Jake T.
Yelp
TLDR: Good broth, meh everything else.
Saturday 1/6/24 ~1:00pm, $17.62 after tip
~~~~~~~~~ Creamy Chicken Ramen ~~~~~~~~~
Final Score: 4.58/10
(3.5/10) Noodles: Below average quality noodles. Thin, overcooked, grocery-store tier. Not up to par for a restaurant with "Ramen" in the name. The noodles had a neutral flavor (not immediately bad), but lost any bite/chewiness they might have had since they were overcooked. There are many ramen-specific noodle vendors that many of the other shops use - an easy place for improvement.
(6.7/10) Broth: Thick, creamy, savory chicken broth. The highlight of the bowl. There was a very specific chicken-flavor, more so than other "chicken" flavored ramens. Well seasoned with just the right amount of richness - without being too oily. They (or the vendor) definitely spend the time to boil the chicken meat/bones to get all that poultry flavor. Good.
(5.8/10) Egg: A slight-above-average ajitama costs an additional $2.00. It's always tough when the egg isn't included, it's almost an additional ~15% of the base price to get a fundamentally "ramen" topping. The sweet-soy marinade flavor was standard, though, it could have been much stronger. THe soft-boil execution was average, some yolk curdling along the bottom edges but not offensively overcooked. Fine. Tough ask for +$2.00.
(1.8/10) Meat: SAD chicken meat. Potentially the most plain, bland, and boring "main" meat topping I've had on a bowl of ramen. Usually, the "chicken" ramen bowls use the same marinade/cooking strategy as the pork-chashu, just substituting in chicken. This bowl comes with 3 thick pieces (huge volume-wise) of unseasoned, plain-baked, chicken breast. Any seasoning comes from touching the salty broth. If you took a frozen chicken breast, put it in the oven, didn't season it, then served it, you'd get this chicken chashu.
(4.1/0) Misc Toppings: Standard topping choices with some filler. Bean sprouts, bamboo, corn, green onion, minced meat. The minced meat was actually the best topping in the bowl; sweet and salty ground-up asian-style meat. Much better than the chicken chashu. The combination of sweet corn, bamboo, and marinated meat threw off the balance of the bowl - too sweet vs. the savory broth. Nothing offensive.
(4.8/10) Other: A weird bowl. The fundamental base-chicken broth was very promising, but the rest of the bowl fell apart. The overcooked/poor-quality noodles severely limit the ceiling of the bowl. Everything else was forgettable.
*Weighted Scoring Formula: Noodles (25%), Broth (25%), Egg (15%), Meat (15%), Misc Top. (10%), Other (10%)
Parking: Shared Redmond strip mall parking. Easy.
Service: Fast, efficient, good for a large party. Food came out fast.