Best Ramen in Chicago, Ranked

Like sushi, ramen in Chicago doesn't have an invented-here origin story — it runs on the same real Japanese immigration history as this site's own Best Japanese Chicago page. What's actually on this list is a much more recent phenomenon: a real national ramen boom that reached Chicago hard over the past decade and hasn't slowed down.

Akahoshi Ramen, in Logan Square, is a good example of how deliberate that newer generation can be. Chef Mike Satinover opened it with a name that means "Red Star" — a nod to Sapporo-style ramen's Hokkaido roots, and, by design, a second nod to the six-pointed star on Chicago's own flag. It's been named one of the city's favorite restaurants by more than one local outlet since opening.

High Five Ramen, in the West Loop, tops this list by score — one of several newer-generation shops (alongside Oiistar in Wicker Park and Monster Ramen in Logan Square) built specifically around the current wave of interest in the dish, rather than running as a side item on a broader Japanese menu the way it might have a generation ago.

What's most Chicago about this particular list is the map. More than half of it sits outside the city limits — Arlington Heights, Lombard, Palatine, Mount Prospect, Wilmette, Buffalo Grove, Glenview — a real, current pattern of ramen shops following rather than waiting for demand, the same dispersal pattern this site's own Korean food history already documented for Lawrence Avenue's old Koreatown.

Whether it's a Logan Square shop naming itself after the city flag or a Buffalo Grove strip-mall counter doing the same tonkotsu broth as its city cousins, this list is less about one neighborhood than about how far the format has spread.