Otaku Ramen - Review - The Gulch - Nashville - The Infatuation

"Otaku was one of the first serious ramen places in town. Now, there are multiple locations, but the Gulch location is typically the busiest. You’ll often find lines for a table here, especially during the winter, when a casual drop-in for a steamy bowl of umami-packed broth and noodles is the perfect antidote to some downright frosty chill. You can’t really go wrong with any of their ramen bowls, but the TN tonkotsu shio is a step above the rest. It’s pork bone broth with a shio salt base, pork confit, woodear mushroom, and a half ramen egg, and you should always make it “monster-style”—the added miso chicken, ground pork, and full-size ramen egg will keep you going through any self-imposed weather-related hibernation. There’s other good stuff on the menu, too, like cool ranch-dusted wontons and plump nuggets of fried boneless chicken thigh with wasabi-yuzu mayo dipping sauce." - Jackie Gutierrez-Jones