Orlando ramen OG Sapporo will say sayonara in December

Ramen joints were hard to come by earlier in the decade, but Sapporo Ramen in the Chinatown Plaza was one of the few that gave buffs a proper fix.

Now comes word that the owners of the unpretentious ramen-ya are retiring and will close shop Saturday, Dec. 28.

Great news for them; bad news for all the tonkotsu, shio, shoyu and miso hounds who regularly flocked to the fuss-free joint for affordable slurps of glory.

I reviewed Sapporo back in July of 2013 and said this:

The tonkotsu was as creamy, rich and comforting as we had hoped, and the springy noodles, slices of pork belly, kikurage mushrooms and pickled ginger gave it an attitude as complex as Beat Takeshi’s.

And of the burgeoning ramen trend about to hit:

Sapporo’s superstar soups give credence to the cult of ramen in its quest to supplant spaghetti as the “noodle of now,” and to prove once and for all that it’s not just for college anymore.

The city’s ramen boom soon followed and bowls took on flashier miens, but Sapporo remained popular even after being forced to temporarily close by health inspectors last year.

Sayonara, Sapporo, we’ll miss you.

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This article appears in Holiday Events Guide 2019.