Michael P.
Yelp
Pickerel, the place you go to when you think you understand how good ramen can be only to be blown away. Buckle up, I have a lot to say on this one.
Hole in the wall describes this place perfectly, you walk in and there is bar seating going the length of the space with tables line up along the wall and just about every single seat will be filled, for good reason. They have heavy a heavy metal grungy playlist on, it's loud, it's busy, it's hectic and I love the atmosphere. You ain't coming here for a nice quiet relaxing frufru dinner with candlelight and a French waitor with an accent. Instead, you get Spencer behind the bar cranking out drinks for the endless stream of patrons and his positive, happy demeanor. Now, the food.
My wife and I started with the cabbage Caesar salad with yuzu dressing. Lordy, you got 2 and a half salads, for the price of 1. It was a perfect thing to kick off the meal. It's fresh with a perfect amount of richness from the ponzu dressing and parmesan cheese. I would recommend sharing this because if you get it for 1, the flavor can probably get a little redundant by the end. Personally, I would crush the who thing but I also eat straight up undressed shredded cabbage with my meals at home mixed into rice and stuff, so ymmv.
The ramen: I thought I knew what amazing ramen was. It turns out, I knew only what great ramen was. Give me a bowl from Ebisu, Yagi, Boru, New Wave kitchen any day of the week and I will be one happy guy but when I took my first sip of broth, I knew I was in for something on an entirely different level.
There was a special for Yokohama ramen which was suggested to me over the green curry ramen simply because as Spencer said, "the Yokohama is really a special ramen". This broth was so silky, rich, and flavorful that I was taken back at the first taste. This bowl looked simple, but you immediately realize that it's anything but. The pork was tender and sliced perfectly, the veggies were the veggies- great, but not why we're here. Now, the noodles. This is one of the components that takes a bowl from good to great. I don't know if they're made in house but they sure tasted like they were. Cooked perfectly, maintaining an exceptional balance of chew and spring, they were as good from the first bite to the last. I think the only thing I would do differently in this bowl would be to use a soy egg and have more of a soft boiled texture. Personally, it's my opinion that a custardy egg yolk and egg that's been marinated in shoyu and mirin with a still-tender white is perfect for ramen. Regardless, easily the best bowl of ramen I've had so far in my life and I don't say that lightly.
Lastly, we had to get dessert. They had a churned French style ice cream that had corn cobs steeped in the cream and had blueberry and corn bread chunks folded into the base. Now, sounds delicious right? Honestly, this fell very short for me. Pickerel did everything else so above and beyond, I had high expectations going into their home made ice cream but it had a slightly icy texture, the corn bread chunks were crunchy and lacked any sweetness. I would have expected a condensed pound cake-like texture, except with corn bread. Maybe the occasional corn bread "ripple" with broken up pieces of corn bread from the mixing process. But alas, next time we'll try the brownie or their cookie or something else.
Overall, above and beyond my expectations for the ramen and appetizer. Thoroughly enjoyed my first visit here and will absolutely be back because now that I've had a taste, I don't really want ramen anywhere else in RI. 5/5 if you couldn't tell. I usually talk about pricing in my reviews.. Just know that it's worth every penny here. The salad was about $11-12, the ramen was between $19-23 and the icecream about $6. I would spend all that again in the blink of an eye. A little pricy on the surface for ramen? Sure, but you taste quality and care in every single bite. A side note, if you see a pork based bowl, get it. They apparently don't do ramen with pork based broths often. Don't walk, run to Pickerel if you share a love for ramen.