Ryuo

Rating: Very good
Meal: Lunch for 2
Price: 1500 yen
Payment: Cash only (vending machine)
Dishes: Lunch special (tonkotsu ramen and 3 gyoza), Roasted garlic tonkotsu ramen
English Menu: Yes

Well this was a nice surprise!  My wife and I were out on our bikes on Saturday for lunch and were hunting for something new when we came across a new ramen restaurant on 16.  It's located just before Tajima (another good ramen spot) and must have opened fairly recently as we had never seen it before.

It's a small, plain place, with sit down seating, unlike the usual bar style.  You have to get your ticket at the vending machine, but they have an English menu and it appears that the staff will help you with your order if you can't read the button labels.

My wife got a lunch set with plain tonkotsu ramen and 3 gyoza.  I got what was translated as "burnt garlic tonkotsu" ramen (funny how "roasted" sounds so much better in English, yet means roughly the same thing).  Both of us chose the thick noodles and I got a soy sauce egg topping.

Unusually, they put a large container with several toppings on our table for us to liberally apply to our ramen when it arrived.  There was shredded negi, corn, and what I found out was some kind of mushroom shredded into strips that tasted like pasta.  Also kimchi.

We quite liked the broth, which wasn't as heavy as tonkotsu can sometimes be, and we appreciated the change.  Mine had a nice burnt garlic flavor to it that was quite noticeable.  My wife liked her plainer broth as well.  Both of us loved the thick, chewy noodles.

It's always fun to discover a new ramen spot, especially when it turns out to be good!