After sending our hiker friends on their way, before heading home to New England we spent a few days hanging around with friends of ours in Redmond, generally having a relaxing time cooking, playing with the kids, and playing mini-golf. Afterwards, we decided to go wander around Redmond Town Center with the kids, and find spots for dinner and ice cream. Just off the central plaza at Redmond Town Center we came across a good-looking option, Kizuki Ramen & Izakaya.
One reason we picked Kizuki is that they focus on a cuisine that still really don’t have a good presence back home in the Upper Valley: I really enjoy a good, rich bowl of ramen and a selection of Japanese snacks, so a good ramen shop seemed like a great call. Walking inside, Kizuki (a regional chain) had a nice, pleasant interior with plentiful seating, including several large tables that could handle our group of four adults and three kids. As a bonus, Kizuki even had a nice, broad kids menu with a good cross section of simplified dishes for children.
As we looked over the menu, several of us enjoyed cocktails. I got the house “Tokyo Mule”, a variant of the classic Moscow Mule. This was a good drink, although I was a little disconcerted that the menu was incredibly vague about what they actually used as the spirit in this. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good mule, and I’ve had them with everything from Tennessee Whiskey to Baiju, and I’m not really sure what gave this mule the vague “East Asian” flavor… if I had to guess, it was a bit like Soju. But it was enjoyable enough despite the lack of definition. I’d probably ask a few more probing questions if I ordered this again, however, mostly out of curiosity.
After ordering several bowls of ramen around the table, we snacked on some renkon chips (thin-sliced, fried lotus root) while the ramen was prepared. I always like renkon chips as a light snack, and having them freshly made in clean order made for a very light, extra crispy, and well-flavored appetizer. Definitely a good snack or side dish.
When it came to the main course, Kizuki does indeed have a rather extensive ramen menu, with 16 different Ramen varieties, plus a handful of ramen-adjacent dishes like tsukemen dipping noodles and Tan Tan Chinese noodles. Since I adore both garlic and a rich tonkotsu broth, I ended up going the garlic tonkotsu shoyu bowl, with an extra side of pork. This was quite good, an above-average bowl of tonkotsu, with a lot of bold garlic notes. Add in some perfectly-cooked still slightly “snappy” ramen noodles, bamboo shoots, sprouts, roasted seaweed, some sliced kombu, a soft-boiled egg, and a slice of pork chasu, and this was a great bowl of soup. Rich, flavorful, and nicely prepared.
Overall, I liked Kizuki Ramen & Izakaya. They had a great selection of flavorful ramen bowls, a good selection of beverages and izakaya sides, and pleasant dining room. For an added bonus, they had a great kids menu and were quite flexible working with the kids as well, so I’d put it as one of the more family-friendly ramen joints I’ve done as well. I wouldn’t hesitate to go back to either their Redmond Town Center, or one of their other locations as well.
