SUDOOKU RAMEN — Restaurant in Naperville

I ordered Spicy Sudooku Ramen and takoyaki.

Knowing we came for dining in, the waiter then gave us with a free water bottle!

After 5 mins roughly, takoyaki came first.

It came with 5 pieces with big bonito flakes, and shredded cabbage on the bottom.

The taste was delicious. The takoyaki was quite solid, and the outer texture is a bit crisp. A bit different with the one in Mitsuwa, but i think both have unique textures. I like it with soft texture (Mitsuwa), i also like the crisper one (here).

Shortly after, came the ramen.

It was a HUGE bowl!

Three things about the taste:

The noodles has a unique taste. It somewhat has certain flavor.

The pork meat. I literally asked the owner and she said they prepared the meat and the broth by themselves. So, it did taste very tasty and unique. So, juicy and had certain taste in mouth. I think, i think, it is marinated first.

The broth. It was not as thick as the one i found in Misoya (which I considered also one of the best). Yet, somehow this broth is parallel to that. Means, it is also taste delicious in its own character. It is spicy but not hurting your throat. And, a good broth never makes you get nausea feeling after eating. I did not get that nausea feeling in Misoya, nor in Sudooku. So, this place has excellent broth for me!

Other things about this particular ramen, it has naruto thing (haha), nice soft boiled egg, corns, bamboo shoots, nori, and the bean sprouts! All made the ramen taste even better.

Another thing which is not less important: hospitality. The owner and the waiter are super kind and hospitable!

When it times to pay, the payment terminal is handed over to you on your table, so that you could see the price, tap or insert for the payment, and put the tip directly into the machine.

Oh, they also have Maneki-Neko (the cat waving its paw). 😊

Though i havent tasted the other menu, which I would love to come again and try another day, i want to say:

Sudooku Ramen is totally recommended!!!

Five...

Let me preface this by saying that the staff here is fantastic and the restaurant, though small, is very clean. If rated solely on staff, it's an easy 5/5.

However, the food itself is another matter. I ordered their namesake bowl, the Sudooku Ramen. I'm going to go bit by bit about the food.

Noodles: I'm fairly sure these are Sun noodles, which is standard fare. Nothing wrong with it. Broth: Honestly this is the weakest part of the bowl. The flavor is extremely bland. There's a lack of saltiness to the broth that made it weak and not very flavorful. Maybe there's no tare being used or it's not salty enough. It wasn't as hot (temp) as I would have liked either. Chashu: The soy sauce braise that was used is really prominent with each bite, which you may or may not like. Egg: Good soft boiled egg. Other: Menma and naruto are normal fare, nothing bad with them. Corn was okay but the corn-water flavor leached into the broth. Maybe order without the corn.

I likely won't be back anytime soon. I was disappointed because there's a lot of glowing reviews about this place. However I'm very critical when it comes to ramen and honestly this place isn't that good.

Again, the staff is excellent. I did peek at another group's orders and the bento looked good enough to try. Perhaps another time, if there is...

Staff was super nice, though the location was a bit small. We saw many glowing reviews and wanted to check this place out. We sat at a counter and got the following:

1. Gyoza - our son ate this and loved this. He called it Yum! Dumplings. It looked like it was fried well, with crisp on one side.
2. Chicken Kaarage - this was delicious. Well fried and the chicken inside was tender.
3. Takoyaki - octopus balls. This wasn’t my favorite dish here, but was authentic. I could see how others would love it either the chunks of octopus in it.
4. Chicken Bun - this was delicious though I think we would like to try the chashu next time after eating it in the Ramen
5. Sudooku Ramen - noodle was bouncy and there was good balance with the Ramen. Would highly recommend this
6. Spicy Sudooku Ramen - while this wasn’t quite as spicy as I would have liked, the staff checked in with me and let me know they could adjust the heat next time. This was still delicious and would highly recommend. I like that the heat is adjustable as what may be spicy to some, may not be to others.

Overall, loved the food here and the staff. The food came out very quickly and was delicious and we can’t wait for our...