Uma Uma Soft Open Brings Ramen To Rte 40 -- And Maybe The Best Little Bite I've Eaten All Year

Tomato tonkatsu ramen

Uma Uma has brought the ramen shop to Ellicott City, and you should check out noodle soups and more at the friendly, casual restaurant.

Ramen -- like barbecue -- can lead to food blog warfare among experts about styles and execution.  So I'll leave that to other people and report just my observations.

First, the soup tastes delicious.  Lil' Chow and I lunched twice in four days.  We split three varieties because my toddler spilled much of a miso ramen until he realized that the stylish bowl tipped more-easily than the plastic ones at home.  Each variety was delicious.  All different.  My opening favorite is tonkatsu -- a pork broth served with the ramen, bok choy, slices of pork, and a just-boiled egg.

Uma Uma's pork bun

Second, the pork bun may be the best little bite that I've eaten all year.  It's one of Uma Uma's appetizers.  Steamed bun filled with a thick slice of tender, braised pork and house-pickled onion.  Rich and sharp, warm and chewy.  Each bun is a perfect two or three bites.  Get your own two-bun appetizer.  Don't share.  They're that good.

Uma Uma just soft opened on December 23.  They're getting organized, and they're starting at a run because the tables are already packed at the busy hours.  Yelp folks are already uncharitable about wait times and hiccups.  Don't be that way.  Go check out Uma Uma for something new and delicious that you can reach in 15 minutes.

For the uninitiated, ramen is noodle soup.  Again, the experts will crucify me for simplification.  Ramen lives in many, many forms.  Folks suggest ramen as a way to explore Tokyo.  They write about the best in the world.  But go check that last link.  The "best in the world" meant Japan, California and Manhattan.  On our local menus, ramen appears at places like Matcha Time and White Oak Tavern.  This is the first specialty shop, trying to make a go with ramen, grilled chicken, buns and a few other dishes.

Miso ramen

To me, ramen's real draw is slurping the broth.  Each spoonful -- and even the chopsticks bringing up dripping noodles -- offers the rich, cloudy broth.  The broths differ.  Miso, spicy miso, pork, etc.  But they're the backdrop for each bowl, and you can alternate mouthfuls of pork or vegetables.  I love bok choy.  A little crunch and mild peppery flavor paired beautifully with the almost-creamy tonkatsu stock.

Give Uma Uma a while to come into its own.  They've been open a week.  Chefs will adjust their recipes.  Waiters will pick up the ordering system and the kitchen flow.  I respect the comments on my White Oak Tavern post that suggest that the ramen there can differ day-to-day.  So go slurp up Uma Uma's good start and see how it goes from here.

Now, Uma Uma has some nice desserts.  The owner charmed Lil Chow with a green-tea mochi filled with ice cream.  But know that you can walk around the corner of Uma Uma's parking lot to a terrific bakery and coffee shop -- Tous Le Jours, a French bakery by way of Seoul with pastries, cakes, macarons, coffee and more.  It's a great place to hang out after dinner.  Please ignore the toddler who turns to a table of talkative young adults and shouts "Quiet! Be quiet!"  I have idea who that kid could be.

Use winter to explore an entire season of noodles and soups.  Like ramen, you can get them together in the hand-cut noodle soups at Hang Ari in Catonsville.  Or go noodles and fried chicken at Tian Chinese Cuisine in Ellicott City or Da Rae Won in Beltsville.   Or go exotic noodles with the fish noodle entree at Grace Garden in Odenton.  My one bummer is a vegetarian friend with Japanese wife.  There are no vegetarian ramen at Uma Uma.  What do people recommend as the best vegetarian soup around here?

Uma Uma
9380 Baltimore National Pike
Ellicott City, MD 21042
410-461-8282

NEAR:  Uma Uma is on the north side of Rte 40 to the west of Rte 29.  It's between Boston Chicken and Lighthouse Tofu -- another great option for warm soup if you want soondooboo tofu stew.  There are a few parking spaces in front of Uma Uma, but your better bet is the lot along the side of the shopping center.  You turn off Rte 40 just before Boston Chicken, then park in the spaces in front of you or to your right.  It's good -- you're midway between dinner at Lighthouse or Uma Uma and dessert at Tous Le Jours.

Surprise: My Favorite Ramen Slurps At A Farm-To-Table Restaurant (For Now)

Ramen at White Oak Tavern

I stumbled on my favorite local ramen at a "guys night out" at White Oak Tavern.

White Oak is a casual bar and grill trying to push seasonal dishes and farm-to-table ideas on Rte 40 in Ellicott City.  It's working a middle ground with aspirations for high-end meals, but a casual feel a little less expensive that a meal in DC or Baltimore.

Coming soon to Rte 40

It hit a home run with everything on my night out.  A brussels sprout appetizer that looks so good that we each ordered had one as an appetizer.  Then a main event of rich, dark broth cooked with chewy noodles, bok choy, and a just-cooked egg.

This is part of a "Surprise" series that I'm writing as I try to start blogging again.  Come back for more in the next few days.

A real restaurant reviewer would focus on the delicious broth.  A ramen expert could explain why that savory liquid paired so well with the tender noodles.  But I'm going to tell you about the pork belly.

It was the best pieces of pork belly that I've ever had in my life.

Slightly crisp,  Rich pork flavor.  No fattiness.  It was firm like a piece of meat, and it reminded me why pork belly has been a craze.  With a really good beer and the brussels sprout appetizer, it was as good a meal as I remember eating this year.  Now, it was a pricey bowl.  I don't remember exactly, but it was an out-to-eat dinner price like $15-25.  Absolutely worth the price, but entirely fair to compare it with the equally-fun ramen at Matcha Time in Ellicott City.

Ramen at Matcha Time

But it will be a blast to start comparing White Oak to Matcha Time to Uma Uma.  Uma Uma is the ramen and yakitori restaurant that has been planning and constructing since Spring 2014.  They're close now.  (Update:  I just heard that they plan to open on December 23, 2015!)  They had chairs there when Lil' Chow and I walked past 10 days ago.

Uma Uma sounds like a place that Lil' Chow will love -- soup, noodles, rice and chicken.  They're between Lighthouse Tofu and Boston Chicken on the north side of Rte 40.  When you check them out, walk around the corner for dessert at Tous Les Jours.  That French bakery by way of Seoul has great pastries, coffees, drinks and a great atmosphere to hang out.

But back to the White Oak dinner, my friend and I had a really good night.  It's a basic decor, more like Frisco Tap House than Aida Bistro.  But they're pushing for really interesting food, and the place impresses me.  I'd love to hear if other people can comment below with recommended dishes or reports about dinners at White Oak.

Folks have been emailing me about the Uma Uma sign.  I appreciate them all.  I'd love to hear from folks if they see it is open or (even better) if they get to try the food.

Ramen In Howard County -- Two Spots For Now, And Plans For "Uma Uma" Coming To Rte 40

Ichiban Cafe's ramen

I'm nervous to write about ramen, but we need to start the conversation because you can slurp bowls here in Howard County.

Ramen is a Japanese noodle soup that has had a long-standing spot with chefs and food writers who champion favorite places and talk up both tradition and innovation.  Chicken or pork broth.  Vegetarian versions.  Add-in ingredients like pork belly or poached eggs or . . . intestine.  Ramen is something more than a meal and less than a craze.

The New York Times wrote about ramen.  Artifact Coffee in Baltimore did a six-day special celebration.  David Chang talked it up on his PBS series Mind of a Chef and even offers his recipe in the Momofuku cookbook.

Now, you can get in on the movement closer to home.

We've eaten ramen at two local restaurants -- Ichiban Cafe in Columbia and Manna in Ellicott City.  Again, I'm scared to write too much because I can't claim much knowledge.  On the one hand, it's a humble dish -- noodles, vegetables, maybe some meat or other special items, all in a warm broth.  On the other hand, people get crazy about ramen.

A few weeks ago, a friend met me for dinner in Manhattan, and we met at 5 pm.  She and her daughter were in line even earlier because Ippudo NY is so hot that it fills shortly after it opens and stays full all night.

I can't claim that our ramen matches one of the places that the New York Times calls one of the 10 best in the city.  Ippudo's broth was exquisite, and the fresh noodles were even better.  But I'll talk up both our local options -- and welcome other people to join in with observations.

Manna and Ichiban Cafe are both casual places -- one a Korean counter-service in the Lotte food court, the other a Japanese-Chinese place with a sushi menu near Target.  In both places, we ordered without expertise.  Manna has one broth and options for "add-ins" like dumplings.  Ichiban had two broths, and I somehow lost the notes that I typed as we ate.

Manna's ramen

In both places, you get a great dinner for $10-15.  Bowls of salty, spicy broth with warm noodles and toppings.  As I remember, Manna's looked like packaged ramen that I ate in college while Ichiban's seemed a bit more unusual.  But I enjoyed both -- especially I alternated between spoons of soup, slurps of noodles, and little treats like sliced pork or mushrooms -- without knowing how to judge them against anything else.

Give them a try in the next few months so you'll be ready when the specialists arrive.  Emily Kim emailed me last week to talk about her plans for a ramen-and-grilled-chicken restaurant that will replace the Jerry's Subs on Rte 40.  Emily is a University of Baltimore business student who is building a business from an obsession:

Back in 2009, I stumbled upon a Japanese ramen shop in New York during my spring break. From the first sip of Tonkotsu ramen broth and noodles, I found my new addiction.  I found myself getting Mega Bus ticket every week to get ramen.  So from beginning of 2013, I started a business plan to open a restaurant in Ellicott City.

That business will be Uma Uma -- a restaurant that Emily plans to open to serve both the noodle soup and the Japanese grilled chicken called yakatori.  The current plan is for construction to start June 1 and the restaurant to open in late summer.

So ramen has arrived in Howard County.  Newbies can have a great time just reading link after link about the dish's variations.  But some experienced folks could tell us what they think about these two local kitchens -- and anywhere else that I have missed so far.

The food court next to Lotte clearly holds treasures that I still need to find.  Manna sits in the back, but there are other Korean and Japanese options as well.  Can anyone recommend other dishes at joints in the food court?

Ichiban Cafe
6250 Columbia Crossing Circle
Columbia, MD 21045
410-290-1898

NEAR: Ichiban is in the Columbia Crossing shopping center with Target. This is off Rte 175 at Dobbin Road. It is near the Joseph A. Banks and across from the Dick's Sporting Goods.

Manna
inside the food court next to Lotte
11-A Golden Triangle
8801 Baltimore National Pike (Rte 40)
Ellicott City, MD 21043
410-480-5050

NEAR: Manna is inside the food court next to Lotte.  If you're looking at the supermarket, there is a door to the left that leads through some stores in a food court with about four restaurants.  Manna is at the far back.



Uma Uma (coming late summer 2014)
9380 Baltimore National Pike (Rte 40)
Ellicott City, MD 21042

NEAR: Uma Uma is coming to the space currently occupied by Jerry's Subs on the north side of Rte 40.  This will be right next to Lighthouse Tofu.