This little spot at the corner of Maryland and Central avenues opened in January after months of preparation. Owner Jason Jan, who started the city’s Fro-Yo franchise, gives us fresh, wholesome ramen; a sign reads: Respect Real Ramen. Formerly the popular House of Wong, the Japanese ramen joint offers meals in large bowls you “sip, slurp and savor.”
The decor is certainly a step up from House of Wong, but it still has a fast-food vibe with tile floors and plastic seating. There is an attractive sushi-style bar area and one wall of exposed brick. Most of the seating is at either tall tables with backless stools or at a long, low communal table. You order at the register from a wall menu of very limited items: steamed buns, gyoza, ramen bowls and rice bowls.
The Bao are very good. Fluffy dough pockets have various fillings and pungent sauces that make them tasty and interesting. The Tempura Shrimp variety ($3) has a large fried shrimp and chipotle mayo, very tasty but too much fried crust. The Pulled Pork Bao is more my style, with its delicious slow-cooked pork filling, scallion and cucumber slivers, and a deep Asian sauce that is both sweet and savory. The Gyoza ($7.50), dough dumplings filled with ground pork, were delicious and served with a tasty soy dipping sauce. Heads up: The menu called them pan-fried, but in reality they were deep-fried.
Ramen is a meal in a bowl that feels quintessentially Japanese. It is neat in presentation and offers a complexity of flavors all at once. Salt is dominant, which you will notice immediately in any ramen you choose; then there is the umami, the fifth flavor best described as savory. A sour element is the menma, or pickled bamboo shoot, and sweetness comes from sugar in the broth.
The Nami Signature Tonkotsu ($13.80) is a classic ramen with pork-based broth, cooked more than 24 hours, according to the menu. It’s filled with traditional ingredients, including thin wheat noodles, a few slices of fatty pork, green onion, woodear mushrooms, seaweed paper, sea kelp, pickled bamboo sticks and egg. That final ingredient is described on the menu as softboiled, but it’s actually hard. The dish is very flavorful and satisfying meal, as long as you realize the meat consists of only a few bites.
Seafood Ramen ($16.80) was similarly good, with a flavorful broth, this one fish-based and reddish in color. It included corn kernels, noodles, roasted tomatoes, slivered green onions, a bit of cooked greens, woodear mushrooms, hard-boiled egg, crabmeat and several tempura shrimp. Very tasty, the soup was flavored by the crusty shrimp, which had a rather heavy coating that imparted a bit of fried oil flavor.
The rice bowls here are very good, and the presentation is appealing. The rice is at the bottom of the menu, and the two bowls we tasted (Tempura and Chicken Katsu) came with fresh steamed broccoli, corn kernels, shiitake mushrooms, a large poached egg and a sweet-pungent sauce laced with star anise. The tempura version ($12.50) had six nice-sized fried shrimp, not the least bit greasy, standing at one end of the bowl against a large sheet of seaweed. It was a great meal-in-a-bowl: flavorful, satisfying and attractive in presentation. Same for the Chicken Katsu ($10), which included a beautifully fried chicken breast—crunchy and dry-fried with no visible greasiness—in lieu of the shrimp.
amuse bouche
the scene | Very casual meal-in-a-bowl spot
the prices | $3 bao (steamed buns), $13.50 to $16.80 ramen bowls
the owner | Jason Jan
the favorites | Gyoza, Bao, Rice Bowls
chef chat » owner jason jan
culinary pedigree | No formal training, but I’ve been involved in the hospitality industry for a number of years.
favorite ingredients | Black pepper and garlic
favorite cookbook | Momofuku by David Chang
favorite st. louis restaurant | Drunken Fish
most memorable dining experience | When I met my wife Yen’s parent the first time. My future mother-in-law prepared a meal that was made with so much love.
guilty pleasure food | Pork Belly
46 n. central ave. | 314 833.6264
Photos: Bill Barrett
