Aloha Ramen
The Japanese staple gets a Hawaiian twist at Greenwood
By Seattle Magazine Staff December 31, 2010
The food obsessed never tire of the hunt for the area’s best (and most obscure) ethnic eats, be it tongue tacos, geoduck crudo or panchan. To them I say: Time for a trip to Greenwood. Okinawa-born, Hawaii-bred chef Lorenzo Rangel moved to Seattle last year, and in early June, he and his wife, Reiko, opened Seattle’s first Hawaiian-Japanese noodle shop, Aloha Ramen.
The Rangels have tidied up the 18-seat space and kept the menu concise, offering just four types of ramen—shio (salt broth), miso (soybean broth), shoyu (soy-sauce broth) and vegetarian ($6.50 each)—which arrive with chewy noodles, bean sprouts and (all but the veg version) slices of delicious, intensely savory roasted pork in deep, wide bowls. I found the shoyu ramen’s broth a bit thin—although I’m told this subtler flavor is a signature of Hawaiian ramen—and preferred the lush, deeply layered miso broth. The house-made ginger-pork gyoza ($4) are good, but the garlic rice ($5.50), sticky with tender, caramelized cloves and hunks of roasted pork, is addictive. Your best bet? Get both: a ramen-rice combo is just $8.
Dinner Wed.–Sun. Greenwood, 8102 Greenwood Ave. N; 206.838.3837; no website