High Five Ramen - Chicago
High Five Ramen is a cozy, low light and 
friendly restaurant and bar, downstairs of Green Street Smoked meats, specializing in one thing: ramen. Owner Brendan Sodikoff, owner of the hugely successful Hogsalt Restaurant Group, named this restaurant after his favorite bar in Tokyo.
Ramen is the only thing you'll be eating at High Five Ramen, and Chicagoans wait in line up to three hours for a treasured bowl. The tightly focused menu lists four ramens, and all contain High Five Ramen's excellent noodles.
Tonkatsu is the traditional pork and miso broth, cooked for eighteen hours, with sliced pork belly, seasoned egg and black garlic oil.
Shio is chicken dashi broth, festooned with pork belly, marinated shitake mushrooms and nori.
Shoyu is a blend of the namesake soy sauce and chicken dashi broth, bok choy leaves, and (you guessed it) pork belly.
The vegetarian option is Maitake, a mushroom miso broth with maitake mushroom and the locally grown bean sprouts that also appear in several other ramen selections. High Five Ramen is known for its spicy (and, shall we say, super-spicy) ramen options. You can order your ramen with Full, Half, or One-Quarter Spice...or no spice at all if that's how you roll (no shame in that). The spice formula used in the ramen is a combination of red chili pepper, smoked paprika, sichuan and sansho peppercorns,
For heat-seeking chili heads, you boldly may opt for the Kanabo Sauce, described on the menu as a "face-numbing, tear-jerking unbearable spice. Please do not order without careful consideration." It sounds like a dare, doesn't it? Exercise caution.
To quench the thirst after all the spiciness (if you go that route) there are two standard Japanese beers (Sapporo, Asahi), neat shots of Old Grand Dad, three sakes and a few cocktail slushies (probably the best choice for chilling down an over-heated palate). It's casual.
