Walking to Collegetown from North campus is never fun, but it’s a lot worse in the middle of a snowstorm. After walking for 20 minutes, I could feel the cold air seeping into my bones and cutting my face. Thankfully, I found refuge in a small ramen shop called Oishii Bowl, which had some of the tastiest comfort food I’ve ever tried.
Oishii Bowl is a small restaurant located in Collegetown. It’s a sparsely decorated store and you can tell that the emphasis is on serving up cheap food, and not on creating an elaborate or refined atmosphere. Although Oishii is a Japanese word, the restaurant offers items from Japanese, Chinese and Thai cuisine. There are both rice and noodle bowls as well as some small side dishes, like pork buns and fried fish cakes.
You go up to the register to order food. I’m a big fan of ramen, so I ordered the Shoyu Bowl, which consists of ramen noodles in a soy sauce-based soup with pork, egg and various vegetables. My friend and I sat down, and within 10 minutes our order number was called. I was surprised and happy about the speed of the service, but I was also hesitant. Good food takes time, so how good could this ramen be?
Thankfully, I was proven wrong. The broth was hearty and delicious, and the noodles were cooked perfectly. The pork was also cooked perfectly and absorbed the flavor of the broth well. The soft-boiled egg was a perfect complement to the flavor of the ramen noodles. However, the vegetables were definitely a little overcooked, and I wished there were more of them.
Perhaps the best thing about Oishii Bowl is the price point. For about $8, you can get a huge bowl of noodles and soup that fills you up. I had eaten only breakfast that day and was famished by the time I got to Oishii, and yet one ramen bowl filled me up completely. I had a warm, full belly by the time I had to leave the eatery and face the cold once again.
Although it doesn’t boast the finest Asian cuisine in Collegetown, Oishii Bowl offers a huge portion of warm, tasty food for relatively cheap prices. If you are ever trekking through Collegetown and need a warm, inexpensive bowl of ramen, there’s no other place I would recommend.