“If you don’t want to have to wait, go early,” advised my friend Stephanie.
But it’s saying something when you arrive at a restaurant just shy of 6 p.m. and you’re only able to grab the last two seats at the bar—or face an hour-long wait.
Pho-Ramen’l, the latest restaurant iteration by Chef Sean Wight of Frog Hollow, Craft & Vine, FarmHaus and Frog & Hen, opened with hoopla and packed seats in February. I’d been dying to go, and date night with dinner and a concert was the perfect opportunity.
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With equal parts whimsy and cheek, Pho-Ramen’l is also impeccably stylish. Its bold décor features splashes of red, gold, black and brilliant blue, and the eye is drawn irresistibly to the gigantic mural of Japan’s lucky, or waving, cat on one wall. I loved the neon signs hanging above some of the booths: “Send noods,” “All that and dim sum,” or “Noodles Pho-ever,” and the fact that a Japanese ping-pong tournament was playing on the TV above the bar.
Located in the former Blue Sky Kitchen location, Pho-Ramen’l has also been redesigned to feel more intimate. You walk in through an open-air porch, then into the dining room with a mix of high-top and regular tables, then the bar seating area, with a line of enclosed booths along one wall.
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Everyone, it seemed, was happily eating. And we were ready to join them.
The menu features a great selection of 11 small plates, including intriguing Korean beef nachos, cauliflower bang bang, and roasted oysters with lemongrass queso and collard green kimchi butter. There are three bao buns, on traditional soft white steamed rolls, filled with pork belly, katsu fried chicken or cauliflower bang bang. Or there’s the star of the show, the “noods,” including Southern chicken, pork or vegan ramen and chicken or beef pho.
For an extra punch, there are also cocktails, spiked (or virgin) boba tea, red and white wines, beer (including Asian lagers), and seltzer, cider or kombucha.
I realized I was blatantly staring at our neighbor’s gorgeously glazed wings and admitted it, and we both shared a laugh—“They do look good!” she agreed as she and her date dug in.
But our appetizers looked good too. We’d chosen the pork belly and the chicken bao buns, and Sean gave me first pick. I bit into the fluffy soft bun and met the crunch of the fried chicken, with the flavor punch of the sweet and savory gochujang-flavored BBQ sauce. Likewise, the pork belly bao was a study in flavor and texture, with the sweet and fatty pork belly and the sour crunch of pickled daikon and carrot.
For the uninitiated, pho is a Vietnamese soup of light broth, rice noodles, sliced meat and fresh accompaniments such as cilantro, lime slices and bean sprouts, while ramen is a Japanese dish with a heartier broth and noodles and, often, egg. Sean’s Southern chicken ramen bowl was a fun riff on this, topped with two sriracha deviled eggs, which lived up to their name. I didn’t find his ramen too spicy though, despite the addition of spicy chicken fat, and the fried chicken katsu was tender and flavorful, though the crust was a bit soggy from its bath in the broth.
My beef pho featured two flavorful sliced meats—marinated short rib and griddled beef—with fat white rice noodles and plenty of fresh cilantro and lime. My first bite was fresh yet earthy, meaty and a touch sour from the lime. After I’d blissfully slurped up my noodles, I kept on taking sipfuls of the peppery, beefy broth.
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I didn’t want the experience to end. So Sean flagged down our server, who suggested a light finish with the restaurant’s handmade dark chocolates, filled with creamy white Thai basil-flavored centers (which were delicately minty), or scoops of miso and salted caramel ice cream, atop a crumble. We decided to try both, which were just right—sweet, but not too sweet.
We left the restaurant as it was still packed with beautiful people happily eating and drinking. Early or late, Pho-Ramen’L definitely lives up to its name.
Make Your Reservation
Pho-Ramen’l Eating House
990 Broad St.
Open Wednesday and Thursday, 5 to 10 p.m. and Friday and Saturday, 5 to 11 p.m.
Entrée cost: $16 to $20
Danielle Wong Moores is a local freelance writer who’ll never turn down a shrimp cocktail, sushi or cheese dip. Her greatest food influences are her mom and writers MFK Fisher and Amanda Hesser. Her Dine and Dish column runs the second and fourth Fridays in The Augusta Press.
