Temperatures are dropping in Atlanta, which means it’s officially ramen season. Okay, it tastes great all year long, but you know that you really start craving it a little bit more when the winter chill comes along. There are so many great ramen places to choose from, and they have all made it easy to slurp their noods safely from the comfort of our own homes (or dining rooms, if that’s what you prefer). Whether you’re looking for spicy pork broth, something vegetarian, or dipping ramen, here are the 13 best places to find ramen in Atlanta.
Doraville Located in Doraville’s Peachtree Pavilion Shopping Center, Shoya is delicious whether you dine in their cozy confines or take it to go. There are several types of ramen on the menu, including soy, miso, shio, and tonkotsu broths. The miso butter corn ramen is especially delicious. While you’re at it, order a few of their kushiyaki skewers. How to order: Dine-in or order takeout or delivery through Chowbus.
Grant Park From the same team as Salaryman, Ramen Station serves brothy delights in a funky, blue-and-yellow aesthetic. Standouts on the menu include the vegan miso with corn, mushrooms, bean sprouts, and Impossible meat-and the spicy tonkotsu with creamy pork broth and house-made spicy paste. How to order: Dine-in, order online.
Smyrna Head to the ‘burbs to slurp on some incredibly rich, flavor-packed ramen. The tonkotsu variety is packed with treats like enoki mushrooms, sautéed cabbage, chopped spring onions, chives, toasted seaweed, bamboo shoots, soft boiled egg, and torched chashu pork. There’s also irresistible Korean fried chicken tossed in the founder’s signature sauce. How to order: Dine-in or order online.
Sandy Springs Okiboru made a name for itself in LA by becoming the city’s only Michelin-rated ramen spot in 2019. The West Coast location is closed until further notice, but Atlantans can fortunately still enjoy Okiboru’s famous tsukemen, also known as dipping ramen. For the uninitiated, The noodles are rinsed cold and served with a bowl of hot broth on the side. Try the tori paitan, made with chicken and seafood broth, chicken, and egg. How to order: Dine-in or order online.
Midtown Located in Midtown Place, Kinnotori Ramen Bar specializes in tori paitai, creamy chicken broth. The totally slurp-worthy noodles are made in-house. The honey miso ramen is a sweet-savory combo topped with bean sprouts, green onions, sweet corn, and a seasoned egg. Treat yourself and top it with the fried chicken. How to order: Dine-in or order online.
Midtown After the folks behind Eight Sushi Lounge on the west side started winning the Atlanta Ramen Festival in 2016, they realized they’d better get to the money. We now have the recently opened E Ramen +, which has that brand-new vibe thanks to clean interior design that includes a gorgeous marble and wood bar. Sit here and get yourself a bowl of butter-garlic lobster ramen, in lobster miso broth, because there’s literally nothing better you can do for yourself. They’ve got plenty of other options that impress (brothless, vegan, spicy chicken, and more), but seriously — lobster ramen. Yes, $20 a bowl. You deserve it and so does Atlanta. How to order: Dine-in or order online.
Ponce City Market Guy Wong’s Miso Izakaya held Atlanta down for years until closing two summers ago. But what we lost on Edgewood Ave was gained by Ton Ton, Wong’s PCM noodle bowl bar. The hanging red and white banners stealthily cloak you and whoever else is lost in the almost-sauce-rich broth of the Hakata Tonkatsu, the lighter Shoyu chicken broth with pork belly, the brothless Invincible Dan Dan Mazeman, or the vegetarian Yasai with shredded stir-fried cabbage and carrots. Add one of the “bombs” (butter garlic corn, chili paste) to step things up even richer or hotter. How to order: Dine-in or order online.
Buckhead Not going to Jinya just because you insist on eating local may work in the case of, say, Cook Out, but not if you like really good ramen that looks too sexy to eat and tastes even better. Do the “Cha Cha Cha” (literally and figuratively), which is fish and pork broth with braised pork belly and lots of garlic, or the thicker-noodled shrimp wonton ramen, which gets shrimp and chicken wontons inside a shrimp and pork broth. Then go somewhere super-local if you really feel that guilty for eating some of the best ramen in town from a chain that just happens to have originated in California. How to order: Dine-in or order online.
Duluth Do you like fried chicken? How about ramen? Well guess what… you’ve found the promised land where these two things come together. Get the Chicken Karaage ramen, whose perfectly fried nuggets come on the side. Or get the Sutamina version, which comes with a raw egg, minced garlic, crunchy tempura crisps, and spinach for just $2 more. Or just keep coming back and try every style of ramen on the menu, multiple times. You can’t miss; this is seriously some of the city’s best ramen, and the long ride out to Pleasant Hill for anybody not near Pleasant Hill will be pleasantly rewarded, though probably not by traffic later. How to order: Dine-in or order online.
Midtown The modern cafe is best known for their dipping ramen, but the real star is the soy milk miso. It happens to be vegetarian, but is incredibly rich and satisfying (especially on a cold day). It’s topped with poached egg, corn, white cabbage, house chili sauce, and the best part, a fried shiitake mushroom. Don’t leave without grabbing a few treats from Momo Cafe located inside the restaurant. How to order: Dine-in or order online.
Multiple locations What started as a stall tucked away in the back of EAV’s We Suki Suki has morphed into a mini ramen chain with locations in the Battery and Duluth. Lifting Noodles slings incredibly flavorful ramen in combinations like the seafood ramen with spicy pork broth, shrimp, mussels, squid, noodles, corn, and black mushrooms. The menu is otherwise limited, but if you want an extra snack the crispy veggie spring rolls are a great way to go. How to order:Order online.
Grant Park There are nine adventurous ramen options on the menu at restaurateur Alice Wong’s house of noodles and iron-griddled foods — 15 if you count spicy versions of a few popular items like the broth-free Zha Jiang, which is minced chicken with a soft-boiled egg in black bean sauce. Not only do the recipes successfully push beyond familiar territory (see/eat the honey-roasted Asian BBQ pork), but they’ve got Asian-style beer made by Andy Tan, brewmaster of the always-amazing Chamblee brewpub Hopstix (which also has a great miso ramen bowl on its menu). How to order: Dine-in or order through Toast.
East Lake It’s always nice to have fewer choices when you’re just in dire need of a bowl of noodle soup. With six ramen bowls on the menu, and the trust of anyone who went to Son of a Bear and Taiyo Ramen before they closed, Michael Lo and George Yu are keeping it simple enough to be eaten as easily and enthusiastically. Named after Japanese white-collar workers who work way too much and are known for being a little too happy to be corporate types, Salaryman also has an additional incentive to drown yourself in Tonkotsu broth or fill your face with the scallop and crab meat seafood ramen: for every bowl they sell, $1 goes to a monthly changing local charity. How to order: Dine-in or order online.Sign up here for our daily Atlanta email and be the first to get all the food/drink/fun the ATL has to offer.
Mike Jordan is probably lucky he has to drive at least 20 minutes to get to a good ramen shop, otherwise he’d absolutely spend all his money on soup and noodles. Follow him on IG at @mikejordanATL, or on Twitter at @michaelbjordan.
Lia Picard is an Atlanta-based journalist writing about food, travel, and a variety of other topics. Her work appears in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Wine Enthusiast, and CNN Travel.
The cold weather in most parts of Australia coinciding with EOFY celebrations is the closest thing that we’ll get to snowy Christmas vibes. And if you’re in dire need of some festive cheer after the first six months of 2023, grab your ugly sweater and head to your nearest Red Rooster for Xmas in July deals.
From June 29 – July 31, 2023, Red Rooster is serving up free food items, a chance to win $10,000 or one of 10 merch packs valued at $400 and other fun prizes. All you have to do is sign up as a Red Royalty member and spend $5 on at a location near you or online.
Each week there’ll be new delicious deals and prizes to win. The week one deals have already dropped and they’re looking pretty tasty. You can get access to them via your Red Royalty account. The more you purchase, the more chances you have to win.
Spoiler alert: you can get 10 chicken nuggets for free, right now. Brb running to Red Rooster.
