Ichido Ramen H-Mart Food Court — Restaurant in Frederick

Ichido Ramen is situated at the food court inside the Hmart grocery store. The food court is modern and hip, but maybe due to the demographics in the area while serving mainly Koreans, it has never been bustling during any of the 3 visits I've made so far. This is one of the two establishments serving Japanese cuisine at this food court. This one serves ramen and hot dishes, the other one focuses on sushi. (FYI - there is also a Chinese, a Korean fried chicken, and a Korean tofu dolsot place here.)

You can study the menu, inspect the mock displays, and sample at each restaurant store front or counter, but you place and pay for your orders at one central place near the back across from the restrooms. Once your order is ready, your number is announced via the PA system. And you go to the respective counter to claim your order.

We ordered Shoyu Ramen $10.99, Tonkotsu Ramen $10.99, Chashu-don (rice) $11.99, and an app, Takoyaki $5.99. It took 15 minutes for our number to be called. The plating looked very inviting.

It was the second time I've had takoyaki. The first time was in the streets of Tokyo. The size of the 5 tako "balls" can be classified as "miniature", about a quarter of the size of the "real" ones. The number partly compensated for the small size, but I still considered it pricey. Each takoyaki only had about half of an inch of an octopus tentacle in it.

We instructed "low-sodium" on the ramen, and the broth indeed tasted just right, and the noodles were springy. The serving size was disappointing, but the price point is also cheaper than average. I would say the Ramen dishes were up to par.

The Chashu-don was a disappointment. The picture depicts juicy marinated pork belly; instead, we got the dry and thinly sliced pork, possibly the same protein used for the ramen. It was "turned" into "Chashu" by adding the sauce on top. The sauce was over-powering and the little rice they gave wasn't nearly enough to go with it. The dish did come with a salad and pickled radish on the side and the sesame-based salad dressing was quite unique and refreshing.

Overall we weren't impressed, and were left "physically" unsatisfied - we each had to get a donut at the adjacent bakery (Cafe L'Ami) to fill our partially...

I love noodles. This is the first time in my life I couldn't finish some noodles or soup because the aftertaste was that of the worst, hyperprocessed, worst noodles I've ever had the displeasure of eating. It takes gross negligence to make soup this bad even with instant ramen soup packets which is essentially what the soup base was. It's basically hot water + the cheapest soup base + the cheapest noodles + the cheapest baked and seared pork. It takes no effort to get the flavors to work together and have a decent taste. If this were a $11.99 I'd just say you get what you pay for. This was 13.99 or so before tax and came out to $17.xx with a drink. Just goto any other ramen place and save yourself...

I ordered spicy tonkotsu ramen. It was delicious! It's very spicy, a little on the oily side, but overall very delicious and filling. The noodles are bouncy, the pork was very nicely grilled, and it was a good ratio of noodles/toppings to broth. I don't know what's with the reviews though, it's a great ramen spot. The only reason I'd mark this place down a star is the fact that there are only two spots to pay, and it's for all of the restaurants in the food court, so it can get really...