Ramen to Bíiru Vesterbro — Restaurant in Copenhagen Municipality

Went to this ramen shop last week. Seating is limited, but my friend and I easily found a spot Thursday night. The dining area is quite nice, with two large communal tables and individual booths. Lots of Japanese-inspired decorations! The bowls of ramen were prepared very fast, and was quite tasty. Not the best ramen I've had, but certainly better than "pimped" instant ramens. And yes: some restaurants - not this one - also serve ramen, which are actually worse than instant ramens. Sadly my first choice of ramen had peanuts, which also motivates to some extent the 3/5 star rating. Allergens are not explicitly mentioned in the menu, sooner the menu states that a customer should ask the staff about them. The staff was very happy that I asked about peanuts; the person at the counter mentioned that they have had a customer with a severe allergic reaction in the past, and that they had to call an ambulance for the individual. Furthermore, the use of peanuts in Japanese ramen is not very traditional - I presume the chefs added some peanut butter to the miso paste? I would personally prefer if the restaurant's management would include the allergens right in the menu next time they re-do / re-design them. Price-wise it was roughly 220 DKK (in total) per person: 145 DKK for a ramen and 74 DKK for a large draft beer. For Copenhagen, I'd say this is just slightly above average, and therefore totally OK. For those without a peanut allergy, I'd say this ramen shop is a 3.5-4/5 ramen place in Copenhagen, but for those with a severe peanut allergy I'd give it a solid 3/5.

Response to the owner's response from 10 Feb 2023 (as there is no explicit function to do so):

Thank you very much for taking the time to respond! I totally agree with you that the staff was extremely pleasant in helping me finding a "safe" dish. The person asked me about any other allergies, and then the person made sure to recommend another bowl of ramen, which is/was similar to my initial/first choice. I also agree with you that 99% of restaurants in Copenhagen don't do this, and that a 50-page menu would indeed be very cumbersome. I was merely pointing out my preference that restaurants should - in my opinion - start dealing with allergens more explicitly. If we look at German-speaking countries, restaurants there have added federally-standardised single digits or letters (e.g. "E" for peanuts) to individual menu items to highlight the major allergen categories included in the respective dish. I am not saying that this is absolutely necessary, but I think it can give customers with one or more allergies an initial sense of security. Maybe a QR code to an online PDF list of allergens in each menu item is an easy way to go? At the end of the day, it is of course your decision, and I will respect that! But again: thanks for...

I wanted to try this chain as it’s quite popular and it was recommended by various people I knew, so I popped in on a Wednesday evening around 6:30pm.

It was extremely busy, and even though I was alone I had trouble finding a place to sit. I sat outside for a while until a window stool opened up inside that I quickly grabbed.

You order your food / drinks up front then sit and wait for them to bring it over. I ordered the spicy miso ramen and a side of ebi furai with the rice lager.

Here’s what I liked:

The noodles were a really nice texture and I thought they were perfectly done and delicious.

The pork was so tender, melted in my mouth, and tasted amazing.

There wasn’t a bunch of unnecessary stuff floating in the broth, which is often what I don’t like about ramen I’ve had, where there’s a bunch of beansprouts and bamboo shoots floating around. This was just broth, meat, noodles and spring onions!

The craft beer was really nice and I would’ve loved to try more.

The service was fast and friendly.

Why I wouldn’t give it 5 stars:

I got the highest level spicy broth (level 4) and it wasn’t very spicy at all. This might vary from day to day but I just wasn’t satisfied by the spice level.

The soy egg wasn’t very flavourful.

The battered prawns were my biggest disappointment. The batter was super heavy and greasy, not light and airy like tempura would normally be. It was more like a heavy fried chicken batter which was really off putting. I tried soaking it in the ramen to dispel that a bit but after eating 2 of them I couldn’t have any more because the amount of grease was not sitting well. This almost alone brought my rating down to 4/5.

It was super busy and if I got up I would’ve lost my seat. I wanted to try more of their beers but if I got up to order I would’ve been left standing so I just didn’t bother.

Overall it’s a nice spot and clearly very popular! I’ve had better ramen in Copenhagen personally but if you’re near one of these I’d give it a try...

Having tried the Ramen to Biiru last year and was disappointed beyond words, trying the Spice 3 at the Nørrebro restaurant. I was about to try again since I was in the neighborhood of the Vesterbro place, I thought to try and go there.

This time I ordered the Tonkotsu which is only available there. Tonkotsu being my favorite kind off ramen, with its very thick and flavour strong profile. Unfortunately I hadn't my camera at hand, cause what I got was a nice looking Ramen, but not a Tonkotsu ramen in apperance. It looked more like a dark beef stock broth than a milky white creamy pig broth.

Digging into the soup, you had a dens taste and flavors that was ok, more intense flavors then a shoyu, hitting a Miso Ramen punch, but a bit heavier than some Miso style ramen. So no doubt they had something going for them, but the classic Tonkotsu broth this was not.

The warmth of the broth was still the same despicable luke warm as a year ago. Ramen is served hot.. .Scolding hot when it is at its best, but it shouldn't be luke warm. The noodles for me was a bit too al dente, but that is how they serve them here, the taste is fine and that matters, if the broth had been hot enough I could actually have waited half a minute for the noodles to be cooked to my liking.

The Chashu wasn't bad, but nothing to write home about, bit alot better than last years try. But I would really love to see a restaurant lift the Chashu up to more than thin sliced dry pork.

The eggs, I got an extra... Half.... Was ok, also more consistent than what I tried.

I give this three stars, as an option not as a recommendation. As a way of saying, that the Tonkotsu can be eaten, but it isn't...