Friday night, Robert and I headed down the street to finally check out Boom Noodle. When I learned last year that my neighborhood was about to get a Japanese-style ramen house, I was super excited. I pictured a noodle shop just like those in the International District: crowded, loud, harshly lit and lacking in decor, all offset by a menu of cheap, delicious noodle dishes. The perfect spot for a quick, satisfying meal on a rainy night. When Boom Noodle finally opened it’s doors and revealed itself to be an extremely posh restaurant and cocktail bar (with prices to match) I have to admit that I was a little disappointed. Silly as it may be, because it wasn’t my vision of what a noodle house should be, I hadn’t been particularly motivated to try Boom Noodle yet. Friday’s blustery, rainy weather had me craving noodles so we thought it was finally time to give Boom Noodle a shot.

The ambiance at Boom Noodle is hyper trendy. It has a very modern, IKEA-esque look, with bright green walls, high ceilings, and lots of black, metallic, angular furnishings. Boom Noodle is also host to the single most obvious restaurant trend of 2008: the communal table. While I’m not a fan of communal tables, they seem to work well with Boom Noodle’s “upscale cafeteria” style. There is also a handful of individual tables located in the swanky bar just past the restaurant. Everything at Boom Noodle is very heavily branded. The chopsticks, the bowls – nearly every dish was adorned with Boom Noodle’s logo. I even spotted a “Boom” wine behind the bar. Boom Noodle isn’t a chain yet, but it clearly dreams of becoming one.

The menu at Boom Noodle is broken out between small plates, chilled noodles & salads, hot noodles & soups, wok noodles & rice, and extras. The surprisingly lengthy list of small plates includes such interesting choices as omakase pickle plate, edamame puree and miso broiled rice cakes. The balance of the menu is devoted primarily to noodle dishes. Offerings range from the very traditional (chilled somen noodles served with grated daikon and tempura dipping sauce) to the more innovative (roasted red beet soba, a soup made with julienned beets, pickled plum, wakame seaweed, shiso leaf and red beet broth.) The drinks menu is also quite inventive. Ingredients such as shiso, ginger and yuzu all make an appearance on Boom Noodle’s cocktail list.

We started off with a couple pints of Sapporo and the Curry Potato Korokke: Japanese potato croquettes served with a ginger creme fraiche. The croquettes were tasty, and the flavor was strikingly similar to that of Indian samosas (it kind of left me wishing we had a tamarind chutney for dipping instead of the ginger creme fraiche.) For his main course, Robert ordered the beef yakisoba. He liked that it wasn’t overly sweet but thought it was a bit too aggressively flavored. I was really tempted by the red beet soba but ultimately chose the salmon udon which consists of thick udon noodles served in a white miso broth with spinach, shiitake mushrooms, lightly smoked white salmon and a hard boiled egg. The soup is garnished with a crispy salmon skin “cracker.” The noodles were perfectly cooked – chewy and thick like good udon should be. The salmon was delicious and the broth was good, although, like Robert, I found it to be too heavily flavored. Subtle doesn’t seem to be on the menu at Boom Noodle.

Boom Noodle’s name is derived from the Japanese term “my boom” which means the thing that you are currently obsessed with. After one visit, I can’t say that Boom Noodle is “my boom” just yet, but the innovative menu and the tasty (if overly bold) food is enough to keep me coming back. Plus, I still have to try that red beet soba! You can certainly get cheaper food in the International District but, on a rainy night when I want some noodles, the four block walk from my apartment to Boom Noodle sounds awfully good. Boom Noodle is located at 1121 East Pike Street.