Kukai Ramen is a popular Japanese Ramen restaurant located in Portland Oregon. Although the restaurant has Izakaya in its name, it is more like a Japanese Ramen restaurant. Kukai Ramen originates from Japan. The first Kukai Ramen was opened in Japan and it has expanded its presence world wide. Kukai now actually has several restaurant internationally outside of Japan.
Kukai Ramen in Portland is a very popular dining restaurant in Portland. Every time I go there, I always had to wait for at least 15 minutes for my table to be ready. The longest time that I have waited at Kukai Ramen was actually 40 minutes! On this very Friday, we got there around 6PM and there were already people lining up and waiting for the table. Luckily, we were told by the hostess that we only have to wait for 15 minutes since a lot of people will be leaving shortly. If I had to wait for more than 30 minutes, I would have gone shopping around in the grocery store first and wait for Kukai to text me when my table is ready.
Once we got our table, we were served with 2 glasses of water. This time we decided to get a Takoyaki as appetizer, a signature Garlic Tonkasu Shoe Ramen, and a Miso Ramen.
The Takoyaki order came with 6 Takoyakis. The Takoyakis seem a little smaller than the one that you would see in Japan, but it still has great taste. One thing to watch out for is that it is extremely hot when it was delivered to the table. So make sure it cools down a bit before you take a bite!
After the appetizer, here comes the main meal. The first one is the Garlic Tonkasu Shoyu Ramen. This is the signature Ramen dish at Kukai Raman and it is amazing! I normally do not like Ramen with Shoyu flavor, however, with the garlic added to the soup base, the ramen tastes amazing! This is definitely a must try dish!
The next ramen is the Miso Ramen. The Miso Ramen is similar to the one at Ramen Ryoma. The ramen is served with miso soup base. Unlike shoyu ramen, miso ramen is not as salty. The only down side is that it does not come with garlic flavor, so I still think the signature ramen taste a lot better.
Having been to both Kukai Ramen and Ramen Ryoma, it is really hard to decide which ramen restaurant is better. I definitely think Kukai's signature Garlic Shoyu Ramen is the best, but Ramen Ryoma is much cheaper and also offer great taste. Overall, both are great in my opinion!
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