AFURI Slabtown
Japanese restaurant · Northwest District ·
Yuzu shio ramen, creative cocktails, house-made noodles, sake flights
Yuzu shio ramen, creative cocktails, house-made noodles, sake flights
"Vast ceilings and exposed steel venting give Afuri’s inner-Southeast location the feeling of an industrial music video, particularly at night when hunched over a steaming bowl of ramen alongside a dozen others. Afuri offers a respectable sushi menu, but the main attraction here is the astonishing yuzu ramen broth, served with expertly balanced ingredients dropped into the bowls with impeccable timing. The busy open kitchen and abounding hard surfaces might make a quiet intro to a neighboring diner challenging, but the creative highball cocktails from seasoned bartenders might bolster courage." - Nathan Williams
"Tokyo-based ramen shop Afuri chose to open its first US location in Portland because the soft water from Mount Hood, much like Mount Afuri’s water, is ideal for making ramen noodles. Although the shop specializes in citrusy yuzu ramen, the savory-spicy hazelnut tantanmen is one of the most memorable bowls in town, and it happens to be vegan. Made with umami-rich miso tare, this bowl arrives with bouncy, thick noodles, topped with bok choy, shiitakes, leeks, miso cashew crumbles, and sesame chile oil. Snacks like seaweed salad and crispy eggplant buns make good starters before diving into this next-level bowl." - Waz Wu
"I found Afuri's new Slabtown outpost to be a commissary-meets-restaurant and culinary theater — a deliberate 'ramenery' conceived by Taichi Ishizuki, who chose Portland in part for its Bull Run water that resembles Mt. Afuri's spring. Inside, an open-format kitchen sunken below the dining room lets diners watch chefs extrude fresh noodles (rather than using frozen imports), feed high-protein dough through a noodle extruder, and stir colossal bowls of pork dumpling filling in a glass room while customers ask questions and learn the process. Toward the back, 110-gallon kettles simmer at 90 degrees Celsius to keep broths clear and flavorful: pork backs and spines bubble for six to eight hours for the tonkotsu, while chicken carcasses and necks form the chintan base, with aromatics added at precise times to build layered flavors. Afuri has grown since its first U.S. location in 2016, and diners here still flock for yuzu shio bowls with thin noodles and curls of endive; the Slabtown menu also highlights items like soft shell crab buns and braised pork gohan. Slabtown opens Wednesday, May 18, at 1650 NW 21st Avenue." - Brooke Jackson-Glidden
"When I first opened Portland’s original Afuri—the first U.S. shop—I watched people ask for knives and forks for their bowls of yuzu shio. Since then I've grown Afuri into several Portland outposts, sometimes as dumpling-and-noodle bars and other times as full-on izakayas; the chain now operates ramen shops in cities such as Los Angeles, Singapore, and Vancouver, B.C., and continues to expand. I'm also developing a large-scale Slabtown 'ramen-ery' where visitors can watch chefs make noodles and dumplings for the area's shops." - Brooke Jackson-Glidden
"I learned that Afuri's Slabtown shop is slated to open in spring 2022 at 1650 NW 21st Avenue, Suite 130, and has been described by project manager Liz Allan as a “ramen lab” where diners can watch chefs make noodles, simmer broth, and recipe-test with visiting ramen chefs from around the world; the team says it will feature a ramen-making display (think: the dumpling station at Din Tai Fung) and a menu of the restaurant’s greatest hits — hazelnut tantanmen, yuzu shio, and tsukemen — joining Afuri's existing Portland-area locations (Afuri Izakaya in Southeast Portland, Afuri Ramen + Dumpling in Southwest Portland, and an Afuri Izakaya in Beaverton)." - Brooke Jackson-Glidden
