There are times when anticipation such as this lets you down. Not so on this night, or on any of the subsequent nights that I tasted this heavenly rich bowl of ramen. The broth is a work of art, the creaminess speaking of long hours of simmering pork bone and high-quality spices and other ingredients. Soy milk adds a delicate sweetness, and little oil droplets of red-orange spice dot the top of the bowl, possessing a lip- and throat-tingling heat that, however, doesn't quite burn.
For toppings, you receive a small mound of milk-braised pork, wakame, pickled red ginger, bean sprouts and a soft-boiled egg sliced in two, the yolk just barely cooked so that it oozes into the broth if you cut into it, making the broth even creamier. "Spicy soy milk ramen. The best in the city. No contest," I tweeted.
When I expressed this same sentiment to Kata Robata's general manager, Blake, he told me that the executive chef of Tony's, Grant Gordon, had been in just the day before and loved it that much, too. Here's what Gordon tweeted: "In my opinion the spicy soy milk ramen @KataRobata is not only among the best ramen in Houston but among the best I've had in LA or New York too."
Who says you have to drive down to Chinatown for a bona-fide bowl of ramen? At Kata, you can get a fantastic bowl inside the loop, and get your sushi fix on at the same time, too.
