A Port for the Wayward Ramen Enjoyer
Located at 2208 Fontaine Avenue is one of Charlottesville’s best-kept culinary secrets. The Asian fusion restaurant Mashumen, which offers sushi, ramen, and other featured dishes with Thai and Korean roots, opened its doors in 2020 and will no doubt be around for years to come. Mashumen has continued to deliver memorable dining experiences, with its food being even more so.
When first walking up to the door, guests are greeted with a beautiful outdoor water display that flows down into a tropical arrangement of orchid and bromeliad flowers, serving as both a warm welcome to customers and providing those on the patio with a more aesthetic view. The real welcome, though, starts as soon as you open the front doors and are instantly reminded why you’re there: the food. When you step inside, you are hit with a combination of savory and sweet aromatics coming from the different tables and kitchen that perfectly signals to the body that you’re about to eat something special.
The menu is vast, giving options for almost any dietary preference. With meat dishes and flexible vegetarian options, even the pickiest eaters will find something here. The meal this review focuses on included dishes such as the chicken karaage ($9), eel lover roll ($18), and the star of the show, the Mashu ramen ($16). The chicken karaage, small pieces of fried chicken that are complemented with spicy mayo as a side dip, serves its role as an appetizer well, giving the body a peek of what it can expect quality-wise from the rest of the dishes. Mashumen does an incredible job of not making the client feel rushed to eat by leaving ample time between appetizers and mains. This serves to keep the table from being overwhelmed with food and gives enough time for the appetizers to do their job of stimulating the appetite for the subsequent meal. Trust when this writer says that a stimulated and ready appetite is a necessity for what follows.
The Mashu ramen gets its name from the restaurant’s founder, who named the dish after her son, Matthew. According to Mashumen’s website explaining their origins, Chong carefully curated the dish by experimenting with different ingredients to make the best-tasting version for her son. The meal has origins of one made with love, and that effort speaks volumes to those who try it.
With their signature spicy paste and roasted garlic oil, the broth feels unique for its depth of flavor, which, along with signature ramen pairings like ajitama (marinated soft-boiled egg), scallions, and pork chashu, leads to a flavor profile that is incomparable to ready-made bags of ramen to the point that drawing the similarity between the two feels almost heretical.
Mashumen is perfect for a fun night out with friends or romantic occasions, but it also offers deals for those associated with UVA, such as workers at the hospital, in the form of a 10% off discount. Most importantly, though, if you are a ramen enjoyer or have one in your life, this should be your next stop on the restaurant list; they’re open from 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. with extended hours to 10:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.
