After years of operating its food truck at various local breweries, Midnite Ramen is now permanently perched at Figurehead Brewing’s new Wallingford location, still serving a lively yatai (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, the fish powder adds flavor while pork fatback lends lardy goodness and texture to the soup. New to the menu: gyoza and Osaka-style street food like takoyaki.

The shoyu and shio (salt) ramen 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.

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 a 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.

This Capitol Hill izakaya serves up “Tokyo Shoyu Ramen,” which is slightly beefy with oxtail meat and oxtail broth but lightened up with fish powder and mizuna. (Don’t worry, there’s also pork chashu in the bowl.) That same oxtail broth forms the base for black garlic tantan ramen spiked with sesame and sansho (a spice similar to Sichuan peppercorns), plus Chinese pickles. Those who want to go soupless can opt for the shoyu-flavored Mazemen.

Capitol Hill’s Ramen Danbo serves Hakata-style tonkotsu ramen 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 broth’s flavor. If you’re feeling extra hungry, save some broth and order a portion of additional noodles, known in Japan as “kaedama.”

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.

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, 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 to catch more of the broth with each slurp.