Two former fine-dining chefs, whose impressive resumes boast Michelin-starred restaurants and celebrity names, have found their creative niche in a gourmet bowl of ramen. But the March Madness ramen bracket all comes down to this: new vs. old.
Last week, The Denver Post readers voted on the Final Four in our quest for the best ramen shop in the Mile High City. (Apologies, our bracket got a little out of order.)
Osaka Ramen, an underground RiNo shop that James Beard-nominated chef Jeff Osaka opened in 2015, pushed out its local Japanese pub competitor, Mizu Izakaya.
Meanwhile, Neko Ramen & Rice, which chef Vincent Yu opened in Northeast Park Hill just last year, edged out five-year-old DU-area favorite Tatsu Izakaya.
Both Osaka and Yu come from strong fine-dining backgrounds and have since applied their techniques to a comforting, steaming bowl of ramen that has clearly impressed Denverites.
Who will earn eternal ramen glory? Help decide by voting online in the final round of matchups. Go to denverpost.com/2024/02/14/best-ramen-denver-bracket to vote by 9 a.m. on Monday, April 1.
Learn more about your top two finalists before you crown the winner:
Neko Ramen & Rice
Chef Yu has strict expectations for his cooks and said sometimes customers complain about hearing his loud orders roaring out of Neko Ramen & Rice’s small kitchen.
“I’ve been working in fine dining for so long that I’m accustomed to it,” he said. “I only know one standard, and that’s not going to change.”
Yu spent most of his childhood in South Korea, where his parents owned Japanese restaurants for 30-plus years. He later attended the Culinary Institute of America in 2013 and worked for big names, including three Michelin-starred restaurants Bar Masa in New York City and Joël Robuchon in Las Vegas.
“I wanted to open my own restaurant, so I’ve been preparing, but I wasn’t ready to open a fine-dining concept right away,” Yu said. “So I decided to open something more affordable with comfort food.”
Yu didn’t want to open his ramen shop in L.A., New York or Las Vegas because of the saturation. He landed in Denver, where he had no friends or family, when he felt like there was a gap in the market.
He opened Neko Ramen & Rice in a strip mall with a Starbucks and Carl’s Jr., at 40th Avenue and Colorado Boulevard in January last year. The unassuming space is filled with waving cat figurines, a Japanese symbol meant to bring good luck.
“On the first day, we only opened for three hours and had long lines that we couldn’t handle,” Yu said.
Neko has six different types of ramen, and its most popular dish is Yu’s signature Mi-So Hot ramen ($15.95) with chicken broth, pork chashu, egg, miso paste, spicy sauce, grilled onion, green onion and beansprout. Yu has added his own Korean twist to this bowl as a nod to his heritage with the spicy sauce, which uses Korean chilis.
The black garlic ramen ($16.95) with pork belly chashu and the creamy vegan ($16.95) follow closely behind. Yu said it takes at least 16 hours to make the chicken and vegan broths.
4030 Colorado Blvd., Unit 103, Denver; nekoramenandrice.com
Osaka Ramen
Chef Osaka isn’t a new kid to the ramen block, like Yu. He joined the chef-driven ramen movement that slowly bled over into Colorado after Momofuku Noodle Bar stepped onto the scene in New York, and opened Osaka Ramen in RiNo in 2015.
“We were put up against some big fish at the beginning, like Uncle,” Osaka said of the 2024 March Madness bracket. “I was surprised to see someone who was a little more established get knocked off.”
Osaka, a Los Angeles native, also got his start in the fine dining industry. He worked as a private consultant, cooking and catering for Hollywood celebrities, like Steven Spielberg, and later alongside famous chefs like Wolfgang Puck and Bradley Ogden.
In 2008, he opened 12, a seasonal restaurant, which earned him a James Beard nomination. It closed and reopened later in Congress Park as 12@Madison before shutting down during the pandemic. Osaka opened Osaka Ramen and Sushi-Rama a block away from each other in the heart of RiNo years later with his landlord at the time, Ken Wolf.
“I grew up heating up those instant packets of ramen after school and still keep some in my house now,” Osaka, who’s third-generation Japanese, said.
Osaka Ramen serves 10 different takes on ramen. The most popular dish is the tonkotsu ($17.75), a traditional pork broth with bamboo shoots, mushrooms, pork belly, pickled ginger for some acid and black garlic oil.
“The pork broth takes us 48 hours minimum,” Osaka said. “We cook the bones at very high heat to extract as much flavor as we can out of them, and reduce the broth down for that porky, sticky mouth feel. I understand why it’s so popular, especially here in Denver with the climate.”
The spicy miso ($17.75) with pork and chicken broth, as well as the new green chile and chorizo ramen ($18.25), which has found a permanent spot on the menu after a seasonal taste test, follow closely behind.
“You use a lot of the same techniques in fine dining that you use to craft a bowl of ramen,” Osaka said. “There’s a lot of craftsmanship in the dish from the way you cook the broth to the meat and all the toppings.”
2611 Walnut St., Denver; osakaramendenver.com
