Ramen512
Noodles, broths, tare and toppings are all made in the shop, and the shoyu bowl is built on chicken and dashi.1
Why go
The kitchen makes its own noodles, broths, tare and toppings, which is the whole pitch and the reason people argue about the drive.1 The Infatuation put it on Austin's best-new list for 2022 and was blunt about both halves: This is ramen at its best
, with nearly every component
it calls expertly made in-house
, and also that there is not much else pulling a Central Austin diner up to Cedar Park.2 The guide splits the menu two ways for you, a tonkotsu if you are working through the city's pork bowls and a delicate chicken-and-dashi shoyu if you are not.2
Order this / avoid
- Order: the shoyu, which is the bowl the guide singles out as the reason to make the trip on its own terms.2
- Also: the tonkotsu, if the point of the evening is comparing it against the city's other pork bowls.2
What locals & experts say
- The Infatuation Austin, Austin's 9 Best New Restaurants Of 2022:
This is ramen at its best
, withbowls composed beautifully enough to make even the ramen emoji jealous.
2 - The same guide, on the trip:
There are a lot of ramen styles here, so whether you're doing a tonkotsu tasting tour of Austin or just in the mood for a delicate chicken-and-dashi shoyu bowl, you have a reason to make the trip, too.
2
Good to know
- It is in Cedar Park now, not Austin. The business publishes one address, 1420 Cypress Creek Rd Ste 300, and lists no Austin location; the old 8023 Burnet Rd room is gone from its own site and the health register at that address returns only its neighbours.1
- Timing: closed Monday and Tuesday, dinner from 5pm Wednesday and Thursday, with a lunch service added Friday through Sunday.1
- Hygiene: no public score exists. That is a real gap rather than a jurisdiction problem, because the city does list 36 businesses in this ZIP including Cedar Park street addresses, and an absent record is not a clean one.3
Verdict
could-visit — A one-room ramen shop that makes its own noodles, broths, tare and toppings, and that The Infatuation put on its best-new list while admitting the Cedar Park drive is the tax. The bowl the guide points at is the shoyu, chicken and dashi rather than the pork bomb. It is could-visit rather than higher because there is no scored review, no published pedigree, and the trip is thirty minutes each way from Central Austin.