with Black Garlic. The broth was actually quite delicious, very thick with a complex flavor. The meat was tender and tasty, and the half-cooked egg was pretty great too. The lack of certain vegetables could be seen as a good or bad thing depending on your perspective. Unfortunately, the ever-important noodles were a bit lacking; not only were they way too thin, but they lacked flavor. I can’t say whether they are “authentic” or not, but I will say that I’ve never had noodles like that at a place anywhere in Japan or the US that served great ramen. If I was going to make a ramen restaurant, I’d put equal care into the broth and the noodles.
The other dishes that my family got were reasonably good, although the popcorn chicken had too much gristle for me and was hard to eat (I guess some people don’t mind that though). Price-wise things were a bit higher than I expected, probably around at least two or three dollar than what the average (or even below-average) ramen place charges.
I have mixed feelings on Kyuramen, but overall I’d give it something like a 6 or 7 out of 10. If you have one nearby I think it’s worth a visit, but it doesn’t come close to my favorites in Portland: Kizuki and Ryoma. While I am a big fan of cool architecture, it’s hard for that to be a major factor that makes me want to return. (By the way, they also had one of those food-serving robots, but it was shut off and sitting in the corner.)