This new restaurant’s menu looks like an Instagram feed. Ramen, poke and sushi burritos

Some people subscribe to the philosophy that eating hot soup in hot weather helps cool one down.

Those people would not be me. I grew up here. As a sworn enemy of the sun, I plot my entire day so that I spend the least amount of time in between air-conditioned locations and avoid eating steamy food.

Except when a ramen restaurant opens. During the hottest week of summer.

I took one for Team Reader and sweated through a bowl of ramen at newly opened Zen Ramen & Sushi Burrito.

The good news? The restaurant is air conditioned. It also has plenty of offerings beyond soup for summer eating.

The Parkland restaurant opened July 23 with a menu that reads like an Instagram feed: ramen, sushi burritos, poke bowls Korean rice bowls, bao tacos and poke nachos.

The order-at-the-counter spot caters to those in search of quick eats and photographic dishes. How appropriate for a neighborhood filled with college-aged diners from nearby Pacific Lutheran University.

Here’s a first-bite report. It’s this paper’s policy to avoid criticism of food and service in a restaurant’s first month.

Background: The restaurant’s owners also operate a similar restaurant in South Carolina.

Dining room: Murals looked inspired by manga artist Masashi Kishimoto, creator of Naruto.

The dining room seats more than 30. Tucked to the left is a small room with two-tops and bench seating fashioned from unpainted plywood. The front dining room offers a row of tables-for-two near the windows, two more four-top tables and a communal high-top table for a group of six.

Order: At the counter. Servers shuttle food to the table, but the restaurant’s servers ask diners to bus their own tables.

Style: Swiftly prepared food meant for diners in search of casual, inexpensive fare. Diners won’t find the nuance of the broths at My Lil Cube or Moshi Moshi Bar + Ramen, the area’s other two ramen destinations. Rather, the ramen at Zen skews more quick-assembly and trendy with add-ins such as kimchi and spicy sauces.

Menu: Seven ramens listed, all made with tonkotsu (pork) broth ($9.50 to $12). Three versions are spicy, such as the Kamikaze made with ghost peppers, jalapenos, hot pepper oil and habanero sauce (which pretty much sounds like eleventy hours of heartburn to me).

Ramens feature chashu pork, noodles, mushrooms, bamboo shoots, pickled red ginger and a seasoned egg.

Six styles of poke bowls include both raw and cooked ($8 to $11). A vegetarian version is made with a seasoned egg, plus mushrooms, edamame, seaweed salad, avocado and more ($8). There’s also raw tuna or salmon ($11), cooked shrimp ($11), cooked chicken ($9.50) and a combo made with both cooked and raw ingredients ($13).

Sushi burritos — think of them as oversized sushi rolls wrapped in paper and eaten burrito style — include nine versions with six of those built with raw ingredients ($8.50 to $12). Non-fish versions include a chicken tempura ($9.50) and vegetarian sushi burrito ($8.50).

Korean dupbap is listed, but not available last week ($8.95-$9.95).

Appetizers include bao buns assembled to look like tacos ($6), plus edamame ($3.50), seaweed salad ($3.50) and tuna poke nachos ($8.50).

Drinks: Serve-yourself fountain drinks and Japanese sodas. Bottled and canned beer ($3.50-$7.50) includes Sapporo, Michelob, Guinness, Corona and one beer from Wingman Brewers.

On a first visit: Get the PLU sushi burrito assembled with raw salmon, cooked shrimp, seasoned sushi rice, avocado, crab salad, spicy mayo and kimchi sauce tucked into a soy crepe ($11).

A tuna poke bowl was enough for two diners, the bowl was filled with cubed raw tuna, a scoop of crab salad, thinly sliced cucumbers, pickled radish, a tangle of seaweed salad, sliced fresh avocado, edamame beans and lettuce over a bed of seasoned rice ($11).

Zen Ramen & Sushi Burrito

Where: 528 Garfied St. S., Tacoma

Info: 253-292-0731

Hours: Open at 11 a.m. Tuesday-Sunday.

This story was originally published July 31, 2018 at 12:00 PM.