40 JAPANESE
Buya Ramen 911 Central Ave., St. Petersburg 727-202-7010; $$ For about the past decade, “Japanese food” in these parts meant one thing: sushi. For a crack at the hipster izakayas, essentially Japanese gastropubs or taverns, you had to head to California, New York or, well, Japan. Ichicoro debuted in Seminole Heights at the end of 2015, with Dosunco opening its doors in South Tampa around the same time. We’ve had a bit of ramen crop up on the Pinellas County side, but Buya Ramen (pronounced BOOyah), opened in St. Petersburg in 2016, is really this side of the bay’s first izakaya. Their tonkotsu broth is lush, unctuous and nearly opaque, blanched chicken and pork bones simmered with roasted vegetables for 22 hours before it is strained and married with noodles and toppers like bits of duck confit, fatty-edged pork belly or smoky beef brisket. There’s a smart little world-beat wine list, a short list of craft beers, cocktails that rely heavily on sophisticated Japanese whiskeys and house-filtered water that is offered in bottles of still or sparkling.
Ichicoro Ramen 5229 N Florida Ave., Tampa 813-517-9989; $ Noel Cruz and his band of merry men taught us ramen. Many of us were newbs and had only eaten the bowl of sadness that is Top Ramen. Opened at the end of 2015, the Seminole Heights restaurant Ichicoro Ramen is still packed, people willing to wait hours to slurp down spicy abura soba or shoyu in minutes. The champon, with its fatty braised pork and heads-on gulf shrimp, is stunning, as are the chicken-based shoyu ($12) and misobased veggie version ($11), plus there are plenty of nonramen dishes that hit under $10 (like the hilarious but delicious CuBaoNo, Ichicoro’s spin on a Cuban, trademarked no less). After adding lunch and brunch last year, they announced their intention to open a second location in the ambitious Tampa Heights project, in the 68,000-square-foot old red brick Tampa Armature Works building, and Cruz debuted C. 1949, a Florida craft-beer-driven bar also in Seminole Heights.