Umaimon

A good bowl of ramen is something you can feed me any time. I legit think there are few things in this world better than proper ramen. For the sake of my summer body (which will never happen), I tend to keep this on my winter list, rather than a May date night. Anyhow, since this May is as cold as February, Umaimon is where I ended up last week.

Umaimon is powered by the famous Takumi Düsseldorf. Many have named it the one and only place for authentic ramen in Amsterdam, or at least, it’s in most people’s tops.

Umaimon is in the heart of the city, right at Leidseplein. As many Amsterdammers, I avoid restaurants located in the center like the plague, knowing they are tourist traps pretty much 99% of the time. This wasn’t.

The place looks fairly kitsch – exactly as I was hoping it would. It’s large, so a reservation wasn’t necessary, but I choose to always go out on week days.

The first thing you need to know about the ramen at Umaimon and what makes it unique is that the noodles are kept in a temperature-controlled cupboard (which you can see yourself). The chef takes them out when they’re ready, which keeps them fresher than your average noodles.

Their menu gave me a headache – in a good way. There’s many choices and they all sound like they should already be in my belly. I had to start my research days before, and obviously, I need to return for the other 84578389 meals on my pending list.

After careful consideration and self doubt, I chose the Mala Chicken Ramen, which came with grilled chicken, veggies, loads of coriander, fried onions, nori and shoyu tamago. I was craving a creamy, spicy chicken broth. Was it creamy? Absolutely. Was it spicy? Unfortunately, it was pretty Dutch spicy – that’s a no. Most of the spices were found on the bottom of the bowl, and that was not much either. Was it delicious anyway? Yes. It was so, so good.

The quality of the dish was superior to pretty much every ramen I’ve tasted in Amsterdam so far, although I have a decent “to do” list. The flavors were strong, the broth was very intense (even with the lack of spiciness I was hoping for) and the chicken! My god, the chicken! It melted in my mouth and all I could think of was “how the hell can I make this myself”? Until I find that answer (I give it 5 years), guess I will just return.

Hayden, a simple man, does not need hours to stare at a menu, although he is usually happy to have my comments and advice after deep research. He chose the Teriyaki Shoyu Wantan Ramen. I asked him how we made that choice (so quick and easy?). He looked at me very confused, said he likes teriyaki and he likes wantan. Fair enough. If only my life was that easy.

His ramen bowl came with pretty much whatever mine did, but teriyaki chicken instead of grilled, plus wantan, as you may have guessed. His broth was soy based, thus much lighter than mine, but just as flavorful. Loved the texture and taste of the chicken bits as well.

We washed everything down with a Japanese beer called Kirin, which just went in “top 5 favorite lagers”. Yes, we’re the kind of people who wash down soup with beer.

I am happy we didn’t give in to temptation to order starters. The portions at Umaimon are big and unless you’re literally starving, there will be leftovers. One thing to mention – the “to go” plastic bowl will cost you 0.50 EUR, which is pretty unusual and annoying, but they are fairly nice bowls which you can keep.

To sum this up, Umaimon exceeded my expectations. I truly enjoyed their ramen and I would happily go back anytime I’m around. Yes, that will mean more hours of research and another headache, but this is so, so worth it.

Value for money: 9

Food Quality: 9

Location: 10 ( Korte Leidsedwarsstraat 51)

Service: 7

Website: https://www.umaimonramennoodle.nl/

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