South Bay: Ramen Nagi

After Ramen Nagi opened in the Valley Fair Mall, I heard a lot of good things about it.  But I never had a chance to eat there because I was too intimidated by the scary long line outside their door.  The line starts before they open...even on weekdays!

I gave up on dining at their Valley Fair location and instead set my hopes on their Palo Alto restaurant:

Abby happened to be wedding dress shopping in the area, so we seized the opportunity and headed to Ramen Nagi for lunch with our mother.  As it was the weekend, there was also a scary line that day, however it moved fairly quickly.

We got to put in our order while waiting in line by marking up a order sheet that they handed out:

This way, our food was ready soon after we were seated:

How efficient.  I love it.

We started off with a karaage appetizer ($6.50):

And an order of gyoza ($5.95):

All three of us got the original king ($13.50).  You can customize how salty, how oily, and how much garlic you want in your broth.  You can also choose between chashu (sliced pork loin) and kakuni (pork belly) and between green onions and cabbage.  If that weren't enough options for you, you can also decide on whether you want your noodles thick or thin as well as how firm you want them. 

Since it was my first time at Ramen Nagi, I wanted to try the chef's recommendation.  This meant normal salt, oil, and garlic level, chashu, green onions, and thin noodles with normal firmness.  The only place I deviated was the spiciness level.  I'm a wuss, so I went with not spicy at all:

All three of us added an egg ($1.75).  The yolk was perfectly jelly-like, which was delightful:

I'm by no means a ramen connoisseur.  Nowhere close.  Unless it's super memorable, ramen broth generally tastes the same to me.  The only things I really notice are the noodle texture and the egg, both of which were pretty darn good at Ramen Nagi.

All this is to say that I quite enjoyed Ramen Nagi.  But did I like it enough to brave the line at Valley Fair?  Hell to the no.  

That line is still scary as hell.

Ramen Nagi

541 Bryant St

Palo Alto, CA 94301

https://ramennagiusa.com/