Operating out of a food truck you’ll find at selected local breweries, Midnite Ramen serves up a lively yatai (mobile food stall) experience. The base broth is on the light side, with tare added to create ramen varieties such as shoyu and miso. Particularly noteworthy is the onomichi ramen — while not as entrancingly bitter as niboshi (dried fish) broths in Japan, fish powder adds flavor while pork fatback lends lardy goodness and texture to the soup. Watch for a winter opening of a new “brick-and-mortar” location on Stone Way in Wallingford in partnership with Figurehead Brewing, featuring a taproom up front and a ramen trailer in the back.

The shoyu and shio (salt) ramens at this Wallingford izakaya are both solid, but the true star of the menu is the miso ramen, with a depth of earthy flavor lent by the fermented soybean paste. The restaurant also has some of the fattiest pork of all the area’s ramen restaurants — so good it’s worth an upgrade to extra chashu. Yoroshiku also offers unusual options like a wagyu shoyu ramen and a Fisherman ramen featuring local seafood in miso broth.

Jinya is a Japan-based restaurant that found success in Los Angeles before spreading throughout North America. The customer base at the Bellevue branch is less Japanese than Chinese, who often prefer softer noodles, so the staff suggests asking for a shorter cooking time if you want a firmer noodle. The menu dances around a traditional tonkotsu preparation: The tonkotsu red comes closest to traditional (though with non-traditional thick noodles), while the tonkotsu black bursts with garlicky flavor.

This ramen chain (spawned from a chain in Japan known as Kukai) opened its first shop in Bellevue in 2012 and continues to spread throughout the Pacific Northwest and beyond. Kizuki offers a variety of ramen types. The garlic tonkotsu shoyu is good, and even better is the yuzu shio with a light broth that achieves a nice balance of salt and Japanese citrus flavor. The thin-sliced chashu is grilled, imparting smoky flavor. There are also tsukemen options for those who prefer to go soupless and instead dip their noodles into a cup of rich broth.

Ramen Danbo serves Hakata-style tonkotosu ramen, available in shio, miso, and negi-goma (scallion and toasted sesame) options. Diners can specify noodle thickness and firmness, thickness of broth, amount of lard, and amount of spicy sauce — though even a small amount of spicy sauce can dominate the flavor of the broth. If you’re feeling extra hungry, save some broth and order a portion of additional noodles, known in Japan as “kaedama.”

After opening several outlets in Japanese supermarkets in the United States and Canada, Santouka debuted its first free-standing American restaurant in Bellevue in 2014 and later expanded to University Village. This Japanese import serves up several varieties of high-quality tonkotsu ramen, with options including shoyu, miso, and spicy miso-flavored tonkotsu. But the simple shio (salt) ramen shows off the pork broth best. It’s also the only one that comes with a pickled red plum. The noodles aren’t the true straight type, but rather slightly wavy, so they can catch more of the broth with each slurp.

Founded in Tukwila and expanded to Ballard, Arashi focuses on the tonkotsu-style ramen associated with the island of Kyushu in southern Japan. The porky broth is available in shio (salt), shoyu (soy sauce), miso, and spicy miso varieties, and black garlic is a good twist to the tonkotsu miso option. It doesn’t say on the menu, but you can (and should) customize your noodles’ firmness. Ask for firm (katamen) or extra firm (barikata) to avoid the default overcooking to slightly soft.