Obi - Cape Town

I am a hardcore ramen nerd. You can trust this judgement. I have scoured Cape Town for the best ramen available and as of writing this, OBI is my champion (pls feel free to give me more options in the comments).<br/ <br/ It’s only offered in the lunch menu, and they one have one option (Shoyu), but it’s the best I’ve had in CPT. I’m a bit spoiled when it comes to ramen (being from Aus where amazing Asian food is literally on every street corner), and Cape Town mostly lets me down, but OBI is the one of the two places I could recommend going to if you want ramen in this city.<br/ <br/ The pork is melty and the fat is rendered perfectly, the broth is just the right amount of salty, and the noodles usually have just the right chew (although I have had some sad over cooked noodles here before). My only real issue is that the egg isn’t typically as marinated as I like.<br/ <br/ I’ve heard good things about the sushi, but if you’ve read any of my other reviews you know I’m a monogamist at the restaurants I frequent so cannot speak from personal experience.

In the world of OBI the waitresses wear the shortest skirts and the reddest lips. Against the walls are framed kimonos and the low-hanging lights are glowing felt spheres. Laid on stark tables are chopsticks, Kikkoman sauce and blue floral sideplates. <br/ <br/ The menu features vegetable tempura, which is why we’re here. It arrives as a carefully stacked arrangement on a beautiful stone plate. With vegetable tempura it’s sometimes a guessing game: OBI’s version includes courgette, asparagus, sweet potato and butternut. <br/ <br/ Agedashi Tofu is a mound of soft tofu blocks served on brothy bed onion and ginger with bonito flakes on the side. We also had a bowl of Udon noodles with wakame, inari tofu and spring onion in dashijiru broth.<br/ <br/ OBI’s menu also feaures other Japanese yummies like Fried Leek Dumplings and Nasu Miso. For meat eaters the Bento Box lunch specials would be fun. <br/ Frankly, i would return every week until i’ve tried everything on the menu, specifically the vast collection of vegetarian sushi, the best i’ve seen in CT.

A lovely lunch with top notch service. Reasonably priced. DEFINITELY worth popping in, the food is awesome. Refreshing to spend time in an inner city with the hustle and bussel around you; this adds to the atmosphere.<br/

Intimate place with an attentive owner (Papa San). The tempura udon was a bit too sweet for my taste. Great choice of quality sushi. Not at all you can eat place

Had a delicious vegetarian dinner here. We tried edamame beans and agedashi tofu to start. Edamame tastes pretty much the same everywhere else, but the tofu was excellent. Normally people associate tofu with being bland, but this was something else. The tofu was fried and comes served in a flavorful broth. I also had the Udon noodles, which was amazing. I didn 't have udon noodles before (they are like very thick noodles) but I became an instant fan. So many wonderful flavors. Very fresh ingredients. I had to try out the coconut panna cotta and matcha green tea ice cream to finish things off. Matcha still isn 't my cup of tea (pun intended), and the portion size was a little on the small size, but it still tasted lovely and 'different ' overall. Will definitely be back to try out their sushi!