A frigid winter calls for comfort food, and nothing can warm you up quite like a steaming bowl of ramen. The traditional Japanese noodle soup is rich and flavorful, often with customizable toppings and long-simmered broth. Here are seven places in Northern Virginia to satisfy your craving for great ramen.
Hokkaido Ramen Santouka
This Tysons spot is the only Virginia location of the chic, Japanese-born chain — in fact, it’s one of only a handful of U.S. locations. The broths here simmer for at least 20 hours before they’re served to diners, making for deeply flavorful bowls. Try shio, shoyu, or miso broth with your al-dente noodles. 1636 Boro Pl., McLean
Jinya Ramen Bar
This national chain has three Northern Virginia locations — in Reston, Arlington, and Mosaic — serving ramen made with broth that’s simmered for 20 hours in-house. The menu has lots of inventive options, like the Mexican-fusion birria ramen and the vegan Flying V Harvest with vegan miso broth and Impossible meat. Multiple area locations
Kimen Ramen & Izakaya
Choose pork or chicken broth for your bowl here and fill up on toppings like chashu, nori, and seasoned eggs. Specialty bowls include a seafood ramen (served either mild or spicy) as well as tantanmen, which comes with sesame paste, spicy soboro (ground chicken), corn, and bok choy. 11725 Route 29, Fairfax; 5720 Pickwick Rd., Centreville
Marumen
Established in 2015, Marumen offers a variety of comforting Japanese bites in its Fairfax City location. When it comes to ramen, there are the classic bowls like shoyu and miso, garnished with chashu, an egg, bean sprouts, and nori. There are also three tsukemen options. With these varieties, the broth comes on the side and you dip your noodles and toppings in, rather than them coming all together like a soup. 3250 Old Pickett Rd., Fairfax
The Ramyun Zip
Instead of housemade noodles, diners here will find walls full of more than 100 varieties of instant ramen. The experience goes beyond what you remember from your college days of instant noodles — The Ramyun Zip lets you customize your bowl with toppings like dumplings, shrimp, egg, and fish balls. 14215 Centreville Sq., Centreville
Sanchome Ramen
The noodles at this cozy new Centreville spot are made in-house each day — never frozen. The signature Sanchome ramen comes with pork broth, spicy buta, and pork chashu. Or, if you’re brave, try the “very spicy” kara kara ramen with spicy pork broth. The restaurant also offers donburi rice bowls. If you can’t choose, a combo deal provides a full-sized bowl of ramen with a miniature rice bowl. 14240-C Centreville Sq., Centreville
Umai Ramen and Rice Bowls
This Herndon spot takes classic Japanese dishes and imbues them with Southeast Asian flavors. The result is specialty ramen dishes like the Umai tomyum ramen or the five spice beef ramen. There are more traditional bowls, too, like a classic miso, as well as two vegan options. Or try a non-ramen dish, like Japanese curry rice, tonkatsu rice bowls, or Thai-style chicken. 482 Elden St., Herndon
Feature image of Marumen by Rey Lopez
