Bowling for ramen

December 15, 2014 8:09 PM

My SO and I like to get take-out ramen from Japanese restaurants, but our bowls are woefully inadequate. (Usually I use a regular bowl and have to go back for seconds and thirds, while he awkwardly slurps it out of a salad bowl.) I'd like to get him some appropriately-sized bowls for Christmas, but I'm not even sure what to search for or where to look. Any suggestions, recommendations or pointers? Doesn't have to be fancy or Japanese, just a good size to hold all the deliciousness.
posted by radioamy to Shopping (18 answers total)

MUJI has a very reasonably priced ramen bowl.
posted by lakemarie at 8:15 PM on December 15, 2014

I should also add that this needs to be available online in the US or brick & mortar in San Francisco.
posted by radioamy at 8:18 PM on December 15, 2014

Asian grocery stores typically have a dizzying amount of housewares somewhere on premise. I would track your local asian grocer and poke around. Grab some nice chopsticks and ramen spoons while you're at it!

Also, you could probably ask your ramen joint where they get theirs.

I do believe muji has a brick and mortar shop in SF.
posted by furnace.heart at 8:20 PM on December 15, 2014

Check out the housewares stores in Chinatown, or Kamei.

I always see large bowls in Chinatown (SF or Oakland), but some have ugly prints. There are plain ones, you might just need to look around for a bit.
posted by extramundane at 8:21 PM on December 15, 2014

Kamei is OK for stuff like this, but you'll find much better designs in the basement of Soko Hardware or Daiso across the street.
posted by rhizome at 8:24 PM on December 15, 2014

I'd go to Japantown...should be easy. Maybe go to Daiso.
posted by three_red_balloons at 8:26 PM on December 15, 2014

If you're in SF, just hit a Daiso, or the ceramics store in the little shopping area across from the Japantown mall. That's where we got our huge ceramic bowls for ramen.
posted by wintersweet at 8:26 PM on December 15, 2014

Japantown is the best. Definitely choose ceramic or porcelain and not the horrible plastic bowls. I have been saddened by the use of plastic bowls in places like pho shops.
posted by jadepearl at 8:44 PM on December 15, 2014

Cost Plus had super-cute ramen bowls. I've seen them in their stores, but I haven't been to the SF store in a long time.
posted by jaguar at 8:48 PM on December 15, 2014

I make ramen a lot at home (in the Gourmet Ramen sense, not in the pot noodles sense), and I prefer to eat it out of a bowl very similar to this I bought at Daiso. It's not a huge bowl, but it holds more than, for example, a cereal bowl, or even the vaguely Asian-esque soup bowl I have that came from Target. It also has a raised base that makes it much easier to carry a bowl full of heavy ramen and hot broth to the table.

FWIW if I were to put a whole chicken breast or pork chop into my ramen, I would probably want an even bigger bowl than this.
posted by Sara C. at 9:27 PM on December 15, 2014

It's not fancy, but Corning makes Corelle bowls in a wide range of sizes and shapes. I would take a look at the 16 oz and 28 oz soup/cereal bowls. If you want to go a little larger - check out the 1 quart and 2 quart serving bowls
posted by metahawk at 10:17 PM on December 15, 2014

Go to Kamei on Clement @ ~6th. TONS of Asian dishware, including Japanese. I'm partial to the Thai bowls myself, but they have oodles of them for cheaper than most places.
posted by small_ruminant at 11:11 PM on December 15, 2014

Here is a pinterest picture I found of one of Kamei's aisles.
posted by small_ruminant at 11:16 PM on December 15, 2014

I have these Ikea 365 bowls that came in one of those box sets. Plain white.

They're almost the exact size of some noodle bowls with built-in chopstick rests that I got as a gift.
posted by Madamina at 11:17 PM on December 15, 2014

Nthing Soko Hardware, across from Japantown, where I bought some nice bowls 15 years ago for noodle slurping fun. Also Kamei, it's great, too. Not as much fun (IMHO) as Soko Hardware but either will do the trick.
posted by Bella Donna at 12:39 AM on December 16, 2014

We use these (from Target) and they are great. They are deeper than the Muji bowl linked above, and larger than most soup bowls, which prevents sloshing, and they are very easy to clean. They're solid and not too light -- which also helps prevent spills -- and lovely to look at because of the slightly curving sides. We also use them for salads.
posted by amtho at 4:07 AM on December 16, 2014

If you don't mind Melamine there are these 8" bowls.

This set of 4 Rice Soup Noodle Bowls is nice, but only 5" in diameter.

Or any of these 8" ceramic bowls.
posted by zinon at 6:14 AM on December 16, 2014

Thanks for all the great answers! Can't pick just one because they all sound lovely!

Due to time constraints and temporary mobility issues, I went with the Target bowls that amtho suggested, because I was able to get Google Express to deliver them. I just checked and they hold double the volume of any of our other bowls!

I am long overdue for a Daiso excursion, and I've never been to Soko Hardware, so I'll definitely be hitting up Japantown in the near future.
posted by radioamy at 11:38 PM on December 21, 2014