Nudoru Ramen Bar

The latest restaurant to hit Edmonton’s ramen scene is Nudoru Ramen Bar on Whyte Ave. New ramen places always call my name. As soon as you walk into the small but modern eatery, you’ll notice the impressive mural on their wall. It’s created by Pete Nguyen from Avenue Magazine and features a samurai wearing Nike sneakers. Yay for #teamcozy. I love my Nikes. The other thing that makes this place stand out from other ramen eateries in Edmonton would be their “build your own ramen” option. The menu focuses on tapas and ramen. For tapas, they have unique offerings such as octopus fritters and traditional Japanese finds such as beef tataki. For their ramen, there are pre-made creations or you can choose to make it yourself. Of course, my friends and I chose the latter because isn’t that much funner?!

Nudoru Bunger $5 (1 pc) or $9 (2 pcs)

My friends and I started off our food adventure with a bunger. Bungers are Nudoru’s play on burgers. Get it? Bun-gers! Their menu states that only 100 are made each day which makes it even more tastier. These bao buns are made with steamed buns, pork belly, pickled pears, grilled scallion, and sweet miso sauce. The bunger was filled with flavour and had a slightly crunchy texture from the pickled pears. There was a good amount of tender pork belly in each bunger. This was honestly my favorite part of Nudoru. The only downside would be how the steamed bun kept sticking to the roof of my mouth while eating it. 

Gobo Fries $6

These aren’t your average fries. These fries are made from crispy burdock root and topped with house spices. They reminded me a lot of chips because of their taste and crispiness. The fries had a sweet taste that was contrasted with the seasoning of the house spices. It was my first time seeing this offered in Edmonton but they’re actually very common in Japanese restaurants. Not to mention there are many health benefits to burdock root as well!

Create Your Own Nudoru $13 

Three of us at the table decided to make our own ramen. The ramen is created based on flavour (shio, shoyu, miso, or spicy miso), protein (pork belly, pork shoulder, or chicken), and 3 toppings. Additional toppings are either $1 or $3 depending on what it is. I decided to venture off into a shoyu pork belly ramen with scallion, nori, and a soft boiled egg. Nudoru makes their broth and noodles in-house. The noodles certainly stood out for me! They were slightly firm and chewy. On the other hand, the broth was mediocre. I was expecting my shoyu broth to be more flavorful but something was missing. The pork belly pieces were huge but mainly fatty. At least they didn’t go wrong with their egg! I find the egg to be the key topping in ramen bowls. It was soft and oozed just a little bit. 

Dragon $15

My friend had the dragon ramen and barely survived eating it. If you’re down for a super spicy challenge then the dragon ramen is your calling. 

Overall, Nudoru’s ramen was not outstanding to me. It tasted average, just like many other ramen bowls I’ve tried in Edmonton. There are many unique features with Nudoru though, from their mural to their tapas, and create your own ramen option. But still… Edmonton’s ramen game needs to be worked on.