Your master guide to the best (and worst) ramen in Ottawa

A decade ago, had you had asked Google to seek out “ramen in Ottawa,” the all-knowing search engine would have drawn a blank.

“There isn’t any ramen in Ottawa,” a sassier results page could have told you. “Try Toronto. Or New York. Or Tokyo.”

Yes, that hearty meal-sized Japanese soup (not the instant noodles of the same name) went global in the mid-2000s after the slurp-driven success of New York’s Momofuku Noodle Bar. But Ottawa didn’t begin to catch ramen fever until 2013 or so.

My recollection is that Sidedoor in the ByWard Market brought ramen bowls to town first, followed by Ginza on Elgin Street. After the Toronto-based chain Sansotei, which is devoted to ramen, opened a spot in Centretown in the spring of 2016 and drew daily queues out the door that continue to this day, other entrepreneurs wanted to get in on the ramen action.

Now, if you perform the same search, Google plots more than dozen red pins on its map, mostly downtown but even in the suburbs. But how are you to know which restaurant’s ramen is most worth your while?

ALSO: How Ottawa became a pho paradise

That’s where this roundup comes in. Over the last few months, I’ve tried to hit all of Ottawa’s ramen purveyors to determine whose broth, noodles and toppings ruled. Below are my rankings.

But first, a few words on how this ramenologist operates. My priorities as a ramen enthusiast have evolved over the years. Now, I’m looking for great broth, great noodles and great everything else — in that order — whereas years ago, as a hyper-carnivorous ramen newbie, I might have let a properly succulent piece of pork belly overly sway my assessment.

For context’s sake, I should also add that in recent years, I’ve had some truly transcendental bowls of ramen in Montreal (at Yokato Yokabai), Toronto (at Santouka) and New York (at Ivan Ramen). If you ask me, the reality check for Ottawa ramen buffs is that your go-to soup here has a ways to go to match the supreme bowls in more mature ramen markets.

But until then, here’s my take on Ottawa’s ramen landscape — based admittedly on a visit or two to each spot rather than repeated patronage and as much tonkotsu ramen as I could ingest as a starting baseline.

TOP TIER

Ottawa’s two locations of Sansotei (153 Bank St., 1537 Merivale Rd., sansotei.com) remain at the top of the ramen heap, thanks to their very reliable bowls. Over multiple visits, I’ve generally found the components of every bowl to be well made, if not stellar. The tonkotsu broth here may be Ottawa’s thickest and creamiest, and carnivores will appreciate the broth’s porkiness, as well as the bowl’s above-average pork belly. I’m only speculating, but I think the success of Sansotei’s pork-broth tonkotsu led to the subsequent ubiquity of that ramen variant in Ottawa, arguably to the detriment of perfectly good chicken-based ramen (which can be amazing at places such as Ivan Ramen, for example).

Tonkotsu ramen at Sansotei

The sushi-based eatery J:unique Kitchen (381 Cooper St., facebook.com/juniquekitchen) may have opened just two months ago, but it serves a commendable ramen made with care. We liked the cleanness of its broth, the springiness of its noodles, and the generosity of well-prepared garnishes such as sweetly cooked shiitakes. Plus, the soup came with a small California roll and either gyoza or chicken karaage. Those bonus items make J:unique’s ramen a stomach-filling steal at $14.95.

Tonkotsu ramen at J:unique Kitchen

Koichi Ramen (832 Somerset St. W., koichiramen.com) takes its name from its Ottawa-raised chef-owner Koichi Paxton, who became one of Ottawa’s first ramen-makers when he helped open Ginza on Elgin Street in the spring of 2014. He brought to the enterprise what he had learned in 2012 during a four-month internship in southern Japan at a ramen eatery. Koichi (the eatery) is Paxton’s takeover of the space that had been Ginza’s second location.

Here, the ramen has felt as if there’s a personal touch behind it. The pork-based broths have been robust but clean and enjoyable, and the signature pork broth that includes sesame was a standout. Commendably, Koichi also serves chicken-based and vegetarian broths. Atypically, Paxton offers spice levels on all of his broths. Even a mild level of heat was quite discernible, and purists will likely be fine with “no spice.” Noodles here have had good flavour and chewiness and the bowls are very much customizable with a range of extra toppings. It’s really only the pork belly that’s needed work here. It’s never rocked my world like pork belly can, and on my last visit, all the succulence had been seared out of it.

Tonkotsu ramen — noodles in a pork broth with grilled pork belly, soft egg, bamboo shoots, bean sprouts, kikurage and scallions.

MIDDLE TIER

On their elevated, pan-Asian menu, the Momofuku-inspired, non-Asian chefs at Datsun (380 Elgin St., eatdatsun.com) include two kinds of ramen, which are distinguished by potent, concentrated broths and interesting toppings that work well together. My small gripes here have included the dryness of the fried chicken (also found in Datsun’s bao) that stars in the chicken ramen, as well as eggs that are poached rather than soft-boiled and soy-marinated.

Chicken ramen at Datsun

Festival Japan (149 Kent St., festivaljapan.ca) served straightforward, respectable tonkotsu ramen that featured chunks of pork shoulder rather than pork belly — a good practical call, I’d say, given the lacklustre belly slices sometimes served elsewhere. The tonkotsu broth did taste more of chicken than pork, but had a good heft to it. The egg was hard boiled, which is a bit of a letdown.

Tonkotsu ramen at Festival Japan

Hanabi Japanese Cuisine (434 Bank St., hanabicuisine.ca) served us a lighter-textured but savoury tonkotsu broth, with sweet pork belly and a reasonable egg. A bit of kimchi is served on the side. At the Little Italy izakaya Kuidaore (420 Preston St., kuidaoreizakaya.ca), the broth was the best thing about the tonkotsu ramen. There was room for improvement with the noodles and pork belly. Both of these ramens would do in a pinch, but not spark much excitement.

Tonkotsu ramen at Hanabi

A few blocks south of Sansotei on Bank Street, Saigon Pho (232 Bank St., saigonphoottawa.ca) began selling ramen last year, one suspects in the hopes of siphoning away some of the business lining up nearby. Its tonkotsu broth was pleasant and warming, if not hyper-creamy. Its pork was nondescript except for it fall-apart texture, its egg soft-boiled but un-marinated and its noodles so-so. Beef belly is also offered here as a garnish, and I thought my bite of it was better than its porky counterpart.

Tonkotsu ramen at Saigon Pho

I liked the ramen at Sidedoor (18b York St., sidedoorrestaurant.com) more in past years. Perhaps that’s because the post-Momofuku non-Asian-run kitchen pioneered the soup here in Ottawa, or because I knew less about ramen. The kitchen here goes its own way with ramen, eschewing the thicker, cloudy tonkotsu style for a lighter broth that contributes to overall Chinese orientation of the soup. The noodles and egg have shone here, while the broth has been a bit one-note and salty. The pork belly has been plentiful, but it was tough once and more roast-y than sweet and salty. The abundance of coriander just seemed wrong. In all, the ramen here dares to be different — but is maybe too different.

Ramen at Sidedoor

BOTTOM TIER:

At the pan-Asian eatery Ching’s Kitchen (641 Somerset St. W., facebook.com/Chings-Kitchen) the tonkotsu broth was thin and tasted too much of the heavy char on the pork belly, which admittedly was tender and meaty. Good: marinated soft-boiled egg. Bad: limp noodles. Saving grace: They make excellent Taiwanese popcorn chicken here.

Tonkotsu ramen at Ching’s Kitchen

In a word, the tonkotsu ramen at Wasabi Restaurant and Sushi Bar (41 Clarence St., wasabisushibar.ca) was bland. Its broth was thin, its pork belly perfunctory. The lightly marinated egg was hard-boiled. The wavy noodles had some chew. Despite the corn, bamboo shoots, and slices of flavour-free fish cake, the ramen felt like less than the sum of its parts.

Tonkotsu ramen at Wasabi restaurant

The tiny Ginza Ramen Sushi and Sake Bar (280 Elgin St., ginzarestaurant.ca) got into the ramen business early in Ottawa with Koichi Paxton in the kitchen and continue to dole out bowls, along with sushi, pho, poke, vermicelli and more. I found my tonkotsu ramen here had pleasant, if thin, broth and a marinated egg, but then a series of disappointments — excessively strong-tasting bamboo shoots, excessively fatty pork belly that lacked cooked-in flavour and noodles that were too soft and bland.

Tonkotsu shoyo ramen at Ginza Ramen on Elgin Street

Nom Nom Kitchen (4-2160 Montreal Rd.) is an inexpensive Korean eatery that has branched out to serve other Asian items, including tonkotsu ramen. It serves all of its food in take-out containers with plastic cutlery, ramen included. The spicy Korean ramen had more going for it than the no-frills tonkotsu.