Ramen lovers were in a frenzy late last fall, trying to make their way to a spate of promising newcomers serving Japanese-style ramen. When the dust settled, Agu easily emerged as my favorite.
Agu A Ramen Bistro is part of the REI family of Gyotaku restaurants, but it could not be more different. Where Gyotaku represents a local-Japanese fusion, Agu chef Hisashi Uehara brings Japanese tradition to making tonkotsu broth from scratch, and Jidori chicken broth so clean and light it appears clear. (Jidori is a brand of organic, free-range chicken.)
His is a 24-hour kitchen in which someone must be on guard at all times to make sure nothing goes wrong as the Jidori broth is made, or pork bones are boiled down over the 18 hours it takes to make the rich tonkotsu broth. It’s a process unheard of in most contemporary American restaurants, and in the beginning, the Jidori ramen was particularly hard to come by. Uehara has been known to throw out entire batches that did not meet his standards.
The original menu was small and ramen-centric, and for me that was enough. But that was not the extent of Uehara’s ambition. Friday marked the introduction of many new pupu to the menu, including Jidori kawa (deep-fried Jidori chicken skin, $6.75), Cajun-spiced “Kicked Up” french fries ($5.75) and mimiga ($6.50), or deep-fried pig ears served with the restaurant’s spicy, Cajun-style Volcano sauce.
I’m not particularly enamored of the thick pig ears, but they may find some fans.
Due this week is Jidori nanban, a wonderful combination of chicken and egg, with tender Miyazaki-style fried chicken dipped in a soy and vinaigrette sauce and served with Agu’s homemade tartar sauce incorporating chunks of hard-boiled egg. It was one of my favorite dishes during a wine pairing event (online at my Take a Bite blog) at the restaurant, another preview of things to come as managers work toward securing a liquor license in the next few months.
But, ramen continues to be the star of the menu, dividing diners into two camps: those who prefer the lightness of chicken broth, or those who enjoy the thick richness of tonkotsu broth. Both styles skew satisfyingly toward their respective extremes of lightness and heft.
The restaurant opened with a small menu featuring the two ramen styles, with the Jidori ramen ($11.75) flavored with your choice of soy sauce or shio (salt), highlighting the thicker, chewy Tokyo-style yellow chijure noodles.
There are a few more options with the tonkotsu ramen ($10.75 to $12.75), which uses thin Hakata-style noodles. These range from the shio, and shoyu-flavored broth amped up with black sesame paste, to kotteri tonkotsu, made extra sinful with additions of black garlic oil, garlic and pork fat. You can also order the kotteri spicy, with one of five levels of heat. Levels 1 and 2 feature red peppers, while levels 3 to 5 offer the escalating heat of Thai peppers and jalapenos. Those testing the chef’s prowess for heat have been sorry, even at level 3.
The basic kotteri ($11.75) has always been my favorite, and I’m glad I waited to review because the chef has tweaked it to make it even richer, scarily so if you’re the least bit worried about the state of your arteries.
First, there’s the silky bari kote tonkotsu ($15.75) with garlic, black garlic oil, garlic butter and se-abura, small globules of strained fat rendered from fatback after cooking it down for 10 to 14 hours.
Then there’s savory kotteri Parmesan tonkotsu ($15.75), the freshly grated cheese forming a “scoop rice” size mound on top of the ramen. Stir in as little or as much as you want as you go along.
Each bowl is topped off with tender house-made char siu made from the pork collar, soft-boiled half-egg, bamboo shoots, negi and sesame seeds.
An extra five pieces of char siu is $5.50, and the other ramen staple, gyoza ($5.25), is also house-made, fresh, light and airy, with a thin crisp shell and clean-tasting pork and veggie filling.
After all that, dessert is kept simple, light and refreshing, with a choice of gelato or sorbet from Il Gelato.
Nadine Kam’s restaurant reviews are conducted anonymously and paid for by the Star-Advertiser. Reach her at nkam@staradvertiser.com.
