If you watch the first season of \"Mind of a Chef\" on Netflix, you get to follow David Chang, founder of the Momofuku eateries in New York city around on his culinary adventures. One place he visits is Japan and one food he talks about a lot is ramen. I've been to Japan myself, and have eaten a lot of ramen there and I have to tell you, the folks at Umami make some good ramen!\n\nThey are still in the pre-opening stage of things, without their full ensemble of items. Tonkotsu, the famous pork bone broth based ramen of the Kyushu region of Japan may not be available till their official opening on the 21st of September. However, they do have my second favorite, the famous ramen with miso broth from the Hokkaido region, and it is good. Now when I say good, I mean that from the noodle down to the broth because you have to start with the noodle!\n\nNoodle and Broth Review\n\nTheir noodles are somewhat al dente in that they are cooked but still firm. I did talk with at least one of the owners who noted that they spent six weeks perfecting their noodle recipe and it is actually made by a ramen noodle specialist out in California, to their specifications. All I can say, you can tell the quality when eat the ramen, just as good as anything I've had before in Japan or in the Little Tokyo area of Los Angeles. Oh, and you can get the ramen for take out, they provide the broth and noodles separately so you can combine then when you get home.\n\nAs for the miso broth, lovely and flavorful and I did have the pork belly, which is oven roasted and quite flavorful. The things I did not like in the ramen was the spinach (I know, good for me but my ramen can go without) and while the little flower shaped carrot was cute, I don't enjoy raw carrots in my ramen. If they were blanched and then put in the bowl, I think they would be much better.\n\nI did go back a second time with a friend for dinner and I though the ramen in the miso broth was just as good or better and this time, I got the hard boiled egg which is, at it should be, more of soft boiled egg in the center and it was quite delicious. I also got the pork belly again and though some have mentioned it being cold I thought mine was fine and quite flavorful.\n\nCocktails\n\nOh, when I went for dinner they had a bartender doing some fun cocktails and it is interesting they can bring some of the San Francisco style cocktail culture to the mill avenue area. As I like both ramen and a good cocktail I think that would be wonderful. Besides the cocktails they have a nice selection of Asian beers and sake and the owner noted they would be expanding their line of Sake.\n\nImprovements\n\nHopefully the owners read the Yelp reviews and take suggestions. I hope they move away from the plastic chopsticks and just put the metal cans stuffed with wooden chopsticks on the table. The plastic ones, frankly, are harder to use and for me, not part of the culture of a good ramen place, and I hope they move to the pitchers of ice water like at other ramen places.\n\nThe owner did mention Soba Noodles and offering the cold Soba Noodle option,k which is a good idea in Tempe, where a hot bowl of ramen may not be the think on a hot summer day so cool items as an alternative are important.\n\nSummation\n\n2nd time there, still keeping the four star rating as for Phoenix, this is an amazing ramen place and I think it will only get better. I'm looking forward to trying their Tonkatsu ramen in about a week when they have their grand opening, I think it will be fun. Just, as I mentioned, dump the plastic chopsticks and get in the wooden ones, and put the cheap diner style napkin dispensers out as well...they are also, part of that traditional ramen experience. Great place, nice owners, I hope they do well.
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