Can I get a R’amen!
Ramen blah blah blah, Japan blah blah blah, poor college student blah blah blah, authentic blah blah blah, Heart Hospital blah blah blah Little Rock. There! That’s out of the way let’s walk into Aji Ramen Bar and see if it delivers. (Spoiler: Yes.)
Aji’s footprint is itty bitty. Tables and countertops line every square inch of available space along the walls. Elbow to elbow with everyone in the room, there’s a sense of the lively bustle of a downtown Tokyo joint. Our first step into Aji’s confined spaces found us amidst a small throng of people packed around the front door.
We stood among the entrance crowd for a few minutes. Do we “please seat ourselves” or do we “please wait to be seated”? Pro tip: just because there are empty seats does not mean you get to walk up and claim them. A host or hostess will eventually come along and put you where you need to be.
Not long after the hostess took our name, Spouse and I were seated at our table. We were glad we dressed warmly, ‘cuz our table was right near the entrance, with only a crowd of hungry diners standing between us and the chilly bluster outside. Suffice to say we felt every patron entering and leaving.
Our server asked if we wanted anything to drink, and really without thinking about it, I said “Sake”. I’m at a ramen bar and I’m going all in on the experience, right?
I expected a shot glass sized portion, or maybe a wine glass. What I didn’t expect was a small glazed carafe. Whoa. That’s more than I bargained for. Spouse doesn’t care for sake, so this was all me.
I really don’t know why I ordered sake. Sake, bitter and sour, is not my jam, and whatever brand they were slinging really didn’t change my mind. But it was warm, delivered a pleasant buzz, and kept me occupied while we waited for the food to arrive. I poured shot after shot after shot into the tiny glass and I kept thinking “Surely I’m near the bottom now”, but it just kept coming until I told myself “enough is enough”. Spouse, luckily, was driving today.
Our server strongly hinted that we should try the Takoyaki appetizer. We’re terribly glad he did. These bite-sized appetizers were an experience of flavor and texture that surprised and delighted. For this app, octopus is pureed, fried, and served with a delightful cream sauce and thin slices of squid. The outside was crispy and well seasoned, while the interior was velvety and delicious, with a small chunk of octopus flesh to add to the texture. Spouse, not normally a fan of this kind of seafood, actually enjoyed it. The tidy portion size meant we could proceed to our ramen entrees without being over-stuffed.
And now the moment we’ve all been waiting for … the arrival of the ramen bowl!
I ordered the Cha-Siu Ramen (pork broth with pork belly, soft boiled egg, onion, black mushrooms, and chili hair) with an extra hit of egg and green onions. Spouse ordered the Chicken Ramen (same as above, except with marinated chicken instead of pork). If you want to see what else they have on the menu, I invite you to click here.
For whatever reason, my ramen bowl came out several minutes before hers. Well, when I say “mine” it was actually her chicken ramen; some kind of mix-up on the line led to our meats getting switched. I was several bites in before I got to the meat, and noticed “Hey! This isn’t pork belly!” and sure enough it wasn’t, but boy, that chicken was fabulous. By the time the other bowl arrived, we were able to swap out the meats and dine away happily.
The first issue I needed answers to was the broth. I dipped my large plastic soup spoon into a corner of the bowl and let it fill with nothing but. That first sip was confirmation that we were in for a treat. I tasted a rich, abundant pork flavor, bold yet delicate, and best of all, fresh. You could add just about any ingredient to this broth and make it sing. Spouse, still awaiting her (my) bowl, had a sample, and agreed that it was excellent. Just recalling that first taste of this broth makes me want to go back for more right now, except I have this stupid blog post to write.
So how about them noodles, anyway? I fished out a string with my chopsticks and friends, there’s no going back to packaged ramen after this. The freshly made noodles still cling to the essence of whatever wheat flour they used, along with a subtle essence of things green and earthy, with the proper amount of firmness. Orthodox Pastafarians would declare, rightly, that they had been touched by His Noodly Appendage.
The boiled eggs, as well as the chicken and pork belly, are apparently marinated in a soy brine for some time before being cooked and included in the ramen bowl. They were all divine. The chicken was a real surprise; the chunks were nice and meaty and tender. Another surprise was the canned corn (fresh corn probably not being a thing found on the Japanese mainland?), but being a Midwestern boy, I was happy to eat it all up. The non-spicy chili hairs had a nice concentrated red pepper flavor, plus they looked purty.
When Spouse’s (my) bowl finally arrived with all its pork belly glory, I experienced an initial moment of “meh” of a dry, fleshy bit of the belly until I found several bits of roasty, fatty delight. I took a bite, and paused to close my eyes for a moment and just reflected on how awesome life is when something is just right. Like this bite of pork belly, bathed in that magnificent broth. Mm.
The slight snafu with our orders notwithstanding, the service at Aji Ramen Bar was top notch. The turnover was quick; the diners arrived hungry and left happy in record time. Our server was friendly, efficient, and quick to offer suggestions and information on the elements of our meal. Deft at navigating the crush of people, quick to deliver our European chopsticks (aka fork) to our table, he also gave us suggestions on the optimal time to arrive at Aji so as not to get lost in the crowd.
The most amusing moment came as we were paying our check. Our server checked the sake decanter and discovered I had not yet drunk all of the sake. (That was not by accident.) “One more!” and poured it into the tiny glass. Ugh. I took a slug, put the glass down. “One more!” he said again, emptying the contents, and I took my final drink of that stuff. Remember, going all in on the experience!
For my efforts, he rewarded me with a bright smile and a double high-five. Gods (Quob included), I love this place already.
As we walked out of Aji across the cold drizzly parking lot, our tummies sloshing with ramen and me wobbly from the sake, we agreed how satisfied we were. I promised myself I’d get out and try new places more often, but I may sneak back to Aji first.
The only question that’s on my mind now, given the obvious success of Aji Ramen Bar and the appeal of ramen to the city of Little Rock:
Franchise?