The chain may not be called “Mister Ramen,” but that doesn’t mean they don’t know how to make a really good bowl of noodles.
Mister Donut doesn’t play coy with what it has to offer, does it? The donut chain puts its signature menu item right there in its name, and the “Mister” part tells you that while they’ve got a sense of fun, they also have respect for the craft of donut-making.
But while Mister Donut truly is Japan’s premier donut provider, they actually have a handful of non-dessert items on their menu too, including ramen. Back in 1992, Mister Donut started serving a number of Chinese dishes, including steamed pork buns and shumai dumplings, but the only one that’s still around is the ramen. What’s more, while various versions of noodle dishes have come and gone over the years, Mister Donut’s standard baseline one, the Shiru Soba, is still on the menu, more than three decades after its debut.
It’s unusual for a menu item to have that kind of longevity while also being firmly out of the limelight at its restaurant, and so we decided to head to a Mister Donut branch a few blocks away from SoraNews24 HQ to reacquaint ourselves with this oft-forgotten veteran.
The Shiru Soba (“soba” here is being used in its sense of Chinese-style noodles/ramen, and not to refer to Japanese buckwheat noodles) is about as simple as can be. You won’t find any slices of pork or hard-boiled eggs. All that’s in the bowl are noodles, broth, and a sprinkling of sliced green onion.
And yet, that’s all we really needed, we discovered as we took a bite. The noodles are tender and easy to chew, and the broth doesn’t have even a hint of oiliness to it. The flavor instead comes from the chicken stock and mixture of sun-dried and bittern salt. It’s satisfyingly flavorful, but comes to an impeccably clean finish, with none of the lingering greasy heaviness that so often comes from consuming a mouthful of ramen.
Fans of super-heavy ramen might say that Mister Donut’s Shiru Soba misses the point of eating ramen, but that’s really a matter of personal preference. While some people genuinely enjoy the guilty pleasure and near-bursting fullness of devouring a bowl of ramen crammed with slices of chashu floating between fingertip-sized blobs of oil, others may prefer the flavor to come from the seasonings and broth-base stock, and for them, Mister Donut’s Shiru Soba is wondrously pure in its simplicity. It also has only 229 calories and 1.1 grams of fat, and costs just 374 yen (US$2.50). As such, the Shiru Soba won’t overload the taste buds, bloat the gut, or empty the wallet, and so…
…it’s an excellent choice for if you want some non-dessert food before also enjoying a donut. In taste-testing, we found that the Shiru Soba works great as an opening act for Mister Donut’s Pon de Ring, French Cruller, or New Home Cut donuts (pictured above), which are more subtly sweet than the other, more sugary options from the chain.
▼ Not that we’d turn down a Fluffy Pikachu or Ditto Donut Tree after eating a bowl of Shiru Soba, mind you.
It’s worth noting that Mister Donut also has a few other, more substantial types of ramen on the menu, including a few spicy varieties.
But if you’re looking to enjoy noodles and donuts in the same sitting, the Shiru Soba is hard to beat, even if its existence is easy to forget about if you haven’t tried it yet.
Bottom image: Mister Donut
All other photos ©SoraNews24
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