Though this bountiful, steaming bowl of Japanese comfort food can be traced back to the first ramen shop in 1910, it’s currently seeing remarkable growth all over the US, as ramen shops (called ramen-yas) continue to sprout up nationwide.
Portland, itself already home to a sizeable number of Japanese restaurants, now has an ever-expanding array of ramen shops, adding to the already extensive selection of noodle soups available here. The city’s soft water, drawn from the Bull Run Watershed, forms the blank canvas for local ramen chefs to create wonderfully complex shoyus, shios, tonkotsus, and so on, while the local weather is especially soup-friendly for six months or more each year.
In the essential bowls listed below, you’ll find bouncy noodles swimming in luxurious, silky broth, garnished with briny seaweed, tender pork belly, pink-swirled fish cakes, and perfectly soft boiled and jammy ajitama eggs. For more Japanese favorites, check out this map.
Note: Health experts consider dining out to be a high-risk activity for the unvaccinated; it may pose a risk for the vaccinated, especially in areas with substantial COVID transmission.
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