Kyuramen, a fast-growing Japanese ramen brand with more than 120 locations in Japan and the U.S., opened a location Monday in Naperville.
“Naperville is one of the hottest parts (of) the Chicagoland area,” said Ting Ting Zheng, managing member of Kyuramen in Naperville. “If there’s a concept that we think would be a good fit with this for the size and the location, that’s why we put it in Naperville, for Kyuramen.”
Zheng also noted the location at 1727 Freedom Drive was chosen for its proximity to other popular restaurants, like Cooper’s Hawk Winery & Restaurant and Brazilian steakhouse Fogo de Chao.
“Plus, it’s right by the highway so it’s really close too if (people from other cities) come to Naperville. It’s pretty convenient,” Zheng said.
The ramen chain was founded in 2014 by New York City entrepreneur Gary Lin with the goal of showcasing regional variations of the noodle dish, like Hokkaido miso style and Tokyo’s shoyu style, according to Eater Chicago.
The Tokyo tonkotsu shoyu ramen from Kyuramen. This dish is the chain’s best-selling bowl of ramen. (Kyuramen)
“Kyu” translates to nine in Japanese, with the “kyu” in Kyuramen referring to the nine main ramen dishes the restaurant serve. The Tokyo tonkotsu shouyu ramen — served with classic ramen toppings like chashu pork, marinated egg, bamboo shoots, scallion, corn and wakame in pork broth — is the restaurant’s most popular bowl, selling more than half a million dishes nationwide, according to a Kyuramen news release. Diners can choose to eat it with white or black garlic.
Other ramen options include Korean kimchi, Japanese curry, vegetable miso and, for a limited time, shoyu beef. For the diner who can’t decide what to try,a yin-yang bowl allows them to sample two ramen flavors in one.
Kyuramen also boasts plenty of non-ramen options, from steamed pork buns to popcorn chicken. Their most popular non-ramen item is omurice, which includes a fluffy omelet on top of fried rice with a choice of a curry or demi-glace sauce. When the dish is brought to the table, the server cuts into the egg with a knife, revealing a runny inside that spreads across the rice.
It’s a common dish in Japan, but finding omurice in the U.S. is much more difficult, which adds to the dish’s popularity at Kyuramen, Zheng said.
“It takes a lot of skill to make,” she said. “It is really presentable. People love to see the egg cut open and the half cooked egg spread over the rice.”
Kyuramen’s honeycomb booths are a signature part of the brand’s interior design and provide a semi-private dining experience for guests. (Kyuramen)
Diners can finish off their meals with one of Kyuramen’s desserts, including Japanese cherry blossom jelly or matcha tiramisu.
The restaurant’s interior decor is perhaps as interesting as the food itself. Guests can sit in one of Kyuramen’s honeycomb-shaped booths, a signature seating arrangement for the chain that provides a semi-private dining experience.
“Honeycomb is really different, attractive and new,” Zheng said. “It’s a little different than the individual private room. It’s kind of open, but you still get to have a little bit of privacy.”
Naperville’s honeycomb seats are a little bit bigger and wider than other Kyuramen locations, she said. The upgraded honeycomb seats are part of a larger effort to update Kyuramen’s interior design across locations. That includes combining modern lighting and decor with classic Japanese aesthetics, according to a news release.
A Japanese wish tree is another decor feature. Diners can write messages on wooden plaques and hang them from its limbs as part of the restaurant experience.
Guests can write down their wishes and other messages to hang up on the Japanese wishing tree at Kyuramen. (Kyuramen)
“It’s a thing in Japan. It’s a common thing that you write your wish and then you hang it up in that tree,” Zheng said.
Kyuramen’s hours are 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily.
cstein@chicagotribune.com
AloJapan.com