Akahoshi Ramen — Restaurant in West Chicago Township

Oh gosh! Where do I begin?

Mike and his team are making some of the best ramen in Chicago. My go-to used to be wasabi ramen and will always hold a near and dear place in my heart for being one of the first places that took great care in making the tonkatsu broth. That said, I am a huge fan of classic shoyu ramen that's not watery and bland....and thanks to Mike, I found my go-to place for Shoyu Ramen!

We ended up getting 3 of his noodle dishes: Akahoshi Ramen, Classic Shoyu, and the Aburasoba (soupless). They were so good that we ended up also ordering the special for the month, a spicy miso ramen...and because why not - also their Ikura Rice Bowl! And we washed it all down with a bottle of sake.

Seating is extremely difficult to get...they do a weekly reservations drop and I was booking it right when it dropped and was only able to get a 5pm opening slot. It was worth it! They do try to keep a few seats open along the bar and window open for walk-ins. But it will be difficult if you come at regular dinner hours.

Frankly, I actually like going when they first open...there's a sort of camaraderie with others (both reservations and walk-ins all waiting and laughing together...at least with the group in line with on the night we went) - that we all were waiting in line together in the cold for the ramen shop to open!

The ambience is very subtle. I love the warm glow from dimmed lights with light stained wood table tops. It made the place feel warm and cozy. We originally were given a booth, but we asked if we could switch with a walk-in to sit at the bar in front of the kitchen. Fortunately, a walk-in needed a table for 4, and we only needed two seats at the bar....so the host asked if we'd be willing to swap - at which we enthusiastically agreed! And that was a highlight because Chef Mike ended up talking with us multiple times throughout the night (see one of the video where Mike chats with us!) and we had an upclose chance to watch him and his team make the amazing dishes!

This place is by no means a "traditonal" ramen shop...but I'd argue that many of his dishes are as true to the essence of so many ramen dishes from Japan. Sitting in front of the kitchen and getting to talk to Chef Mike definitely reminded of what I love about when I was visiting Japan...that so many places are run and operated by chefs that are passionate and personally takes care of you as their guest at their restaurants. And Chef Mike and his team made our night memorable. Looking forward to coming back time...

My friend and I ordered one of everything on the menu to try.

The noodles are elite. They have an excellent chew to them, the broth clings to them well. It’s worth it to make the noodles in house. It shows in all their dishes.

My favorite was, surprisingly, the soupless Tantanmen. Everything was cohesive, the flavors all complimented one another. I would order this again. The thing with a soup less noodle dish though is it doesn’t feel very Japan-like. In fact, you could serve this at a Thai restaurant and I’d believe it was a Thai dish. It had the flavor profile of a Thai noodle dish (I mean that in a good way).

Next, the shoyu ramen. I loved the presentation, it was perfect. I liked the inclusion of a “Naruto” as well, as it adds a pop of color to the dish. While the noodle chewiness was awesome, I thought the broth was slightly unbalanced, with just a touch of extra saltiness (from an ingredient akin to fish sauce). As a shoyu, it was among some of the best I’ve had, but to really make it super silky smooth, the saltiness could have been cut back by about 15%. I only say this as I recently went to Japan had a shoyu that was the absolute best I’ve ever had. The other thing that threw me off was the charred pork, but we’ll talk about that later when I talk about the miso.

The Akurasoba was my 3rd favorite, I like garlic a lot and was expecting to love this, but even after mixing everything, it didn’t feel like the dish came together as 1, as it had for the Tantanmen. Still, excellent flavors, I’d explore adding the spicy seasoning here instead of the chili oil we got, which didn’t do too much.

Finally, the miso ramen. This time, I noticed an after taste in the broth that was unexpected. The charred pork introduced a smokiness in the broth that permeated the entire dish, in a mildly unpleasant way. The broth itself was thicker, as it should be, and clung to the noodles better too but that worked against this dish. I’d be curious to see what this dish tasted like without charring the pork.

Speaking of the pork, it was cooked very well. The char was nice on its own, but I’m just not sure it’s a good idea to char it when it is in a broth.

As critical as I was to all the dishes, we finished all 4 among the 2 of us. It was very well made, you can tell the skill and craftsmanship that goes into it. Very...

All the 5 star reviews are from non-Asians and WAY too overhyped . I should have looked at that as a red flag. Me and my boyfriend(both Asian & ramen snobs) decided to try this place out since we always saw a line waiting to get in. Also seeing that a reservation is hard to get as well we were both like woah this place must be seriously good. We made a reservation, the place is very clean and is very cozy. The wait staff were friendly but nothing popped out from them to add to this “unique” experience. Our food came, and we ordered 3 different entrees, some salmon rice and a cocktail. Me and boyfriend both took sips of our broth right when the bowls arrived and we both agreed that it was VERY salty. We tried the noodles from our dishes too, which in my opinion were delicious and chewy, but again all the broths are SO salty that it penetrates into the noodles and when you’re eating the noodles it taste like your eating salted noodles along with a salty ramen broth. Salt overload. I can see why a lot of reviews said they wish they had more vegetables in their dish, and it’s probably because the salt taste is so overpowering that you quickly eat all your vegetables to cleanse your pallet just so you can try to keep eating your salty ramen. The egg is delicious, it’s fine, it’s a nice size egg too. Our cocktail tasted like a server made our cocktail not a bartender but it was VERY strong, maybe they try to make up for the taste by pouring more alcohol in your drink. I don’t know how this place is getting 5 stars but it’s way too overhyped. It’s not bad though, I mean compared to Furious Spoon it’s like amazing. For ramen snobs out there if you want to try this place out just for the fun of it, it’s not bad, but just know you can get this same ramen experience at Ramen San, and even a better one at Wasabi, and I still don’t think any of those places are serving amazing ramen either. We were disappointed and we will not be coming out of our way to eat here again.

P.S. - Don’t listen to the reviews left by all the non-Asians on here saying they’ve been to Japan and have had ramen, that doesn’t mean...