o-ramen

We decided to come in for dinner. Very friendly and flexible staff. It seems they make the noodles in the store which is a positive. The noodles are also the best part of the ramen, together with the marinated eggs. Not particularly excited about the broth and chashu pork, but not bad either.

I ordered the Vegan Ramen. It was way better than I expected. Lots of variety besides just noodles. Scallions, garbanzo beans, bamboo in a vegan broth was very awesome.

I had the Tonkotsu and Spicy miso Ramen with a small cold House Sake. Tonkotsu was soothing although I would highly recommend the spicy miso- broth had the perfect blend of spice and the chunky pork meat.
The staff is welcoming and friendly and so is the ambience.

I mean, let's face it, in Pullman if you don't want a burger, or a steak, or pizza, or wings, then you have an extremely limited range of choices for dining.

Fortunately there's o-ramen to provide a very refreshing culinary respite, and it is a welcome alternative. Without a doubt the ramen is pretty good and I will not hesitate to have a bowl whenever I'm in town. In the context of Pullman eateries I would give it 5 stars.

However we do not live in a bubble, and the world is getting smaller and smaller, no better demonstrated by o-ramen itself and being established by a regional local.

And when you pull back and survey the world of ramen you'll see that it is very competitive and the bar is set rather high. Would it rate well in Seattle? How about L.A.? Tokyo? Given this context I'd say that while o-ramen is decent it sits in the middle of the pack. I found the broth over-salty, but that could just be me. I did find it flavorful but I think it lacked any distinctiveness that would set it apart from any other.

The karaage was very tender and juicy, but the seasoning was uni-dimensional as I could taste only salt. Same could be said for chasu - cooked very well but very salty.

To be clear - I would not hesitate to eat here again, but that's because it's in Pullman. If I had a choice of other ramen places then I'd have to consider carefully.