Oct 10, 2016

Seattle Area Ramen Tier List: Fall 2016

Miyabi (Wallingford): pricey but not more than I’d pay for ramen and pretty amazing all around; lots of variety and subtle flavors; tempura cauliflower was the best tempura I’ve had in the US
Kizuki (Bellevue): solid ramen + izakaya, almost worth the wait if under 20 minutes; the Northgate + Downtown ones have even longer waits
Aloha (Lake City): Hawaiian style ramen which is awesome if you’re into it; garlic fried rice is also tasty [promoted to A Tier due to their tonkatsu dan dan ramen]

Yoshi (Bellevue): super casual vibe which I dig; decorated with pictures of hot Japanese ramen chefs and Mr. Yoshida’s face; get the mazesoba! [demoted to B Tier as their tonkutsu is mediocre]
Yorushiko (Wallingford): great izakaya with decent ramen but sadly they don’t do their weird special ramens (smoked bacon with corn?!) all the time

Samurai (Cap Hill): if I’m on that part of town and I want a hot bowl of something and I don’t want pho it’s pretty great
Ramen Man (Wallingford): they focus on chicken; I like pork
Arashi (Ballard): pretty good ramen but stupid crowded; not worth the effort

Samurai (International District): super cramped and also there are just too many other choices in the ID
Hokkaido (Bellevue): good ramen, but priced for downtown Bellevue and also it’s in downtown Bellevue and why would I come here when Kizuki and Yoshi are around and are better?

Jinya (Bellevue): literally the only ramen place that’s screwed up my ramen how do you even do that

My definition of “Seattle Area” runs from Renton to Lynnwood west of the Snoquamie River.
Feel free to suggest other places for me to try as long as they do not require extreme effort to get (like those places that do like a dozen bowls a day).
Aloha used to be in Greedwood and their move left a void of ramen between Wallingford and Northgate, but now they are better because their local competition in Lake City are worse.
Hokkaido would be A or more likely B Tier if I didn’t hate downtown Bellevue with a flaming passion. Downtown Bellevue is filled with These Are Not My People.
This list only compiles Japanese ramen. No Korean or (Northern) Chinese ramen/noodles because (gasp) I don’t like spicy noodles. There may be a separate Cantonese tier list at some point.