Kaliubon Ramen is a new restaurant in the center located at 54 Memorial Rd, West Hartford, CT 06107. It opened on Jan 22, 2020 and in only its first week has heard a lot of buzz around the KO community. I went the first day it opened, so here are my thoughts.
Even before we walked in, we could smell the food from outside. It was very welcoming and got us in the mood for Asian food. When you walk in, there is a bar to one side. The decorations are modern with blue neon lights on the walls. It’s a really cool vibe. There is limited seating, but it’s totally worth it. Most of the tables are for two people but there are some larger booths towards the back. They seated us pretty quickly, and our server came out to greet us shortly after.
We were there for lunch, and so we were given the lunch menu. They offered 11 different ramen options (prices ranging from $11-$13) and they even have gluten free noodles. They had a lunch combo option that included your choice of ramen and one of the starters for only $15. We ordered the lunch combos with garlic edamame and the pork bao as our choice of starters. The garlic edamame was a spin on regular edamame and came with a coating of spices and garlic. I never thought spicy edamame would taste good, but it was amazing.
The pork bao was pretty interesting. It was a really weird texture, but the pork tasted good and it was a good size to start off the meal. I probably wouldn’t get it again, but if you’re fine with the sticky, doughy texture of the bao, then it’s a good option. As for ramen, I ordered the tokyo chicken ramen, which I was very surprised by. For only $12 ,there was so much ramen. The chicken and noodles were very good. Just a little warning before you go, they give you chopsticks and eating the noodles with chopsticks is very difficult but makes the experience so much better. My friend ordered the wonton ramen. She thought that it was really good because the broth flavor was perfect with just the right amount of meaty flavor and spice. The ramen is served with an egg as well, and she thought it was very authentic.
As for drinks, they had standard drinks like soda and juices, but they also had bubble tea. I ordered the cappuccino milk tea with tapioca bubbles. It was a pretty average tasting bubble tea; it wasn’t much better than any other bubble tea I’ve had before, but it wasn’t bad. My friend got the rose milk tea, and that one was really interesting. I was kind of skeptical about the rose, but it surprised me.
We were in a rush while we were eating, so I worried that it would take a while considering it was a sit down restaurant, but they brought out the food pretty fast and it came out hot so they made it fresh. It tasted fresh too. Next time you need a place to get food in the center, go to Kaliubon. I won’t hesitate to say I will be going back for more ramen. It’s addicting!
