The posterboy of Japanese cuisine in Chennai has been sushi for a while. While ramen has been a strong contender globally, the city has had little luck with ramen restaurants. Almost a decade ago, Go Go Ramen opened in Alwarpet, letting people live their anime and manga fantasies. But its closing down in 2019 left a gap, which the recently opened Oji Ramen aims to fill.
This restaurant on Bawa Road is reminiscent of the several hole-in-the-wall places seen in Japanese movies and anime where middle aged chefs put together bowls of soupy noodles with exacting precision. This is where the restaurant’s name also comes from; “Oji in Japanese is uncle,” says Arunima Karmakar, head of operations.
The menu has limited options. The gyoza is the only starter and is available in vegetarian, chicken and pork variants. The chicken is pleasing in its simplicity with a mince flavoured by Napa cabbage, ginger, garlic and sesame oil. It is served with a ponzu dipping sauce made of light soy sauce and mirin, (a rice wine popularly used in Japanese cooking).
The big bowls of ramen are brought in next. We try the Shoyu Vegetable Ramen and Oji’s Special Mix Ramen.
The vegetarian ramen has silken tofu, scallions, char-grilled Napa cabbage, crunchy bok choy, bean sprouts, oyster, shiitake mushrooms and nori strips floating on the clear soup. The broth is vegetable and soy-based, and has little flavour. The noodles submerged in the broth are freshly made.
Oji’s Special Mix Ramen is made with a pork broth that was cooked for eight hours and a chicken broth that was cooked for six. It is topped off with soy milk, which gives the broth a thicker body. On its surface is slow cooked pork, poached chicken, scallions, nori and two halves of an egg with a runny yolk.
You may have to wait in queue. However, meals are quick, and conversations are short, mostly because they are punctuated by the sound of noodles being slurped up.
Oji Ramen is located at no 103B, Old, New No: 50/A, Bava Street, Alwarpet. A meal for two costs ₹1200.
