Kyoomo Ramen, Yaksu-dong: Two Bowls Marked 'きょうも' and a Chashu Rice Bowl

Four hiragana characters run along the rim of the bowl: きょうも (kyō mo). In Japanese it means "today, too."

A Tuesday at the end of July, around 8 p.m. Two of those bowls landed on the counter of a small ramen shop in a side street near Yaksu Station.

Bottom line first: it's really good. The flavour runs deep.

The first bowl

The first bowl has a cloudy, beige broth with fine bubbles on the surface, and barely a gap between the toppings.

On one side, three thin, pale pink slices of meat fan out, next to a slice of chashu (braised pork) seared until the grain shows. Long strips of menma (seasoned bamboo shoots) lean on the rim, a mound of shredded scallion sits in the middle, and a light-brown boiled egg is dusted with red chili flakes.

Thin noodles peek out from under the broth. And the broth itself has real depth of flavour.

The shop is known for making its sauces, toppings, broth and chashu in-house and for cooking its chicken sous vide; the three pink slices look like that chicken.

The second bowl, in orange

The second bowl looks different from the start. The broth is a creamy, orange-tinged colour, dusted with chili flakes and black pepper.

The toppings shift too. The white meat slices, egg, menma and scallion stay, but this one adds diced red onion and shredded wood ear mushroom. The edge of a seared chashu slice shows at the rim.

The soup ramen here comes in four kinds: shio (salt), shoyu (soy), karai (spicy) and miso paitan, plus a brothless abura soba tossed in sauce. I didn't check the exact menu names of these two bowls.

Seared chashu, diced, over rice

On the side, a chashu rice bowl. The chashu is cut into dice-sized cubes, charred dark on the outside and piled on white rice, with scallion tucked in between and a dab of wasabi in the centre. It's a much smaller bowl than the ramen.

Karaage with mayo

The karaage (Japanese fried chicken) comes as two big pieces on a white plate, the coating craggy and uneven, with a swirl of mayonnaise dusted with red powder on the side.

A bottle of Sapporo and the counter condiments

The drink was a bottle of Sapporo Premium Beer (330 ml, 5.0%), served with two glasses printed with the yellow Sapporo star.

The shop is not big. Seating is a counter with green mats under a wooden shelf, and customers kept coming in the whole time I was there. Along the shelf: bottles labelled 라유 (rayu, chili oil) and 다시마 식초 (kelp vinegar), a glass jar of tongs and stacks of cups. A small label on the shelf edge reads, in Korean, "Please hand your order sheet to a staff member."

Visit info

📍 Kyoomo Ramen (쿄오모 라멘) · 1F, 16 Dasan-ro 8-gil, Jung-gu, Seoul (Yaksu-dong)

• 🚇 Getting there: in a side street near Yaksu Station (Seoul Subway Lines 3 and 6)
• 🍜 Menu line-up: shio, shoyu, karai and miso paitan, plus abura soba
• 🪑 Seating: counter seats
• 🗺️ Map: Open in Google Maps

Jayden's verdict

There's a reason a shop this small never stops filling up: it's really good, and the broth runs deep.

• Taste: really good, with a deep flavour.
• The place: a small counter shop with a steady stream of customers.
• Tip: hand your order sheet to the staff. The menu names are Japanese, so it helps to know that karai means "spicy" and abura soba is ramen without soup.