So it happened. A date night. These are pretty rare for us and a lot of fun! So we decided to give another ramen joint a try. Tonight, it’s Jinya Ramen Bar in Bellevue, Washington.
Jinya Ramen Bar – Chicken Wonton Ramen – United States
15600 NE 8th St. Suite O-11 Bellevue, Washington 98008 * Website
Here’s their menu for this location.
My wife Kit. She kicks ass – she’s always up to try something new!
The table accompaniments. Surprised that there wasn’t any togarashi to sprinkle.
We’ve tried the izakaya (appetizers) at all the ramen restaurants we’ve been to. This is their ‘Jinya Bun” – ‘steamed bun stuffed with slow-braised pork chashu, cucumber, and baby mixed greens served with JINYA’s original bun sauce and kewpie mayonnaise’
Here are their ‘Mini Tacos.’ ‘slow-braised pork chashu and kimchee in a crispy wonton taco shell’
Decided to try takoyaki this time – ‘battered octopus over egg tartar topped with kewpie mayonnaise, okonomiyaki sauce, fresh cut green onion and smoked bonito flakes’
For the main course, Kit opted for a rice bowl – she said it was pretty good.
Here’s what I ordered (click to enlarge), their Chicken Wonton Ramen (wantanmen). Their menu had this to say – ‘chicken broth: wonton, spinach, green onion » served with thin noodles.‘ The noodles were indeed thin. They married to the broth just perfectly. The broth was extremely good – very rich and gave me that same feeling as having noodles that had a runny egg yolk on them – pure bliss. The wonton were extremely good as well with nice texture and innards. Chicken flavor throughout. I can’t explain how absolutely fantastic this was and can say easily at this point that this bowl eclipses all other bowls of ramen I’ve sampled in the area, putting them to shame. A no-brainer 5.0 out of 5.0 stars.
A side-angle of the bowl (click to enlarge).
This greeted me at the bottom of the bowl and honestly I was sad to see it. It meant that my ramen was indeed gone and my short, tasty life at Jinya Ramen Bar had ended. Perhaps we shall return and try something else next time.
