Delicious Ramen Inside a Sake Brewery

A staple in many college student’s lives, ramen can range from instant ramen to upscale, slow-cooked ones. According to their website, Bad Luck Ramen Bar simmers pork bones for 18 hours to create their signature Japanese tonkotsu broth (bone broth) for their ramen.

First of all, Nadia had the Nas Original Ramen ($16). The ramen had noodles, chashu pork, corn, mushrooms, a boiled egg with a jammy yolk, nori (seaweed) and garlic oil in a tonkotsu broth. The flavor of the broth was savory and rich, and it combined well with the garlic oil. The noodles absorbed the broth to give each bite of noodles a burst of flavor. The chashu pork was smoky with a great ratio of fat to meat. However, Nadia wished the ramen came with more broth as there wasn’t enough to finish it with each included topping.

Brian tried the Smokey and The Veg ($15), a ramen concoction of smoked tofu, mushrooms, carrots, and other standard ramen vegetables. To his disliking, the texture of the noodles did not taste very different from those of instant noodles, and neither did the broth. The smoked tofu did not carry any distinct flavor. Despite these shortcomings, Brian ate from the bowl heartily, slurping up the last piece of noodle and sipping the last drop of broth. He also sampled an inari ($8), charming tofu wrapped pouches of rice with sweet soy sauce. Biting into these golden packets produced savory-sweet hits of flavor and the crispy texture of the tofu was delightful to chew on. Although Brian thought the ramen did not stand out, it was just the thing to help absorb the fine selection of drinks at the only sake brewery in Virginia.  

For those over 21 years old, we would recommend the sake slushy. Sake is a Japanese alcohol made by fermenting rice, and the drink is made into a slushy by partially freezing it. The slushy flavors available for this day were mango and triple berry. After asking for a recommendation from our waitress, she told us that we could get the flavors mixed which allowed us to have the best of both worlds. The taste of the sake was strong, but the mango and triple berry complements the alcohol well, and it is not too sweet. Who knew rice and ice could make such an exquisite combination? 

Bad Luck Ramen is located inside North American Sake Brewery at the IX ART Park. They are open from 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. And from 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. Do note that there is a pause in food service from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. Check out their website for more information on their hours and menus!