Aloha Ramen

The food obsessed never tire of the hunt for the area’s best (and most obscure) ethnic eats, be it tongue tacos, geoduck crudo or panchan. To them I say: Time for a trip to Greenwood. Okinawa-born, Hawaii-bred chef Lorenzo Rangel moved to Seattle last year, and in early June, he and his wife, Reiko, opened Seattle’s first Hawaiian-Japanese noodle shop, Aloha Ramen.

The Rangels have tidied up the 18-seat space and kept the menu concise, offering just four types of ramen—shio (salt broth), miso (soybean broth), shoyu (soy-sauce broth) and vegetarian ($6.50 each)—which arrive with chewy noodles, bean sprouts and (all but the veg version) slices of delicious, intensely savory roasted pork in deep, wide bowls. I found the shoyu ramen’s broth a bit thin—although I’m told this subtler flavor is a signature of Hawaiian ramen—and preferred the lush, deeply layered miso broth. The house-made ginger-pork gyoza ($4) are good, but the garlic rice ($5.50), sticky with tender, caramelized cloves and hunks of roasted pork, is addictive. Your best bet? Get both: a ramen-rice combo is just $8.

Dinner Wed.–Sun. Greenwood, 8102 Greenwood Ave. N; 206.838.3837; no website