More and better Boomage

Back to Boom Noodle for lunch today, and this time I was definitely a happy camper when I left. My waiter was — like all of them have been — friendly and funny and knowledgeable about the food. I decided to try  yaki udon, and some mashed potatoes. What a great combination! The udon was loaded with flavor (and spice!), and the “dancing bonito flake” on top was spooky cool. Alternating between the potatoes and the udon was really perfect. My green tea was yummy, too, and I’m not always a fan. I think macha makes a difference, it’s less harsh than leaf tea.

Oh, I meant to say before how I loved the tea pot that my flowering tea came in on my first visit. It’s a gorgeous thing to see, and their little tea cups are stylin’.

So, as a matter of opinion, I’m still not crazy about the direction their ramen goes in (see my earlier passionate post), but now I will for sure be back several more times to check out other parts of the menu. I’m definitely no Japanese food expert, but my impression today was that this is Japanese food as seen through a Northwest filter… the result is homey and exciting at the same time. Nice job!

More about Boom Noodle

Three posts about noodle soup in two days is a bit nuts, but I was really excited about the prospect of getting good cheap ramen a few blocks from my place. Now that I’ve been there a second time, I’m ready to say that it’s nowhere near as good as the ramen I had in Japan — even the pedestrian stuff I had there was better. Boom Noodle has 3 different ramen soups, and I’ll go back and try the 3rd one soon, but their intent is pretty clearly not to offer spicy soup, nor are they trying to offer soup loaded up with lots of crazy ingredients. I’ll sound like a tourist here, but one of the things I really loved about the ramen I had in Japan is that it came with 8 or 10 different “things” lying on and among the noodles: seaweed, naruto, pork, fried things, mushroomy things, etc. Boom Noodle does this, but it’s just a perfunctory showing… the bowl isn’t jam packed with goodies.

The broth is good, but it isn’t complex, spicy and mysteriously wonderful like the stuff I had in Japan. The noodles are thin and definitely al dente… I don’t have a clear memory of the noodles I ate in Japan, but I remember them being slightly larger and more slippery; not quite udon size, of course. The central thing that’s lacking is complexity, with dead-sexy spiciness following close on its heels.

I’ll definitely be going back to Boom a lot… they have plenty of interesting things on the menu that I’d like to try, I like the communal table thing and their wait staff is incredibly nice. But the big picture is that I’m kind of disappointed. On the other hand, I’m less disappointed than I was in Blue C Sushi, a place that doesn’t deserve one return visit, let alone several.