ICHI Japanese Ramen House

The shoyu ramen is more than decent and,
given the serious lack of proper noodle options in this city, I would happily become a regular. What’s stopping me? They are RARELY open during posted hours which forces me to turn around and seek out something else. This has happened on three separate occasions now. I will not be stopping by to window shop again.

A must for anyone that likes real ramen. And the noodles taste freshly made, definitely not like packaged ramen.

Great specials and good atmosphere. First time here and I must say I’d take the Ramen here over the phở anywhere else in New Orleans. I’d heard poor things right when they opened so didn’t try it out. They must have worked our the kinks.

Service was terrible… we were the only people in there and we had to call the waitress over many times. They charged me a dollar for the siracha haha and the food was poor!

If I could write half a star for this place, I would, because this is, by far, the worst meal I have eaten in any restaurant in my entire life. I have been to many restaurants and I have never written a review but my experience was worth writing a review about. The ramen noodles had the same taste as $ 1 prepackaged ramen meal and the eggs inside resembled pickled eggs you would find at a middle-​of-​nowhere bar. The only decent food was my shrimp shumai because that is impossible to mess up. The waiter look high and could not care less whether he had the job or not. He sat at the bar and watched tv while resting his head on his hand during the entirety of our meal. I cannot recommend not going here enough.

Enjoyed the miso ramen bowl that I ordered. It had great flavor and the service was good. There was only one other table when we went for lunch, so it didn’t take long to get our food.

Sadly, this place misses the mark when it comes to ramen.
The broth: –1 star
They only have variations on a tonkatsu (pork bone) base, so not many options there. It has a decent flavor and is not overly salty. It is, however, very greasy. Get the corn butter ramen and you will see the soup glistening in the distance. Overall, the broth has good flavor, but the oil really weighs it down. Those who order the cheese ramen are brave…
The noodles: –1+ stars
I love the chewy bite to ramen noodles. Unfortunately, you will not get those here :(. From the taste and texture, my best guess is that these are dried egg noodles. Thin, short, flaccid. Womp womp. For $ 9-​$ 13 a bowl, I want the real stuff!
The fixings:
I liked the spinach, seaweed, nori. The pork is great! The meat is not plentiful, but enough for me. The soy marinated hard boiled egg was a cold, rubbery, salt bomb that nobody at my table finished. There are also many other toppings you can add for an additional fee (extra pork, corn, butter?!).
Other:
Service is friendly, ambience is nice.
All in all, I was pretty disappointed. If I could give fractions of stars, I would probably give this place 2.75 stars. It definitely has potential as there are some pretty good elements (broth flavor, pork.) Change the noodles, cut the fat, and fix the egg and I will be back. Otherwise, no thanks.

I’d been hearing that a Raman shop was opening up close to my casa, and have been eagerly awaiting its arrival. It finally did a few weeks ago. The location has actually been multiple sushi joints over the years, with none of them being particularly great, so I couldn’t tell if they were still remodeling or what was going on. I actually had to stick my head inside one afternoon and ask if they were open and I was glad to be told that they were. I went back for lunch that weekend. I love soup generally and Ramen specifically.
If you’re either a fan or new to Ramen you won’t be disappointed. Ramen is basically all about the broth and noodles. The broth here is good, not the best I have never had, but good enough. Currently they only offer tonkosu (pork bone broth) and do variations on that broth by adding spice or different ingredients. Sorry vegetarians, but there do not currently offer a vegetarian broth. They did say they are going to and have a miso broth at their other location, but they haven’t incorporated it at their Maple location as of yet. They do offer some vegetarian dishes however, but are rice dishes and not Ramen. The broth was full of flavor and not overly salty, which can easily happen with Ramen. It had good depth of flavor and a friend that had never had Ramen before loved it.
I don’t think the noodles were house made but they were good all the same. Not as firm as I typically like, but they were the right size and had enough chew to keep me happy. I had an egg in mine and it was cooked all the way through, which was kinda odd. The egg is supposed to be runny so when you cut into it the yolk added a richness to the soup (as if the broth needed to be any richer). But that is a minor point. The other ingredients were all spot on. The slices of pork were a little thick but again I’m just being picky.
The décor is nothing worth mentioning. Pretty basic and hasn’t changed in all the years the location has changed names. We don’t have too many options for Ramen in NOLA so I’m not being overly critical. It was 3.5 stars but I’ll go for 4 over 3 since I am so happy that a ramen placed opened in NOLA, and close to my casa too boot. I hope the food stays the same if not gets slightly better, with more variety of broths. And I hope this restaurant is around for a while. Go get some Ramen, you will be glad you did.

Good food, Great atmosphere…