Ika San Ramen, located in the Old Market, features steam buns and a poke ceviche bowl.

It’s officially soup season, and what better way to honor that than with a nice, comforting, steamy bowl of ramen? If you are looking for a good ramen place in the area, Ika San Ramen is the place to go. Their ramen selection is so vast, it ranges from classic miso ramen to specialty dishes they created themselves like the “68104,” which is named after an Omaha ZIP code. However, if you aren’t craving ramen, Ika San serves other exquisite dishes, putting a western twist on traditional Japanese cuisine.   

As a starter, Ika San offers various appetizers and side dishes you can share with the whole table. Their most popular appetizer is the steam buns, with your choice of filling. They are bao buns filled with daikon, cilantro and spicy mayo. The steam buns are birria-filled and have a burst of multiple different flavors throughout. The richness of the birria is complimented well by the spiciness of the mayo and balanced with the bao bun wrapped around. 

 A signature dish, “East L.A.,” is Ika San Ramen’s East Los Angeles-inspired dish. The bowl consists of asada beef strips, cilantro, onion, avocado and onsen-style egg doused in a fragrant pork broth. This is not a very typical ramen, yet all the ingredients work well together. The egg yolk also enhances the flavor of the broth completely and soaks into their house-made noodles, just bringing that delicious and luscious taste.  

Not into ramen? Ika San also has poke and rice bowls on the menu. The poke ceviche bowl comes with salmon, cucumber, red onion, avocado, cilantro, Thai chili, seaweed and rice. This bowl is refreshing and delightful; each bite is light, and the dish would be great on hot days as it had that colder feel as opposed to hot soup. The kick of the Thai chili really brought out the salmon, and when mixed all together, the flavors harmonized well. This is an exceptional choice if you are in search of poke in Omaha.