Boxer Ramen,

3003 Northeast Alberta Street, Portland, OR 97211

"Small menu but the food was great and came out quick."

"Best Ramen experience to date in Portland. I came with my daughter and we loved the ambiance. There was ample seating on a Friday night. We sat along the bar area. Staff was attentive and very friendly and welcoming. I'm not sure what's on the pot stickers but we loved them so much we ordered them twice. The crunch combined with flavor was out of this world. The hand rolls were a fun surprise and the Ramen had an amazing broth. We will for sure return."

"The hand-rolls are great! The ramen is good too although maybe a little different from traditional ramen. The service was good and we enjoyed sitting outside on a nice Portland summer day! Small tap list but no prob. Glad we have this place in our ‘hood."

"Boxer Ramen is one of the most authentic ramen experiences in the Portland area. Sure, they flirt with some ingredients that reactionary ramen ronin would balk at, on occasion, but the end result is something that is both traditional and trendsetting. On this particular Wednesday night visit, I rounded up the fam and we headed off to check out the new Alberta location. It was busy, bustling, but not bursting, allowing us the choice of inside or outside dining. We chose the latter seating option, as it was a warm spring evening (the first of the year), and placed our order: a couple of cocktails for Mom and Dad (the Cherry Blossom and the Osaka Old Fashioned), okonomiyaki tots, a salmon avocado hand roll, two bowls of Spicy Red Miso, and one Tonkotsu Skio to split between the two older boys; our newborn son would have to gaze upon us in envy, while draining his bottle of decidedly less tasty milk. My wife and I are no strangers to the Spicy Red Miso; in our humble opinion, it's the best thing on the menu, and the best ramen in the city (we've yet to be proved wrong, although Baka Umai makes a similar bowl that nips at its heels!). It's spicy, yes, but not offensively so - it hits all the right piquant notes without burning out your taste buds. It's also oily (in a good way), savory, salty and unequivocally superb! It's so good, in fact, there's very little hope of us ever ordering anything else here, so it was nice that we were able to sample the Tonkotsu Shio as well, as even two young boys couldn't tackle the entire thing between them! It's probably the closest thing on the menu to a truly "traditional", baseline noodle bowl you'd order at a 10-seater ramen bar in a Tokyo back alley, ran by a surly soba-slinging Samurai who communicates only in grunts, nods, and the occasional "Irrashaimase!". The Osaka Old Fashioned was one of the best iterations of the cocktail I've ever had (Japanese whisky is something else, man!): lighter and sweeter than a traditional, but still packing a heavy punch. My wife's Cherry Blossom was tart and sweet, but just enough of both, carefully balanced; elegant, one might say. Our oldest devoured his salmon and avocado hand roll in two bites, so I can't comment much on it, but considering it was consumed by the particularly primitive palate of a picky pre-teen, I'd say that constitutes a glowing recommendation. And lastly, the okonomiyaki tots, other than for a want of more spicy sauce, were a crispy, crunchy, salty, umami snack that I could eat all day, every day. As for the service, our slightly-aloof server, a tall, ponytailed gentleman with an exceptional memory, was attentive and efficient from start to finish, and all of our dishes arrived at our table with startling alacrity, back to back, with hardly any pause: drinks, appetizers, mains, done. Only in the wait for the check was there any noticeable gap in service, and even then, it was only because we were eager to get out and enjoy the the first sunny spring sunset of the year. Japan may be the Land of the Rising Sun, but here in Portland, the best ramen is served when it is setting."