Nishikawa Ramen — Restaurant in Phoenix

As a ramen connoisseur and having eaten at numerous restaurants in Japan as well as other markets, I would pleased to see find one located a short distance from my home.

I decided to try Nishikawa for lunch to see how their ramen compared.

Upon entering, I found that the restaurant offered plenty of seating but lacked any indication if it was seat yourself or wait to be seated as the staff waited several minutes before even acknowledging my presence or that of other new patrons.

So I took it upon myself to go ahead and sit at the bar counter.

Once seated, I was greeted and handed a menu.

After reading over the menu, I decided on my main barometer for comparing ramen restaurants by ordering the Tonkotsu Ramen. Since I was unsure of the portion sizes, I elected to try their karage (Japanese style fried chicken).

When ordering, I was taken aback a little when asked how spicy I would like my ramen since it typically does not come spiced up unless it is listed on the menu as a spicy version, so I ordered the slightly spicy version to see how much of a kick it would have.

Once ordered, the karage came fairly quickly, but I was surprised how long it took for the ramen to come considering they had 1 cook handling this section of the menu. Normally in larger restaurants even when busy, ramen orders do not take very long so I this is one area that Nishikawa could probably do some improvements with.

The karage came out as expected and in a very traditional manner and flavor which I was very pleased with. Like most Japanese karage recipes, dark meat was used primarily for this dish and the batter was nice and crispy. If you are more of a traditionalist like I am, the dipping sauce is ignored and only lemon and maybe a slight dash of salt is all that is required.

As for the ramen, the portion was decent and like many places I have eaten at here in the U.S., tended to be served in oversized bowls unlike in japan.

The broth has good decent flavor, but some of that was masked by the chili or spicy oil that was used. The buttery mouth feel typically associated with tonkotsu ramen was present, but a little on the lite side.

The quantity of noodles was good, but the cook had used too much of the mushroom or fungus (Kikurage) which I am not a fan of, also the chashu pieces were some what small .

Overall I found Nishikawa to be a decent ramen shop and one of the better ones that I have tried here in the Phoenix area (top favorite is still Sushi-Sen) and will certainly consider stopping in again to try some of their other...

I came here hoping to get authentic ramen to up my own ramen dish, but instead received a dish which neither my partner nor I finished. If you have only had instant ramen, then you'll likely enjoy this. However, if you have made your own then you'll see all the shortcomings from this ramen. I tried both the Tonkotsu and Yokohama ramen.

The following are all the issues which had with the ramen. First was the broth, which was exceptionally salty to the point where I couldn't distinguish any flavor except salt and an underlying bitterness. Second was the ramen egg, which was marinated way longer than it should've been which imparts an off-flavor. I know this is the reason because I have made this same mistake in my own cooking and the bad flavor is identical. Third was the Chashu, which was bland and had no sear, now some people may not have an issue with what was essentially boiled pork belly, but I personally like when there's at least a light sear. It brings more depth of flavor and it's a quick process, which is something a shop that specializes in ramen should be able to do. Fourth was the veggies. I didn't enjoy the Kombu and instead prefer the use of Wakame, but that is a personal choice and shouldn't reflect poorly on the dish for others. The onion was fine, it's onion. Fifth was actually the only part I enjoyed until about 5 minutes into the meal. This was the noodles, which was springy and had some chew. It also had a good flavor up until the noodles became saturated from the broth which made them inedible.

Overall I was very disappointed in my meal. I bought two meals from a restaurant which only sells ramen and ramen toppings in hopes to find some new twist or elevated flavor for me to try and mimic. Instead I got something that's comparable to instant ramen for $20.

Edit After reading other reviews I believe I miss identified the wood ear mushrooms as sliced kombu since the texture was similar to Tsukudani. I just assumed it was bland and overly salty...

( If only can post my review with ZERO star I would).. I can still remember the day I was craving a good ramen and one of my staff recommended Nishikawa Ramen in Phoenix. Drove there all the way from Glendale, just to try the Nishikawa Black Ramen. The place was packed and waited about 30 minutes before we got seated. We enjoyed Nishikawa Black Ramen and the chicken karaage. Had become my favorite and will always order the same thing wheb we got there, even when just doing togos. The next following visits I noticed the taste and quality of the food weren't consistent. But the food quality, taste and even the service has since went from good to just okay to bad to EXTREMELY WORST!!! 10/14/21, we gave this restaurant one last try, we ordered 2 nishikawa black ramen and 2 chicken karaage togo, drove home and was super excited to have it for dinner. When we got home I opened the bag and noticed that almost half of the broth containers was just oil. The broth sank in the bottom and the oil was just too much. I reheated the soup hoping it would be okay but boy I was wrong! The broth just tasted like oil!!! It's so gross that I just ate the egg and threw away the whole bowl because it was that bad!!!!! To the owner of this place, please have someone manage your Restaurant and don't rely on some kids to run your business! Your kitchen staff are probabpy not trained well or maybe just don't really care about the food that they're cooking!!!! WE WILL NEVER COME BACK TO THIS PLACE EVER AGAIN!!!! And I will definitely make sure that all ramen loving people I know will know about this, and help save them from wasting their hard earned money. PEOPLE PLEASE STAY AWAY FROM THIS RESTAURANT AND SAVE YOUR MONEY AND JUST FIND ANOTHER...