The Twin Cities' Best Ramen Shop

The Daily Meal recently published our 25 Best Ramen Shops in America for 2014, and in order to compile our ranking, we contacted the leading culinary authorities around the country to ask them about their personal favorite shops are (sticking to restaurants that specialize in ramen and noodles as oppose to you sushi bars with one bowl of ramen on the menu), and we supplemented those suggestions with ramen shops featured in local reviews and also consulted pre-existing local rankings. We then took that list of more than 100 shops from across the country and concocted a survey, with the shops separated by region. We invited our group of trusted panelists (made up of chefs, bloggers, journalists, and other culinary authorities) to vote for their favorites, and more than 30, including the Los Angeles Times' Jonathan Gold and our fleet of city editors, cast their votes. In the end there was one clear winner, but the top shops aren't all found in ramen hotspots like New York and the Bay Area; there's great ramen all over America, including the Twin Cities.

Located in the middle of a sprawling 40 year-old Asian grocery store called United Noodles, UniDeli is one of Minneapolis' best-kept culinary secrets. A few varieties of ramen are offered daily, but it's best experienced on Monday evenings, when ramen wizards Sophear Ek and Jason Dorweiler take over the kitchen and serve some daring ramen, like the fiery tantanmen, black garlic-slicked tonkotsu black, and bowls enhanced by special toppings of kimchi, caramelized onions, and roasted pork cheek. When a full-time ramen shop finally opens in Minneapolis, don't be surprised if Ek and Dorweiler are the ones behind it.

UniDeli is the only ramen shop in Minneapolis or Saint Paul to make our list, so it's unequivocally the best ramen shop in the Twin Cities this year.

Kate Kolenda is the Restaurant/City Guide Editor at The Daily Meal. Follow her on Twitter @BeefWerky and @theconversant.