I was on a mission to find good Ramen in South Jersey, mission accomplished

It’s that time of year folks… the leaves on the trees have turned and fallen, the winter coats, hoodies, leggings, scarves, pumpkin spice and UGG boots all have come out…that’s right, it’s ramen szn. If you’re unfamiliar with my reviews or how I choose most of the places I end up going into, it goes a little something like this. Lauren gets a random craving (typically at work), Google’s that specific craving, finds a couple of ideas and then checks out Yelp. Well I was jonesing ramen and Rayaki popped up first and had 4 out of 5 stars, nothing but good reviews, the menu prices were right and the pictures looked good. Boom, we got action.

Rayaki is located right next to Dolsot House, you should know that Dolsot has some of the best wings in South Jersey and you should check them out… but I digress that’s not what we’re here to discuss. As soon as you approach the door your greeted by a giant statue of a samurai and right there I knew it was gonna be a good meal.

The inside decor is really cool, they have all sorts of different Anime on the wall paper giving off a nice hip vibe.

I was on a mission so I sat down and began checking off the menu card at my table so I could get to grubbin’ asap. First up was the Rayaki Fries , these consisted of mixed chasu (Marinated pork), spicy mayo, garlic aioli, fried onions, massago, scallions….they were very good BANGING! They were essentially loaded waffle fries but man oh man I haven’t had fries like these before. They were fried and seasoned to perfection and the spicy mayo and garlic aioli really set everything off.

Next up was the Gyoza and Pork Buns, both of these were really good but these chashu pork buns were so well done that I almost ordered another round but I knew I had to stay focused on the mission.

More than one Yelper mentioned how great the Black Garlic Ramen was and that was more than enough for me to pull the trigger. I ordered a bowl of that with extra noodles and yea…. the Yelpers weren’t lying, this was the best Ramen I’ve tried and Terakawa was firmly entrenched in that position for a while. The Black Garlic Ramen consisted of Cha Shu (Marinated Pork), bamboo, kikurage mushrooms, red ginger, fish cake, scallions, black garlic oil, pork soup base, and a seasoned egg.

Man oh man it was so good that I actually forgot I was eating in public at one point and just started going in. Then I looked up and saw the girl at the table across from me giggling and regained my composure and started eating like a civil member of society again. When I discussed this on Episode 35 of the Just Grubbin Show (live every Sunday at 8 on Wildfire Radio) I mentioned that I like Ramen because its lighter and Mo responded “Ramen…looks light but it’s heavy tho”. This certainly applies to Rayaki because this was a HEFTY sized bowl they brought out, I actually had to tap out and ask for it to be wrapped up. You know something is excellent btw when your full and keep shoveling food down your gullet aka me before I gave myself a internal intervention at the table. I’ll be back to Rayaki for sure to explore more of the menu, you can count on that.

If you enjoyed this, check out more posts from the Just Grubbin team here! Also make sure to listen to The Just Grubbin podcast to hear us go into further detail about this and to hear all of our random irreverent takes on food, drink and whatever else.