Yuji Haraguchi, the owner and mastermind behind Yuji Ramen, was going for something original when he arrived at the smorgasburg space at Bowery. Ramen with bacon and eggs, salmon and cheese or roasted vegetables concocted in signature brothless style — these are some of the unique ramen dishes offered for $9 each at the Yuji Ramen: Test Kitchen in the Bowery Whole Foods, which began service March 12.
“It’s very experimental, that’s why I named it Yuji Ramen: Test Kitchen,” Haraguchi explained.
At his previous location in the Smorgasburg Brooklyn flea food market, Haraguchi had to prepare meals every day at a friend’s restaurant since the pop-up stations lack kitchens for food preparation on site. Moving to the Whole Foods location allowed Haraguchi to flex his creative culinary skills.
For the new location, Haraguchi changed his menu so he could incorporate the Whole Foods market ingredients. The wide variety of options the market provides for meat and seafood ingredients is also what led to the creation of Haraguchi’s favorite menu item — the daily shoyu ramen ($9).
“Normally ramen has a fixed broth, like a chicken broth, but over here they produce so many different kinds of meat, so it is very exciting,” Haraguchi said.
CAS sophomore Mika Caruncho enjoyed the flavorful ramen.
“It’s a really cool fusion of different kinds of food from different places and the location adds to the uniqueness,” he said.
Yuji is not afraid to mess with traditional dis-hes, such as Shoyu ramen. He adds his own twist by changing the ingredients every day to include new arrivals from the Whole Foods market.
What truly sets him apart, however, is his signature mazeman ramen.
“I do mazeman style ramen, and I use different seasonings and toppings that change seasonally,” he said.
Haraguchi has big plans to expand the menu and is also working to incorporate this new culinary style at a permanent location. He wants his restaurant to be a similar style to the Test Kitchen.
A version of this article appeared in the Wednesday, mar. 27 print edition. Helen Owolabi is a contributing writer. Email her at [email protected].