Fukuryu Ramen has been branching out with some new concepts over the past year, from its new Milky Way Matcha Bar in Dublin to the amazing Haru Omakase at Polaris (one of our favorite dining experiences from last year). Now they’ve converted their original Upper Arlington location into Izakaya Ryu. While you’ll find some familiar ramen bowls on the menu, they’ve expanded it into an izakaya, a casual bar serving small plates and drinks!
The layout of the space is much the same, with a few new bits of decor. We were seated in the Sakura Lounge, a small room near the front with cherry blossoms hanging from the ceiling and deep red lighting (thus the red hue on many of my photos, ha!).
We started with a couple refreshing cocktails: the Nihon gin & juice with Watershed Four Peel gin, yuzu, lemon, and ginger – and the shiso mojito with Bacardi, shiso, and lime zest.
Izakaya’s menu is split up into small plates, baos, binchotan, mini donburi, and ramen.
We started with the sawagani bao, layering soft shell crab with spicy yuzu, candied lemon, and shredded cabbage. This was a favorite at the table.
Kudos to the cha-shu bao with pork belly, pickles, spring onion, and Kewpie mayo.
The senbei wings feature a soy glaze with rice crisps, ao nori, and sesame. We liked it, but we wanted more of the soy glaze.
You can’t beat the karaage, tender bits of fried chicken with a soy marinade and yuzu mayo.
They also feature mini donburri bowls, like this one with seared pork belly.
Or the Japanese fried chicken mixed with yuzu mayo and shredded cabbage.
Then it was on to bincho and ramen! Binchotan is a type of charcoal used for grilling; the dishes are all little skewers of meats and veggies. We tried pork belly, chicken thigh, and king oyster mushrooms.
And their ramen, of course! Like the black garlic tonkotsu.
Or the fiery red dragon with chicken bone broth, pork belly, and chili chicken.
We give Izakaya Ryu a big thumbs up! We love any place we can feast on loads of small plates. And there’s a lot on the menu, so there are plenty of reasons to return!
Izakaya Ryu is open Sunday, Tuesday, and Wednesday from noon to 8 p.m., Thursday-Saturday from noon to 8:30 p.m.
Izakaya Ryu
1600 W. Lane Ave.
Upper Arlington, OH 43221
(614) 929-5910
Web: izakayaryu.com
IG: @izakayaryu_
