Ramen Shio opened in the Ninth and Ninth neighborhood about four years ago, and it has been quietly crowded ever since.
First-time visitors tend to show up expecting something approximating a Japanese restaurant — tatami references in the decor, maybe a sake list, the full aesthetic package. What they find instead is a narrow room with about thirty seats, fluorescent lighting that nobody has bothered to dim, and bowls of broth so carefully constructed they make you reconsider what soup can be. The decor is beside the point. The broth is the point.
Ramen Shio sits on 900 South near the intersection with 900 East, a corner of Salt Lake that has a coffee shop, a used bookstore, and the particular low-key energy of a neighborhood that likes itself without making a big deal about it. The restaurant occupies a small standalone building that previously held several other short-lived concepts. Ramen Shio seems to have figured out the lease situation.
The menu is short. This is intentional and correct. You are choosing between four or five ramen styles, a couple of small plates, and that’s more or less it. The shio ramen — the namesake, the pale gold one — is the thing to order on a first visit. Shio means salt, which sounds unambitious until you taste a broth that has been simmered long enough to carry real depth without going murky or heavy. The noodles are thin and have the right bite. The chashu pork is sliced thick. There’s a soft egg that has been marinated just long enough to turn the white a faint amber at the edges. You will not have a single complaint about the egg.
The spicy miso bowl is the second order of business, and it earns its reputation. It’s rich without being cloying, and there’s enough chili heat to build gradually rather than just announce itself and give up. A small plate of gyoza arrives crisp on the bottom and delicate everywhere else, which is harder to pull off than it sounds.
Lunch runs ten to fifteen dollars a bowl, which, given the rent situation in this city, is not a given anymore. Dinner pushes slightly higher. They’re open for both, closed on Mondays, and the line at lunch on a weekday is real — arrive before noon or be prepared to wait with everyone who works in the surrounding blocks and apparently has the same idea every single day.
The service is quick and matter-of-fact, which fits. Nobody is going to describe the broth preparation to you unless you ask, and if you ask, they will actually tell you, which is the best possible outcome. There are maybe six counter seats and a handful of tables. It fills up fast and turns over fast.
Salt Lake has developed a habit of doing one thing very well and letting that be enough. Ramen Shio has applied this philosophy to a single bowl of soup and produced something worth driving across the valley for. The lighting is still not great. Bring cash, or a card — they take both.
