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| - I've been waiting for this place to open up!
I started off with karaage. I found the meat itself to be nice and moist, but the batter was not crispy enough. I probably wont order that again.
I got miso tonkatsu ramen. Let's break it down:
The bowl was presented nicely with noodles and bean sprouts holding the chashu under the broth (which is where i like to put it when i start eating), and menma, soft boiled marinated egg, naruto, and nori shaped like a flower (kawaii!!!).
I wish the bowl came with a little more noodle because they seemed to be gone in my tummy pretty quickly. It's also worth noting that this is the first time i found naruto at a restaurant in Madison. The menma was relatively flavorless, and the egg was slightly overcooked for being soft boiled.
The chashu retained a distinct pork flavor and still had a lot its fatty moisture well distributed in the dark meat. The slices were just a hair too thick for my preference, but it was still pretty good. It really had a melt-in-your mouth texture, but I didnt find it to be as good of broth sponge as Ramen Kid's.
Now, this broth is where the ramen shined. If Ramen Kid's miso broth is rock n roll, Ramen Station's miso tonkotsu broth is jazz. It wasnt overly salty, allowing the delicate nuances of miso to shine. It was a little sweet and nutty from the miso, meaty from the tonkotsu (although not creamy), and slightly spicy on the finish (perhaps from ginger). This balance between delicate miso and meaty tonkotsu is quite something.
Atmosphere-wise, it feels more likely a traditional asian restaurant than Ramen Kid or Umami.
If you want your bowl of ramen to be a huge amount of food, Ramen Kid and Umami do a better job with that. However, Ramen Station provides the most well-balanced ramen of the three.
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