Chicago Food Boys: ramen

Happy Anniversary to us! Chicago Food Boys is now 1 year old! For our celebratory lunch, we were trying to decide if we should revisit a place we had all loved, or if we should try something new. Two of our favorite meals were the ramen at Urban Belly and at Slurping Turtle, so we decided maybe we should try another ramen place. We went to Oiistar in Wicker Park, another ramen place which has gotten good reviews.

Max:
Oiistar is an Asian Fushion/Japanese restaurant. It is located on Milwaukee Avenue in Wicker Park. They are known for their ramen and steamed buns. First let me start with the atmosphere. It's kinda dark and modern. Definitely an asian fusion looking place. But of course, it's really cool looking. Now, let me talk about the food. We started with some steamed buns. I got the Tempura Shrimp. it comes with tiger shrimp, thai chili mayo, fennel slaw, and roasted sesame seeds. The tiger shrimp is amazing. It's perfectly cooked and delicious. The thai chili mayo really complements the tiger shrimp. The fennel slaw is about average, but goes well with the sesame seeds. After that, we all ordered ramen. I got the Musclemen ramen. It comes with mussels, onions, chili peppers, scallions, and bonito miso. The broth was a little spicy, but still tasty. I feel that they didn't need to put so much chili peppers in it though. The noodles were really good. I don't know what kind of ramen noodles they were but they were great. The overall ramen was pretty good. The service isn't the best. One of us ordered the Pozolmen. And our waiter said that it was his favorite ramen if you like it spicy. But he didn't say that it was going to be PIPING SPICY! Seriously, I tried it and it was like eating a ghost pepper fresh off the vine. And when he came back and asked us how much we like the ramen, we said that one of us got the Pozolmen and it was way too spicy. And he said - well I warned you it was going to be spicy. But that wasn't true. All he said is that it was spicy and that it was his favorite ramen. He didn't warn us about it like it was going to be REALLY spicy. But anyway, back to the review. Oiistar is overall a good restaurant, so I give 4 plates to Oiistar.

Otto:
I started with the BBQ Beef steam bun as an appetizer. I asked for it to be plain (just the meat and the bun). It was the best steam bun I have had yet. I got the Chadolemen Ramen, which was also beef and normally comes with vegetables too, but I asked for it to be just the meat and noodles and broth, which they said was no problem. It was really really good. The broth was really good, and after a while, it got to be a bit too spicy for me, but it was still amazing. It was a gigantic bowl of ramen, and I only eat a little bit of it, so we took a lot home. I would give it 4 plates.

Ruben:
It's been one whole year folks of Chicago Food Boys. hard to believe right?

So for our blogaversery lunch we went to a ramen place in wicker park called Oiistar. You might ask why ramen for our blogversery. well, we we're just in the mood for some ramen thats it. Everybody walked in with excitement. we sat down at our table not knowing what to expect. The menu i thought was very interesting they had a wide variety of buns, ramen, and some American Japanese appetizers. We all decided to get one bun and one ramen cause that's what the waiter recommended. I ordered the goki bun a barbecue beef bun. I thought it was very good the beef was a little to chewy for my taste but it was still okay. The garnish on the bun, i liked it. it went well with the beef but i would have to say my favorite part of the bun was the creme fraiche which was very sweet but not so sweet and the bun also had hot sauce so both the sauces really complimented each other very well. The ramen i ordered the chadolemen which is not on their online menu. for some reason so i had to look on yelp to see what it was called which is very weird to have a item on your physical menu but not your digital. It actually had a mix of beef brisket and ground beef which i thought was pretty good. I think i liked the broth the best, though it was spicy and had a lot of flavors that you could smell and taste. There was some bean sprouts and kimchi in the ramen to which were okay to but nothing special. I give oiistar 4 plates.

The Food Boys

Inside

Cod Steam Bun.

Max's Tempura Shrimp Steam Bun.

Ruben's Goki bun

Otto's Ramen.

Max's Musclemen Ramen.

Ruben's Ramen

Max and Musclemen.

Slurping Ramen.

Otto and noodles.

Konnichiwa, everyone! Today we will be reviewing Hubbard Street's Slurping Turtle.

Ruben:
I have been wanting to try this place basically since we started Chicago Food Boys. We went here for Max's 13th birthday dinner, and let me say thank you to Max for picking this place. I walked into Slurping Turtle with high expectations and when I walked out my expectations had been delivered. Let me start off with the wonderful atmosphere and location of this place, right on Hubbard street in the north loop. What could be a better location for a ramen place than that? The decor of Slurping Turtle fits it very well, it was modern and it was just the right amount of fanciness of a ramen joint I would say. They had beautiful Japanese paintings on the wall and hanging lights above with long tables to seat a big party. Another thing that I really liked about the atmosphere of the restaurant is that you can see the kitchen, you get that aroma blasting through the restaurant and you can see that beautiful dish being formed right there in front of your eyes. Now let me talk about the food what you have all been waiting for. We decided on some appetizers. They were Fried Brussels sprouts, fried chicken fried in duck fat and a beautiful selection of steam buns. Let me start with the fried brussel sprouts. they were the best sprouts I have ever had! They were so flavorful. I don't know what kind of seasoning they use but let me say it tastes like heaven. The fried chicken fried in duck fat was also amazing. I love things fried in duck fat think about what are belgian fries fried in Duck fat anyway there was also a salad with the chicken that was great. Now what you have all been waiting for the Steam Buns the things that are so soft that you could sleep on them. I got the pork belly steam bun it was amazing anytime I have a steam bun I just close my eyes and enjoy the moment of the soft bun filled with delicious pork and onion seriously Trader Joe's where are the frozen steam buns?.
okay enough about the appetizers now the Ramen! oh yeah I'm talking about the real stuff here not the thing the college students eat with chicken powder and noodles i'm talking real ramen with a spicy broth with amazing noodles pork shoulder bok choy and a asian meatball. I got the Tan Tan Spicy Ramen. The broth was great very spicy though it was literally red! That's how spicy it was, but it was very good well seasoned and so flavorful. The pork shoulder just melts in your mouth, the meatball was pretty good i thought it was just okay also it fell apart and it got kinda all in the broth, the bok choy was bok choy but i liked how there were some greens in the ramen. I loved Slurping Turtle and I will be back soon. Keep it up Slurping Turtle and compliments to the Chef or Chef's and Happy Birthday Max! I give 4.5 plates.

Max:
So before I say anything, I should let you know that my birthday is actually in October. And we went here on my birthday, but we never had time to publish the review. So I'm glad I'm writing this right now. So! We have been wanting to review this place since we first started our blog. We had always imagined that it would be delicious, but it was in the middle of downtown so it was far away, and very expensive, but since it was my birthday we decided to go. The atmosphere was awesome, fancy, and cool. It feels like the perfect place to eat a bowl of Ramen in. We started off with some drinks. We all got Ramuné. It is a Japanese drink where there is this ball of glass that you push down into the drink to give the water below fizz. That was very good. Then, we got appetizers. We ordered Fried Brussel Spouts. They were Great! Some very tasty sprouts. Second, we got some Bao. (If you don't know what Bao is, they're kinda like dumplings). I have not had that much Bao in my life, but it's sooooo good! There were four different kinds of Bao on the menu. They had Roasted Chicken Bao, Pork Belly Bao, Shrimp Tempura Bao, and Vegetarian Bao. All of them were good but I liked the Shrimp Tempura Bao the most. After that, we got our food! I got the Tonkotsu Ramen. It has thin homemade ramen noodles, silky pork broth, pork chasu, bok choy, pickled mustard greens, braised woodear mushrooms, and chili oil. It was delicious!!! Especially the pork chasu, I ate all of that first. The broth of the Ramen was also delicious! It had quite a good aftertaste and flavor. The bok choy went great with the Ramen broth. I didn't love the braised woodear mushrooms, and I normally like mushrooms. I just didn't like them that much. But everything else was great. Also, before I end the review, I want to mention that my waitress overheard that it was my bithday so when we all finished our meals she gave me a free cream puff!! It was amazing! This place has GREAT service and food and atmosphere, so I give Slurping Turtle Ramen 5 plates.

Otto:
As already mentioned, we were here for Max's birthday because we have been wanting to try it for a long time. For appetizers, I kind of liked the Bao, but it was hard to eat around the condiments in it, which I did not really love. But the duck fat fried chicken was really really good. For my entree, I got the Red Miso Ramen, which comes with homemade ramen noodles, chicken, bok choy, scallions and sweet corn. I just ate around the bok choy, scallions and sweet corn to get the noodles, the chicken and the broth, but the part I ate was amazing. Mine also had an egg that had a little swirly red detail on it, and it was really good. I think the broth here was the best Ramen broth I have ever had. Actually, the thing I ended up liking best in the whole experience was actually the broth, but from what I understand that is actually the key to making a really good Ramen. The broth is pretty hard to make, and it was so interesting that all of the broths for our bowls were different. Our server was really really nice. I give it 5 plates.