For awhile, the ramen-focused eatery was one of the hottest food concepts to waft up within Columbus' culinary bowl. Places like Jobu/Mashita, Fukuryu and Menya; and food trucks like Tokyo Go Go and Capital Ramen, joined old-time brick-and-mortars like Tensuke Express and other Japanese eateries within the metro to give locals many more choices than ever before. Toss in the speculation of a possible local branch of a Cleveland institution in Jonathon Sawyer's Noodlecat, and the enthusiasm might have been seen as scalding at times.
The talk of the latter has pretty much descended to nothingness, and with an occasional rogue wave (Tensuke's expansion and the relocation of Menya from Powell to Dublin), the ramen scene here has settled into a steady lapping of broth upon the side of the bowl. That seems to have suited the city's current collection of ramen purveyors, including the Northwest neighborhood's Meshikou.
