What I loved about the Ramen Festival

Every year, there is a big event called the Ramen Festival, usually held in Denver, for ramen fans who want to try ramen from all over Colorado. This will be the third year that I’ve gone, and I must say, it was fantastic. There were some familiar ramen restaurants I was happy to see again, as well as some new ones I was happy to try! It is also worth mentioning that there were other foods, in addition to ramen, which made for a great palate cleanser. That all being said, let’s jump in. 

Shining Stars of the Festival

Of all the ramen I tried at the festival, there were two that really shone bright, those two being Ninja Ramen Mobile and Hiratori. I may be biased here because those two have shown up in previous years, but I look forward to them every year. They offer the best soup base, and their flavors are out of this world. 

Ninja Ramen Mobile has been a favorite since 2023, when I first went. To give a brief overview, they are a traveling food truck that usually caters to events and breweries around the Denver area. Truthfully, I hope they get a restaurant of their own because I’d love to be a frequent customer, instead of seeing them once a year at this event. They do have a calendar that can be tracked, but I am lazy and live farther away than I’d want to be to frequently track them down.  But I digress. Their ramen this year was a simple shoyu ramen with chasu pork, green onions, and mushrooms. I don’t know what they do to their broth, but it’s so perfectly balanced with salty, savory, and umami flavors that it tops all the other shoyu broths at the event. I was incredibly happy to see them at the entrance because I stopped by there at the beginning, and as I was leaving. 

Hiratori is my favorite for another reason. For a bit of background with them, they do own a restaurant in South Denver. They are an anime-themed restaurant with a lot of different varieties of ramen broths and flavors, the most unique one being a Hibachi protein-style ramen. What I mean by that is, they will put hibachi steak or chicken in with their ramen broth, and it makes a huge difference. At the Ramen Festival, they brought a Hibachi Steak Ramen with some kind of creamy broth. It was simply divine! Way more creamy than a shoyu-style broth but not quite a tonkatsu broth. I could be wrong there, but all I know is that it was hitting all the right flavor notes that made me fall in love. 

Don’t ask me to choose between those two. Truly, both are matched for me, and it’d be hard to pick just one. They both hit flavor profiles that no other ramen could match for me while at the festival, and I hope to see these again soon. 

Unexpected Surprise

There was one restaurant that truly surprised me with its unique take on the Ramen Dish, and its name is Sushi Kuro. I honestly can’t say I’ve seen them around before, but I am happy to have gotten the chance to try out their food, and this is the main reason I love the Ramen Festival and food events in general. Sushi Kuro was serving a green chili pork ramen with smoked goat cheese and egg salad. I know it sounds like a flavor collision, but everything went together so well. It’s honestly making my mouth water just writing about it. 

Unfortunately, as of now, Sushi Kuro is closing down soon, if it hasn’t closed already, but it was awesome to see them there, and I’ll never forget their ramen. I wish I could’ve seen their restaurant before they closed, but hey, if any of you have other news, please let me know! I’d love to see them again in the future. 

Overall Experience

The Ramen Festival is always a good time, and it’s always such a pleasure to see so many restaurants attend. It’s a great place to explore and find new restaurants to eat at. The community that goes is a lot of fun, and the people are always nice to interact with. They even hire live performances from the community. They have dancers and drummers who perform throughout the whole event, adding to the excitement of everything going on! 

As good as the ramen festival is, there are a couple of downsides. The event itself costs over $100 to attend, which isn’t bad by itself, but they also allow various vendors, like home improvement companies and unrelated product sellers, to set up booths inside the festival. For example, window companies try to sell to homeowners, and other vendors sell general consumer products. While these vendors might appeal to some, it can feel distracting since they have no connection to the food focus of the festival. This doesn’t hurt my views of the festival entirely, but it would be nice if the event focused mainly on food-related businesses rather than unrelated products. Truly, that’s the only downside. 

After all is said and done, it’s always worthwhile to explore at the Ramen Festival. There are so many options to try, the energy is electric, and the food is always delicious. They make the event a party to be at. If you love noodles and want to explore your options for Colorado, the Ramen Festival is a good place to start.