Note: Manager Tim Wong and Chef Owner Sabastian Karyadi were so gracious with their time and in-depth with their responses that this story on New Brunswick’s favorite noodle shop will run in two parts. This is part two.

I recently took some time to get to know Ramen Nagomi’s General Manager Tim Wong and Chef Owner Sabastian Karyadi. Their quaint noodle house, tucked away in a basement on Bayard Street, is quickly becoming a New Brunswick institution. You’d be hard pressed to grab a table on any night of the week without a wait, and its ever growing cult status is well deserved.

You can find Part I, where Wong announced the opening of two new restaurant ventures, “Poke Nagomi” in New Brunswick and “Nagomi,” a sushi restaurant in Princeton, here. As the mercury continues to fall and we reach peak ramen weather, the opening of the two aforementioned restaurants is imminent. We pick up the interview in Part II, which delves a little deeper than the first:

Note: Wong and Karyadi’s responses have been lightly edited for clarity and style.

CougEats: What is your personal favorite ramen bowl and what seems to be the most popular among customers?

Tim Wong: My personal favorite is our Shio Ramen, which is one of the clear, assari style broths that we offer. I think it showcases some of the great ingredients we were able to source and has an amazing depth of flavor. Our most popular bowls tend to be ones with big and bold flavors, such as our Spicy Miso Ramen as well as our Burnt Garlic Tonkotsu Ramen.



Cucumber Sonomono Salad: cucumber, ponzu dressing, pickled ginger sprout & crab meat Takoyaki: six octopus-filled fried fritters, kewpie mayo, okonomi sauce, aonori, katsuobushi & nori Rock Shrimp Tempura: deep fried tempura battered rock shrimp sriracha mayo, nitsume sauce, aonori & scallions Soft-Shell Crab Tempura Bao

CE: What are some fan favorite non-noodle options? Personally, I love the takoyaki and Kakuni Bao, but those are pretty standard.

TW: We’re really proud of our baos at Ramen Nagomi. Our Kakuni Bao is made with pork belly that is sourced from Niman Ranch that we slow-braise and then hand-chop and serve with airy steamed-to-order baos.

CE: What are good options for ramen beginners, and what are some “deep cuts” for more advanced slurpers?



TW: I think the gateway ramen in America has to be Tonkotsu Ramen. It’s rich, full of flavor, and completely satisfying. I’d like to make the case that our Nagomi Shoyu ramen is one of my favorite versions of the classic Shoyu Ramen. It’s the only ramen we put our name because it was developed using our own signature recipe, and it encapsulates the flavors and philosophies of Japanese cooking.



CE: Are there any secret off-menu items you’d recommend? I definitely saw something about a soft shell crab bao, which I need to try.

TW: At Ramen Nagomi, we incorporate a sense of seasonality in our menu, so sometimes we have dishes that may appear for a limited time. For example, we offer our Yuzu Shio Ramen, made with yuzu citrus juice, during the summer, which we feel is appropriate for that season. While we like to offer our guests a consistent experience, we do like to offer different things from time to time, in order to provide a sense of something new and exciting.

CE: What are some of your favorite non-ramen restaurants in the area?



TW: There’s definitely a lot of great American food and definitely no shortage of good ethnic food around the area. INC and The Dillinger Room are putting out some awesome cocktails and food. My Way Korean Restaurant puts out solid family-style Korean food and any time I have time off, I try to make my way to Shanghai Dumpling in Edison (Editor’s Note: You can find a short write-up on Shanghai Dumpling here).

CE: What’s your background? What did you do before Ramen Nagomi?

Sabastian Karyadi: My culinary journey began from childhood. I grew up in Bali, Indonesia, where my family ran a popular local restaurant. I moved to Los Angeles when I was 18, where I worked at Hakata Sushi Restaurant as a busboy. I was later promoted to a server and then finally offered a sushi chef apprenticeship. There, I trained under Chef Yoshiki Matsubara and Yoshinari Ikeuchi. The experience made me realize that I prefer to work in the kitchen, focusing solely on the food, instead of splitting my attention between food and customers. I later had the opportunity to work for Michelin-star sushi restaurant Mori Sushi in Los Angeles, where I trained under Chef Morihiro Onodera and Masanori Nagano.

At Mori Sushi, I learned so much more about Japanese food. There is one dish in particular at Mori Sushi that had a big influence on our flavor profiles at Ramen Nagomi. The dish is called Kinmedai Osuimono, which is basically a clear broth soup with golden-eye snapper. The soup is light but also rich and flavorful at the same time. It showcases the quality of the ingredients used in the soup. While we work with organic pork and chicken at Ramen Nagomi, this philosophy of ingredient-integrity and subtle flavor helped shape the direction we chose to go in at Nagomi.

I am a big fan of soup, Japanese broth especially. I think Japanese soups are delicious, and have so many layers of flavor. So, when I had the opportunity to open a restaurant in New Brunswick, I decided to open a ramen shop based on my love of Japanese flavors. I love to experiment with new dishes and flavors, and then share them with the New Brunswick community.

Ramen Nagomi is a reflection on my journey through Japanese cuisine, and our constantly updated menu is a projection what kind of flavors I enjoy eating at the moment.

Wong and Karyadi hope to open “Poke Nagomi” and “Nagomi,” both of which will be collaborations with Karyadi’s mentor, Chef Yoshiki “Riki” Matsubara, as well as n/naka‘s Jeffry Undiarto, by the end of 2017, so expect more on them as the openings get closer. While you wait, stop by 49 Bayard Street and taste a lifetime of dedication and culinary craftsmanship in every carefully prepared dish. As winter creeps ever closer, nothing takes the chill out of your bones quite like a steaming bowl of ramen.