Daiboku Ramen Review - Campus - Austin - The Infatuation
"Just like a good song or latte flavor, a bowl of ramen should fit your mood, the season, and the weather. And while a lot of people associate ramen with rainy days, we’ve found it’s just as great in triple-digit temps or breezy fall afternoons. Daiboku Ramen is a ramen shop just north of the , where you can choose your own noodle adventure. Daiboku is from the same team behind —a spot we really like—but unlike its sister restaurant with a hyper-focus on chicken-and-pork paitan broth, Daiboku’s menu is all over the place (in the best possible way). Sure, you can get a similar, creamy chicken broth here in the form of spicy, very spicy, or very very spicy miso ramen. But you can also get a light and delicate bowl of smoked chicken shoyu ramen with chicken thighs, or give up subtlety altogether and get the miso jirokei bowl topped with flaming hot cheetos, american cheese, and extra pork fat. There’s even a vegan version of the miso and shoyu bowls, so your meat-free friends don’t have to resort to filling up on white rice and Japanese pickles. And since this is right by UT, the drinks are priced with student budgets in mind, with a few house cocktails, sake, beer, and wine. There’s a ramen bar inside with a half-dozen seats where you can pop in for a quick meal between classes or between meetings, but there are also a handful of long wooden tables spread around a fairly large dining room decorated with dim lanterns and hanging plants. It’s dark and sleek inside—it’s easy to forget that you’re sitting in a small strip mall restaurant between a bookstore and a Juiceland just a few blocks from UT. Maybe you like listening to Summer Breeze in December, maybe you prefer your pumpkin spice lattes in the heat, and maybe you just want a choice on what you want to eat and when you want to eat it. You can go a lot of directions at Daiboku Ramen, and we’ve yet to find a bad one. " - Nicolai McCrary
