Naru’s social media page makes lofty promises, but it doesn’t live up to the hype
Naru is a limited menu Japanese restaurant in Bengaluru that specialises in ramen.
If you miss the humble sign that says, the only way to know you’ve arrived at Naru is the red and black chōchin—a lantern that marks the entryway to temples and restaurants in Japan. But once inside The Courtyard, the restaurant that Naru shares space with, a wooden, quaint izakaya-like setup almost primes your tastebuds for some authentic, delectable Japanese fare.
Naru came into existence in 2020 during the lockdown, and is the brainchild of Kavan Kuttappa, who learned the art of whipping up ramen bowls by watching YouTube videos. Before he moved to the limited-seating restaurant in Bengaluru’s Shanthi Nagar, Kavan sold limited DIY ramen bowls via his Instagram page, and the whole thing was almost a feeding frenzy of sorts—in two minutes flat, everything would get sold out.
The dine-in booking is no different. The eight seats on offer from Wednesday to Sunday get sold out in 120 seconds flat. I had to try twice before I was able to book for three people successfully.
But that’s where the ordeal ends because the atmosphere at Naru transports you away from the humdrum of daily life. There’s limited seating and the restaurant is almost the size of a standard living room in Bengaluru. Minor elements such as a tiny ukiyo-e painting in the corner, a bottle of sake, wooden bar stools and an open kitchen where you can see the chefs hustling and bustling add a tinge of drama to the whole setting.
Naru has a limited menu—four or five appetisers, and around six to seven varieties of ramen. In the way of beverages, the restaurant offers a dry and a sweet sake, priced at Rs 1,500 (each variant), and kombucha.
The star of the show though is the ramen—everything else is the opening act.
In Japan, the way a bowl of ramen tastes depends on the region it’s being cooked in. Everything, from the broth, its thickness, and the noodles used, to the vegetables, meats, oils, and spices that garnish it, is nuanced and takes on a new form every 500 kilometres.
Naru’s menu offers a comprehensive cross-section of the most widely known and consumed types of ramen, including tonkatsu, shoyu, and miso styles. Only 20% of the total menu is vegetarian, so options are limited. But the restaurant does vegan specials almost every week.
Ramen at Naru
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“Itadakimasu!!”
I started the meal with some togarashi edamame and chicken karage.
The edamame was scrumptious, and my accompaniments and I cleaned a bowl off in a matter of minutes. The chicken karage wasn’t as impressive; it was basically just deep-fried chicken served with a mayonnaise-type dip.
For mains, I ordered the Tokyo-style shoyu ramen, which contains a chicken and dashi (fish) broth, chicken chashu, and some vegetables, topped off with some nori (seaweed). My vegetarian friend, who is also allergic to mushrooms, was nearly turned away because every single broth concoction had a mushroom base. But the chef (not Kavan; he wasn’t around when we were dining) assured us that he’d whip something up.
Visually, my ramen bowl was nothing short of a piece of art—a miscellany of ingredients came together, bound by a thin, earthy-smelling broth. The nori smelled of the ocean (as all nori does) and brought back distant memories of a vacation in Okinawa.
But that was where the ramen’s similitude to Japan ended, unfortunately.
Edamame and chicken karage at Naru
The noodles were quite undercooked and did not taste too fresh, while the broth lacked the usual complexity characteristic of ramen. After the first few bites, the dish felt boring. The vegetables, albeit soggy, tasted good, and the chicken was well done.
My vegetarian friend did not fare too well either, and a singular bite helped me understand why.
She got some butternut squash broth ramen—a modified version of it since she couldn’t consume mushroom—and it essentially tasted like noodles in an extremely sweet paneer makhani gravy, which, of course, was less than ideal.
We moved on to the desserts rather quickly, and tried the matcha cheesecake (Naru sources the cheesecake from another seller). From the first bite to the finish, the cheesecake was probably the only thing, other than the sake, that we thoroughly enjoyed. The matcha tempered the sweetness of the cheesecake well, and added an aromatic earthiness to it, bringing me to the realisation that this was now how I’d forever want to eat my cheesecake.
We paid around Rs 6,500 for the entire meal, including the booking (Rs 1,000 per seat), which is redeemable against your final bill. For that much money, the food didn’t feel like it was worth it, and it left me feeling like I paid more for the social media hype around Naru than the food itself.
Having sampled Japanese cuisine at some of the choicest restaurants in Bengaluru, I’d recommend checking out Lucky Chan, Taiki, or Edo for a good bowl of ramen.
Price: Rs 1,600 for two without alcohol, and only for the ramen; Rs 3,000 with alcohol and appetisers.
Location: 105, Kengal Hanumanthaiah Rd, Raja Ram Mohanroy Extension, Shanti Nagar, Bengaluru.
Edited by Megha Reddy