North Modesto gets new ramen restaurant, with another location planned for Riverbank
Modesto has gone from no dedicated ramen shops to two in less than five months.
The Bay Area-based chain Ramen 101 opened its first restaurant in Stanislaus County earlier this month. The north McHenry Avenue location, formerly home to the short-lived Grill Mi, specializes in the iconic Japanese noodle soup. But the eatery also has a full Hawaiian barbecue menu as well.
The four-table shop in the Walmart Supercenter shopping complex is part of a small restaurant chain scattered throughout Northern California. Owner Xiang Qiu Lin opened his first Ramen 101 in 2017 in San Leandro. He now has 10 shops from the Bay Area to Sacramento and now Stanislaus County.
This is Modesto’s second dedicated ramen shop to open this year. In February the city’s first craft ramen shop, Konfucious Eats, opened in McHenry Village. And the area options will keep growing as later this year Lin plans to opens another Ramen 101 in Riverbank’s bustling Crossroads shopping center.
Lin said he chose to expand to Modesto because of the city’s large population and the relatively few dedicated ramen restaurants in the region.
“Everyone knows the Bay Area has a lot of ramen. For Modesto there’s not as much there,” he said. “We do ramen, we do Hawaiian barbecue mixed together. We give people more choice and people like it.”
Modesto’s Ramen 101 mixes Japanese, Hawaiian BBQ menu
Ramen 101 has a menu that spans across several popular Asian-inspired cuisines. Chief among them (I mean, it’s in the name) is its eight varieties of ramen, from the popular tonkotsu (with cloudy pork bone-based broth) and shoyu (with a clear, soy sauce-based broth) ramens. Other ramen styles include chicken, black garlic, pork rib, miso, seafood (with shrimp and scallops) and vegetable. Bowls run $12 to $14 and most come with a boiled egg, bamboo shoots, fish cakes and other assorted toppings.
The restaurant makes its own broth, slow cooking it for 10½ hours. While they don’t make their own noodles, like a true craft shop, their soup still is flavorful and filling. You can add any of over a dozen add-ons to customize your bowl as well.
The Hawaiian barbecue side of the menu offers a dozen different plates. Folks familiar with the cuisine will recognize the dishes served with a protein, two scoops of white rice, vegetables and the famous (and delicious) Hawaiian macaroni salad. Those items run $11 to 14. Proteins include Hawaiian BBQ chicken, teriyaki chicken, short ribs, chicken katsu (breaded chicken cutlet), Hawaiian BBQ beef, fried white fish and fried shrimp — and many come in combination as well.
Still not full? The restaurant has more than a dozen appetizers, including popular Japanese and Hawaiian street foods like Spam musubi (Spam on top of a rice cake wrapped in nori), chicken karaage (like Asian popcorn chicken) and takoyaki (fried octopus-filled balls).
The restaurant — which offers dine-in, takeout and delivery through DoorDash and Grubhub — also does catering and party trays. Its BBQ chicken and other main dishes, as well as popular sides including the macaroni salad, crab rangoon, lumpia and more can be ordered by the tray full for events.
Another restaurant planned for Riverbank’s Crossroads
The menu should be the same for the upcoming Ramen 101 coming to Riverbank later this year. But the look should be considerably different, Lin said. While the Modesto McHenry location was a quick turnover of about three months from an existing restaurant, the Crossroads will be a total renovation. The space on the east end of the shopping center was a tanning salon before, and will be converted to the Ramen 101 signature decor with an open kitchen so customers can watch their meals being prepared.
Lin said permits have been approved for the Riverbank location to begin work, which he expects will take about six months. He hopes to have the new restaurant, which will be considerably larger than the Modesto site, open by the end of this year.
And he might not be done with opening ramen shops in the area. Lin, who goes by “Benny” to his friends and customers, has 25 years experience in restaurants. He also owns the two Hawaii Grill Express restaurants (one in San Leandro and another in Dublin) as well as one 88 Boa Boa (a Chinese dumpling restaurant in Dublin).
He said if the McHenry Avenue and Riverbank Ramen 101 sites do well, he would consider opening another in the region.
“I think Modesto is a big market, and it could have two restaurants,” Lin said. “Right now we’re just doing soft opening. For me I’m so happy we can bring this to people now.”
Ramen 101, at 3848 McHenry Ave. Suite 310, is open 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily. For more information call 209-567-2196 or visit www.ramen101.net.
This story was originally published June 22, 2021 at 4:00 AM.
