There’s nothing like a nice, steamy bowl of pho, ramen, or soba noodles to warm your bones as the chill of fall descends on Cleveland. While pho has been around town for years, finding a bowl of ramen was a little more difficult until the last five years or so. Now, there’s a good number of options if you’re looking for the Japanese comfort food. Here are some of our favorite places that serve either ramen, pho or other noodle and soup dishes around Cleveland.
There’s nothing like a nice, steamy bowl of pho, ramen, or soba noodles to warm your bones as the chill of winter descends on Cleveland. While pho has been around town for years, finding a bowl of ramen was a little more difficult until the last five years or so. Now, there’s a good number of options if you’re looking for the Japanese comfort food. Here are some of our favorite places that serve either ramen, pho or other noodle and soup dishes around Cleveland.
Tay Do Vietnamese Restaurant
11725 Snow Rd., Parma
The fragrance and flavor of Tay Do’s authentic Vietnamese cuisine — full of ginger, lime, cilantro, and mint — is enough to transport diners from the bare-bones dining room into a full-blown floral fantasy. You won’t be able to stop slurping this pho.
Photo via Scene ArchivesSiam Cafe
3951 St. Clair Ave., Cleveland
Neat, tidy, and friendly, this multicultural restaurant in the heart of Asia Town serves an enormous variety of authentic Asian eats. Ingredients are fresh, flavors are nuanced and masterfully balanced, and prices are notable values, particularly during the bustling lunch hours. They serve the Vietnamese soup Canh Chua, along with Thai soups Tom Kar Gai, Tom Yum Goong and Hot Liang Soup along with 15 varieties of pho and other noodle soups.
Photo via @Mayepaz/InstagramPho Thang Cafe
815 Superior Ave. East, Cleveland
Pho Thang’s pho is delicious, with 10 different varieties ranging from lean to a combination bowl with round steak, brisket, tripe and meatballs. Chicken varieties are there, too. Soups come in only one size and are served with usual accompaniments of bean sprouts, cilantro, jalapeno and lime.
Photo via Scene ArchivesOtani Noodle
11472 Euclid Ave., and 234 Euclid Ave., Cleveland
Otani Noodle, from the same owners of long-standing Mayfield Heights hibachi restaurant Otani, recently opened their second location, this time in the heart of downtown in addition to their University Circle home, and if you haven’t been yet, you’re missing out. The tonkotsu broth they use for their ramen is delectable.
Photo via Scene ArchivesMason’s Creamery
4401 Bridge Ave., Cleveland
An ice cream place on a list for Asian noodles? Yep, you read it right. Usually going from about October through March, Mason’s turns into a pop-up ramen shop for 2 days a month, or until they’re out of ramen. And trust us, it’s some of the best noodles in town.
Photo via @MasonsCreamery/InstagramLJ Shanghai
3142 Superior Ave., Cleveland
LJ Shanghai made a splash in Asia Town last year when they opened as the first true dumpling restaurant in Cleveland. While they’re known for their dumplings, or Xao Long Bao, don’t sleep on their soup dishes. They’re spicy, they’re tasty and they’re perfect for a cold winter day.
Photo via Scene Archives#1 Pho
>3120 Superior Ave., Cleveland
While many old-school Vietnamese restaurants make their dishes saltier than the Atlantic Ocean, #1 Pho makes liberal use of cilantro and tangy fruit sauces to keep your taste buds entertained (like the vegetarian pho above). Inside the restaurant’s green Victorian building, the ambiance is fresh and dramatic, with blond wood floors and long red curtains hanging all the way to the floor.
Photo via #1 Pho/FacebookDante Tremont
2247 Professor Ave., Cleveland
Everyone knows how great of a restaurant Dante Boccuzzi’s signature Tremont joint is. But did you know that starting at 9:30 p.m. on weeknights and 10 p.m. on weekends, the restaurant turns into a noodle bar? Dante’s ‘Zuzzuto’ menu comes out, which includes a selection of broths and noodle varieties.
Photo via Scene ArchivesSuperior Pho
3030 Superior Ave., Cleveland
The Asia Town mainstay — an absolute favorite for quick lunches, group meals, and dates — also dishes up a great banh mi, bubble tea, and other Vietnamese appetizers and entrees. Try them, but do yourself a favor and get the pho first.
Photo via Superior Pho/FacebookBowl Of Pho
27339 Chagrin Blvd., Woodmere
It’s a bit more difficult to find pho in the suburbs. But Bowl of Pho, in the conveniently located shopping district of Woodmere, is dab smack in the middle of the eastern suburbs, making it a destination for any pho lovers that want to stick closer to the burbs.
Photo via Bowl of Pho/FacebookNam Wah
392 West Bagley Rd., Berea
Out in Berea, Nam Wah’s menu boasts a mashup of Chinese and Vietnamese offerings. That includes seven different offerings of pho that are very tasty. They also have bun bo hue, or spicy beef noodle soup, so you really can’t go wrong here if you’re looking for a broth-based dish.
Photo via Nam Wah/FacebookWonton Gourmet & BBQ
3211 Payne Ave., Cleveland
Wonton dishes out some 20 varieties of Hong Kong-style soups, overflowing with plump shrimp and pork dumplings, garden-fresh greens and thin noodles. They also serve a wide selection of congee, or rice porridge.
Photo via @PatBenatarNation/InstagramSaigon
2061 East Fourth St., Cleveland
Nestled into a relatively small storefront on downtown’s bustling East Fourth Street, the room is cozy, comfy, and contemporary. The best bets here are the meal-sized phos — fragrant beef-broth soups featuring rice noodles and several different styles of beef. On the side, an array of condiments — Asian basil, fresh lime wedges and bean sprouts, sliced jalapeños, earthy hoisin sauce, and peppery sriracha — allows diners to customize the dish to their preference.
Photo via Scene ArchivesIssho Ni
34302 Euclid Ave., Willoughby
This cherry little spot on the far-east side of town is serving up some of the best ramen in Northeast Ohio. Choices include a classic pork tonkotsu prepared with various levels of spiciness, kuro ramen made black from the addition of squid ink and fermented garlic, Hokkaido-style yellow ramen, soy-based shoyu ramen and the broth-less mazeman ramen.
Photo via Scene ArchivesXinji Noodle Bar
4211 Lorain Ave., Cleveland
While it may be hard to ever achieve owner Shuxin Liu’s recommended 5-minute limit when it comes to consuming a bowl of ramen, a time derived from the lifecycle of a bouncy noodle, it’s damn worth trying. Bowls of chicken and pork-based broth contain fresh noodles, silky slabs of buttery pork belly, corn, scallions, mushrooms and, if you’re wise, a soft-cooked egg. If at first you don’t succeed in the five-minute drill, try and try again at this fantastic Ohio City noodle bar.
Photo by Emanuel Wallace
