Marukin Ramen takes me down memory lane. My first time was when my grandmother had passed away and my mother and I flew in from California for the memorial. We were blurry eyed from the trip when my friend suggested getting noodles. It was a snowy day and the Tokyo streets were empty when he drove us to the outskirts of Shirokane for a bowl of ramen. This was over twenty years ago.
The last time I went to Marukin Ramen in Tokyo was with ramen boy and his dad. It was also a memorable visit since I got a parking ticket which took me to the police station in tears. I truly didn’t plan to cry but the police officers took pity on me. Let’s just say our ramen that day was an expensive one.
Portland is truly a foodie town with really good and authentic Japanese ramen. I doubt we will be able to touch all of the ramen joints while we are here but luckily we have not just one but two Marukin Ramen restaurants to choose from. We tried the downtown location which is definitely a Portland experience. The restaurant is inside a food hall called the Pine Street Market amongst other food establishments. You order your food in advance and then take a seat with your number so that the food is brought out to you. It’s conveniently modern with bright bold colors inviting you in. The polar opposite of what greets you in Tokyo which is in an out of the way location with a pretty shabby interior. It’s all about the ramen.
So we were skeptical. The gyozas came out first and the boys inhaled both orders. It was that tasty. I tried one and had to agree the gyozas were pretty delightful. I ordered the tonkotsu red ramen with a spicy tonkotsu broth topped with spinach, kikurage mushrooms, bamboo shoots, leeks, green onion, chashu pork and a soft boiled egg. At first I thought the bowl looked too oily imagining it would be overpowering. The noodles were cooked perfectly and the ratio of the soup and noodles along with the toppings were delicious. The egg was divine. The ramenheads in my family were quite content with their bowls too.
Our other go to place in Portland is Nong’s Khao Man Gai’s chicken rice and so we were very pleasantly surprised to discover that the other Marukin is right next door.
No doubt it won’t be our last bowl of noodles in Portland.
Marukin Ramen
126 SW 2nd Avenue
Portland, Oregon
