New Orleans, LARamen

The St. Claude Avenue restaurant that put gumbo ramen on the map, layering ramen noodles into a Creole gumbo base loaded with sausage, crab, mussels, chicken, and shrimp. The dish, from chef Lenora Chong and her son Larry Morrow, drew a Food Network spotlight and captures the kitchen's Creole-and-Korean crossover. Marigny's answer to a noodle bowl.

Chef Christie Nguyen serves long-simmered tonkotsu broth on Magazine Street, running from a classic build to a fiery ghost-pepper geki-kara version. Bowls come topped with braised pork shoulder, soft egg, and the usual garnishes, with a tight menu focused on getting the broth right. An Uptown ramen bar for a proper pork-bone bowl.

A spacious noodle house on South Carrollton Avenue serving a range of ramen alongside sushi and rice bowls. The broad Asian menu makes it a flexible group stop, and the sizable dining room handles a crowd better than most of the city's smaller ramen counters. A Carrollton-area option for a casual noodle dinner.

Chef Nate Nguyen and restaurateur Jeff Gapultos blend Japanese, Vietnamese, Filipino, and Southern flavors across a menu of poultry and plant-based ramen broths. The Lower Garden District room on Magazine Street opened in 2020 and leans into that crossover rather than a single regional style, giving vegetarians a real bowl to order.