Arigator – Warsaw’s Most Popular Ramen Spot (But There’s a Catch)

According to my original plan, reviewing Arigator was supposed to be easy.

One of Warsaw’s most popular ramen spots, constant queues, a thoughtfully put-together menu – what could possibly go wrong? Spoiler alert: pretty much everything. At least on my first visit.

Let’s not beat around the bush and go straight for the big one: meet the local take on tartare (41 PLN). In my case, it was served on a shokupan milk bread that had been burned to death – bitter and practically reduced to charcoal.

On top of all this beauty was finely, finely chopped meat dressed with a generous amount of Dijon mustard, a little chives, and decorated with pickled red onion; for an umami boost, there was grated dried egg yolk on top. The idea seems pretty decent, but the execution falls somewhat short. And for several reasons.

First, there is so much dressing here that you can’t taste the meat at all – I’m sure this was a situational mistake on the part of the cook.

Second, the bread I already mentioned. Honestly, I don’t quite understand how a chef can send a dish like this out of the kitchen, and how a waiter can then bring it to a guest, but here we are.

Third, after that evening, I was out of action for three days with food poisoning. 

Whether it was a coincidence, a consequence of that dinner, or something else, we’ll never know. But the fact remains: that day, all I had eaten was oatmeal at home for breakfast and this particular tartare.

I also tried the seafood tonkotsu ramen (65 PLN) – with beautifully cooked halibut in miso, wonderfully textured noodles, mussels, and goatsbeard chips. But here too, there was a downside – the broth itself was extremely oversalted. And it’s not entirely clear whether this was intentional, a mistake by the cook, or the result of adding a paste made from dried shrimp and scallops, which gives the perception of saltiness quite a serious boost.

All in all, doing a review of Arigator based on that experience didn’t feel entirely fair. So, after recovering from the food poisoning, I went back again – this time with a certain degree of caution and a few pills under my arm.

I wasn’t brave enough to test the tartare (or myself) again, so for starters I ordered the eggplant (32 PLN). Things weren’t exactly great here either – the local take on tonkatsu sauce was all about anything but balance: first it hit with excessive acidity, then moved into sweetness. Even the sesame rice cracker surprised me – it was simply impossible to break. With chopsticks, by hand, with whatever tools I could find – no chance in hell.

If you take the whole thing and bite into it, your chances are roughly 50/50. In short, the starters here are, ahem, interesting.

The ramen, on the other hand, was noticeably better this time. The creamy chicken paitan (53 PLN) comes with a huge yakitori skewer, a couple of pieces of grilled corn and, of course, the obligatory greens, marinated egg and nori. 

The broth itself is excellent, and there is a frankly indecent amount of meat. The only remark would be that the chicken was closer to a smoked flavour than a grilled one, but that’s a matter of taste.

Stout Gyukotsu (60 PLN) is a gift for lovers of ossobuco, gravy, and an intensely pronounced braising flavour.

An exceptionally rich and distinctive broth, meat on the bone braised in soy sauce, lightly marinated young carrot, mizuna and, once again, egg with nori – this is a genuinely brilliant mix of Japanese and European gastronomic traditions. A wonderful dish with only one small drawback – not everyone will manage to finish it.

And let’s not forget about the absolutely wonderful interior: a Japanese ramen-ya-inspired design, greenery, lots of wood, massive bar stools, daruma figurines above the kitchen counter – I can think of few places, not only in Poland, that are better suited to eating ramen.

As my last visit showed, the ramen itself is perfectly fine. Unlike the starters I happened to try

‍