Food review: Ippudo's tonkotsu ramen rave
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Ippudo's tonkotsu ramen. Photo: Worth Sparkman/Axios
Nothing beats a warm bowl of soup on a cold winter night. If it happens to be world-class pork bone broth with tender noodles and all the fixins, well, that gets me weak in the knees.
The setup: Before there was the new Bentoville Food Theater, there was Bentoville, a sort of virtual restaurant making bento boxes and hosting kaiseki events at the NorthWest Arkansas Community College's Brightwater school for food.
- It was at a similar gathering where I had a sublime bowl of ramen in late February.
State of play: Tickets to the meal ($55) were sold online a couple of weeks before, with timed spots for lunch and dinner on Saturday and Sunday.
- I learned while eating that Ippudo is a ubiquitous, highly regarded Japanese chain with a handful of U.S. spots on the East and West coasts.
- The company also is an investor in Bentoville Food Theater and will be sending some of its chefs on long stints to train others and get things moving.
The food: Every part of this meal — from the spicy bean sprouts to the last slurped noodle — was exquisite.
- Not to overstate it, but any meal I could eat again the next day without complaint earns a gold star from me.
The intrigue: Inggit Rianto, owner of Menya Kitakara in Springdale, sat next to me. He said Ippudo was the inspiration for him to open a ramen restaurant.
- About the meal, he said, "It was amazing!"
The bottom line: Unfortunately, the ramen event has passed, but Bentoville plans food concerts for sushi omakase, yakitori and elevated dim sum in the near future.
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