Extreme’ Ramen

Food & Wine ‘Extreme’ Ramen

New noodle restaurant o ers slow-simmered dishes

BY VALERIE VINYARD

One of the meanings of the Japanese word “kiwami” is “extreme,” which is tting, because new restaurant Kiwami Ramen is extremely tasty.

The outside of the building still harks back to its Jack in the Box days, but festive signage and tapestries label the new business.

When guests walk inside, they are treated to a stunning transformation from fast food to full-service restaurant. Stone-like and faux wood oors serve as a base to light-colored laminated tables. Servers bustle around, quick to o er suggestions and explain menu items.

Some might nd the pulsating music a bit loud, but it gives o a hip vibe. Artwork is abundant, including a giant bonsai sculpture on the community table in the center of the restaurant. A mix of booths, tables and spots at the sushi bar round out the indoor seating. A few outdoor tables are situated under cover from the sun’s rays.

The drive-thru window remains operational. Jack Sibley, a 32-year-old server, recently tried out Kiwami’s drive-thru. Because he was in a hurry, he didn’t have a chance to check out the transformed interior.

“The wait time is a little longer than a traditional drive-thru,” he says. “It was worth it, because my food tasted a lot better than fast food. Next time I’ll probably go inside and eat.”

Sibley ordered the Kiwami Kuro, a $10.35 ramen with Kiwami’s signature pork broth and black garlic oil, scallion, kikurage mushroom, bamboo, bean sprout, seasoned egg, pork char siu and, of course, noodles.

Owner Amane Shakuchi called the Kiwami Shiro one of the restaurant’s most popular dishes. Shakuchi said the average drive-thru wait time at 5 minutes.

“I think we are the only (ramen drive-thru) in the world,” she says with a laugh.

Shakuchi says she found Kiwami’s location in early 2020, before the pandemic, but she kept the drive-thru when she nally opened the restaurant November 8.

Kiwami’s menu features nine ramen varieties, including spicy curry tonkotsu ($11.95), a pork broth with sesame curry that comes with a variety of vegetables and spicy ground pork, sweet corn and wavy noodles, and poke ramen ($13.95), which comes with tuna, salmon, cucumber, mango, pineapple, cheese powder and kake noodles in a spicy sesame sauce. Kiwami also o ers bowls ($5.95 to $9.95) and a dozen appetizers ($3.95 to $14.95).

On a recent visit, we tried a variety of appetizers. The coating on the ve extra-large shrimp tempura ($7.99) yielded a welcome crunch, and the side of avorful tempura sauce rounded out the dish. The pork gyoza ($5.95) were six plump, fresh pot stickers that ranked higher in avor and heft than the typical Asian pot sticker found in Tucson.

A mix of American and Japanese beers ($4.50) are available, including Asahi, Miller Lite and Sapporo Lite. Another Japanese beer, Orion, is brewed in Japan and shipped to the States.

On a recent weekday, Esmeralda Rodriguez was enjoying lunch with her friend.

“I like the vibe of this place,” says Rodriguez, a 44-year-old electrical engineer in Tucson. “The menu is really tasty, and the service is good.”

Shakuchi and her husband, Tani Takanobu, formerly owned three ramen shops in Houston, Corpus Christi and Tyler, Texas. They sold the restaurants and moved to Tucson.

“In the beginning we didn’t think about Arizona,” she says. “I came by to check out the market. Ramen in this place is popular; everybody knows about it.”

Shakuchi drew upon her architecture studies from a Tokyo university to transform the space into a sit-down restaurant.

“It was super, super hard,” she says. “The building was so old.”

After almost 11 months and “a lot of permits,” Kiwami opened, with Takanobu serving as the restaurant’s chef.

Shakuchi is proud of Kiwami’s broth, which simmers for more than 10 hours and is “very healthy.”

“I like to mix the Japanese culture and the United States culture,” she says.

Kiwami Ramen settled into a former Jack in the Box restaurant and underwent a transformation. Stone-like and faux wood oors serve as a base to light-colored, laminate tables. (Photo by Jonathan Revies)

Kiwami Ramen

4610 E. Speedway Boulevard 372-2838, kiwani-ramenbar.com 11 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Mondays (drive-thru only) 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sundays