Ramen Man: Restaurant Review!

I love me some ramen and love trying out new places. Last week, my cousin and I decided to try this place out as he especially loves ramen and we were treating him out before we went back to college!

We decided on trying out Ramen Man located in Wallingford. Read their Yelp page HERE.

That Ramen Man face looks so excited!

The restaurant is fairly small with a few seating areas in the front right by their large kitchen space. Then they have a downstairs basement type of back room where there is more seating available.

Mines!!

Their menu is really simple. It's mainly all ramen includeing variations of tori-paitan ramen (rich chicken broth and noodles) , variation of shoyu ramen (soy sauce noodles), and miso ramen (soy bean fermented paste noodles). The also have a veggie broth option along wih some sides and drinks.

It's a one page menu so it is very simple and mainly all ramen.

Also, they serve all you can eat boiled tamago! (eggs!)

We had 2 orders of the gyozo (pot stickers, dumplings) and though they were a little on the smaller side, they tasted really good and the skin on them was nice and thin, not too chewy either.

Now for the main reason we went here, the ramen! I ordered the Garlic Tori-Paitan. All the ramen comes with a slice of chicken and a slice of charsiu (braised pork), but you can order more if you'd like.

I also added my hard boiled egg and love that the center yolk wasn't fully cooked. I love when the yolk is still some what softer.

Since this was the garlic version of the noodles, it was indeed a very intense version of garlic. The broth was rich, but not as rich as my preferred tonkotsu (pork broth) ramen, which I usually order at most ramen shops. Since they didn't have that option, I choose the chicken one. There's a lot of fried garlic pieces in the broth along with onion and some other garnishes. For a chicken broth, the broth itself was nice and creamy, but just not as flavorful or rich as a pork broth.

I really enjoyed the dish as a whole, but am not as happy with the ramen noodles. I feel like noodles can be very personal in a ramen dish the texture is everything to me. I found the feel and tenderness of the ramen to not be chewy enough, and even the look of the noodles itself isn't the slightly curly type I prefer (like in hiyashi chuka dishes) or even compared to other ramen places I've tried. I'm not saying it was bad, but I prefer my noodles to be a bit..different. (if that makes sense?)

My cousin's miso ramen. I had some of the broth and it was tasty.

All done!

Overall, I was quite happy with trying the place out and my cousin and family enjoyed it as well (plus it was so close to Molly Moons Ice Cream!). My only gripe about the place is that some of the items just seem pricier for what you get (like for the edamame) even though you do get all the boiled eggs you can eat, but who can really eat thaaat much egg? But I guess that's on opinion too.

For the most part, everyone ordered a different type of ramen and all really liked it. I would recommend checking this place out if you like ramn, since you may reallly like it (or not) and it is always nice to find a new place like this. I would honestly probably come back and try out a different flavor ramen--maybe something without garlic this time since the flavor still stuck with me even after I had some ice cream.

Check it out if you're in the area!

Do you like ramen? What's your favorite flavor? Do you have a favorite place around where you live??