Ginza Restaurant Group knows sushi, with successful Ginza and Feng restaurants throughout Connecticut and central Massachusetts. Now, collaborators from the group are turning their attention to noodles.
“Ramen is our comfort food,” said Kevin Xu, who partnered with Feng chef Raymond Zheng, William Chen, a founder of the Ginza group; and David Jiang to open Wethersfield’s Kaliubon Ramen in February. The casual noodle bar and restaurant specializes in ramen, poke bowls and small plates like bao, wings and dumplings.
Kaliubon’s space, a former hardware store, is just steps from Ginza’s Wethersfield location in the Goff Brook Shops. Xu said he and his partners have planned to open a ramen shop for years, seeing a potential market in Connecticut for the Japanese noodle soup even before it was trendy.
Quality noodles are so important to Kaliubon’s mission that the partners brought in a state-of-the-art machine from Japan to make their own fresh product, Xu said. Many ramen shops source noodles from specialty purveyors.
“It’s such a big difference when you taste the noodles that we have, versus everything else,” said general manager Justin Garcia.
THE ATMOSPHERE: The 49-seat space is sleek and modern, with black leather booths and a polished black community table in the center of the room. Guests often like to dine at the noodle bar to watch the action in the open kitchen, said Garcia.
FEATURED/NOTEWORTHY DISHES: Kaliubon offers richly-flavored ramen in eight different varieties ($11 to $14), including classic shoyu, tonkotsu and miso broths. The Kaliubon ramen is becoming a signature best-seller, with a creamy broth, ground and chashu pork and spicy Mala paste. A wonton ramen features pork and shrimp wontons, and a brothless tan-tan mazemen is made with ground pork, vegetables, house spicy sauce and sunny-side egg. A vegetarian ramen, with spiced tofu, has a mushroom-based broth.
Ramen bowls can be made spicy by request, and extra toppings include chashu or ground pork, wontons, menma (bamboo shoots); corn, seasoned egg and hon shimeji or kikurage mushrooms.
Poke bowls ($11 to $12), a staple of Hawaiian cuisine, are presented at Kaliubon with cubes of fresh, raw ahi tuna or Scottish salmon, atop sushi rice with hijiki seaweed salad, edamame, onion, cucumber, sesame seeds, crispy kani, lotus chips and ginger shoyu sauce or spicy mayonnaise.
As the weather warms, Zheng plans to add more poke bowl options, Xu said, along with more beverages like Thai iced tea and bubble tea. Seafood and beef ramen varieties are also in the works.
Top-selling starters ($4 to $10) include chicken wings with garlic soy sauce or Korean-style with sweet spicy sauce, bao buns with braised pork belly, lamb and tofu; housemade pork and shrimp dumplings doused in Sichuan chili sauce and a Brussel sprout salad with tamarind dressing. Veggie-based plates include edamame and goma q (a cucumber salad with sesame dressing.)
THE BAR: Kaliubon offers a full bar, with beer, wine, sake and Asian-inspired cocktails. Six draft lines often feature Connecticut beers, along with Sapporo. Drinks and martinis ($7 to $12) are fruity, colorful and refreshing, like fresh lemonade spiked with lychee vodka; a Harajuku Girl Bacardi cocktail with black raspberry liqueur and edible flowers and a turquoise Colada-Tini coming up for summer, with coconut rum, pineapple juice and blue curaçao.
HOURS: Kaliubon is open for lunch Tuesday through Friday from noon to 3 p.m. and closes for two hours, opening again for dinner from 5 to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday and from 5 to 10 p.m. Friday. Kaliubon is open from noon to 10 p.m. Saturday and noon to 9 p.m. Sunday. Closed Mondays.
Happy hour runs Tuesday through Friday from 5 to 6 p.m., with discounts on beer and wine; $5 cocktails and martinis and appetizer specials priced at $4 to $6.
Kaliubon Ramen is at 1323 Silas Deane Highway in Wethersfield. 959-230-4533, kaliubon.com.
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