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| - A pretty good restaurant with a lively atmosphere, friendly staff, and good food.
The restaurant is sort of set up like a bar. There are tables and booths around, as well as high bar-style tables in the middle. Our party of 8 was seated in the middle of the restaurant at a long bar-style table that comfortably seated all of us.
Our server was very friendly and accommodating, and did her best to make sure that the seating and bill situation was sorted out beforehand. A larger party like ours is naturally harder to server, so appreciate the extra effort she put in.
As for food, we all started with gyozas to share, and then each ordered our own bowl of ramen. The gyozas were very interesting (in a good way). Instead of the traditional pork filling, they contained lamb meat, which added a nice gamey kick. I'm not a huge lamb fan, but these were quite tasty, although a bit on the salty side.
Continuing my rare journey into lamb-ville, I ordered the spicy lamb ramen for my main. The broth (the most important element of good ramen) was very rich and flavourful, with just enough spice to complement the initial savoury taste without overpowering everything. The noodles were nothing to write home about, but served their purpose as a flavour medium, were nice and firm (there's nothing worse than soggy noodles!), and were served in generous portions. I was absolutely stuffed by the end of the bowl, which rarely happens with ramen! That being said, I think Shiki-Menya or Shikiji are still the ones to beat in terms of noodle quality.
All in all, it was a great ramen experience. I would definitely come back here again.
I should also add that it was extremely easy to book a space for a party of 8 at 7:30PM on a Friday evening, which is pretty rare for a ramen place, and a huge contrast from having to wait an hour to be seated for lunch at Shiki-Menya!
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