Slurp it down
Montrose hot spot's new crawfish ramen stirs up serious Instagram envy
Houston's obsession with Viet-Cajun crawfish has been a topic of national conversation ever since the release of celebrity chef David Chang's Netflix series Ugly Delicious.
With crawfish season in high gear, lines are long at any restaurant that serves mudbugs — either traditional Cajun or new-school Viet-Cajun. But what about Japanese-Cajun?
Enter Ramen Tatsu-ya. The Austin-based ramen shop's Montrose location is celebrating the recent passing of its one-year anniversary in two important ways. The first is a larger parking lot, which was created by tearing down the house next to the restaurant (it had served as temporary quarters for staff members during the opening). Given the neighborhood's frequently cramped parking situation, that's a very good thing.
But articles are not built around new parking lots — at least, not for this publication — but we are suckers for a killer photo.
Needless to say, the photo above of the restaurant's new crawfish ramen has the entire Gow Media office thinking about slurping some noodles. Dubbed "Crawmen," the bowl combines the restaurant's signature tonkotsu broth with seafood miso, crawfish and andoullie wontons, ajitama (marinated and seasoned half boiled egg), cayenne, smoked paprika, and, of course, a couple of boiled crawfish. It's available starting now until the end of May.
"This dish tastes like going to a ramen shop and a crawfish boil…at the same time," corporate chef Jeremy Young said in a statement. "When you eat it, you get that back-of-the-throat cayenne pepper burn you get after a pound or two at a crawfish boil.”
The restaurant adds that the dish represents its goal of "serving authentic Japanese ramen influenced by the terroir of Texas." More importantly, it certainly looks like a really delicious lunch or dinner option — at least until the weather gets too hot to eat a steaming bowl of noodle soup. If diners suddenly flock to the restaurant for a taste, the lines may get long, but at least they'll have more places to park.
