shichiroku.com - nooba (zürich, switzerland)

ramen review: nooba

Address: Kreuzplatz 5, 8032 Zürich, Switzerland
Hours: Mo - Sa 11:00-23:00, So 17:00-23:00
Direction: http://www.nooba.ch/nooba/index.php?nav1=3&e=&rest=7

My search for ramen continues this past month in Zürich. While I had no luck in France, I was able to find some more Japanese restaurant with a greater variety. My colleague found Nooba, a Pan-Asian eatery. It's not really a traditional ramen shop, but with ramen on the menu, I had to try it out.

Zürich is famous for outdoor dining. As the weather turned into spring here in April, you can find people dining outside and the restaurant inside becomes empty. We got some appetizer to start. The edemame and gyoza were very good. Edemame came warm, and the gyoza was pan fried to perfection. The meat inside the gyoza was also very tasty.

On comes the ramen. My colleague ordered the Kaisen Ramen. The Kaisen Ramen is basically a seafood based ramen, where the soup made from shrimp. As you can see with the toppings, this is not your traditional Japanese ramen. You usually don't see sprouts in ramen, and there usually isn't a seafood soup base. Although, my colleague said the soup was quite tasty.

Now, I chose the Miso Chili Ramen. I was in the mood for something flavorful and spicy. As soon as I tried the soup, I was disappointed. There was really no miso in the soup, although the spiciness was there. Now, onto the noodles. As you can see in the picture, those are not your traditional Japanese Ramen noodles. It was very tasty, the soup was not too bad. All in all, this was not what I had in mind, but heck, I am in Zürich. You gotta have realistic expectations.

Conclusion

Whenever I try ramen outside of Japan, I always have to set the expectations fairly. It's never going to be as good as it is in Japan. Now, Naniwa in Düsseldorf came pretty damn close. Although the soup for each of the ramen was pretty good, it's not what you traditionally think of as ramen. Nooba also serves other dishes such as rice, noodles, and curry. We've tried the Thai curry and Pad Thai, and both were very good. But as a pure ramen shop, it's average at best.

Freshness rating:

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