Catch This Japanese Food Truck for Ramen, Fried Rice Bowls and More

Hiroaki Takeda and Midori Fujishige, owners of Ninja Ramen Mobile, met when they were living and working for a tourism company in Las Vegas. "We were tour guides for the Japanese people, taking them to the Grand Canyon, San Francisco and all those national parks. We love nature, and always went camping at the bottom of the Grand Canyon and many different places. Sometimes there would be twenty to thirty people camping, and Hiroaki prepared all the food for the people. So he knew how to cook, and his food was so good," Fujishige says.

In 2017, the company chose Takeda to lead its new office in Denver, "but he was not satisfied with what he was doing," says Fujishige, so he decided to pursue his passion for cooking and entertaining instead.

With no restaurant experience or formal cooking training other than what he learned from his mom, Takeda decided to enter the food truck business and launched Ninja Ramen Mobile in August 2018. "I wasn't helping him when he came here to open it. I was still in Las Vegas," Fujishige notes. "So I started going back and forth, back and forth. When I didn't have a tour, I came here to help him and do bookkeeping and all that. But when the pandemic started, I was stuck here." As a result, the two friends are now business partners and have worked closely over the past few years to expand the business.
"Now we have so many weddings, catering jobs and corporate dinners, and our customers ask us to come to their company private parties because they already know our food and the service we provide, says Fujishige.

To keep pace with the continued growth, the team recently decided to upgrade. "We got this bigger, much larger food truck last year. Our old truck was half the size, and now we can do more and cook more food. The next step is a restaurant. We want to open a restaurant in the future, but not yet," Fujishige adds.

Although the two have had success, they have also faced challenges that primarily stem from their focus on traditional Japanese cuisine. Fujishige explains that American palates typically prefer more salt and sugar in food. "Sometimes we have to put a little bit more for people here," she notes. "Hiroaki doesn't want to do too much because he wants to keep it more authentic, and we have learned how to do it right."

Her favorite dish is the tonkotsu ramen. "It's a pork broth ramen that is found in the more southern part of Japan," Fujishige explains. "Depending on where they are from, the ramen broth is a little different. Colder places have thicker flavor and is more salty. Southern is more that light flavor. But we make everything a little more for Colorado."
In addition to ramen, Ninja serves karaage (aka Japanese fried chicken), pork fried rice bowls topped with teriyaki chicken and fresh veggies, and dumplings, which have increasingly become a fan favorite. "We make them by hand," Fujishige says. "We hand-cut all the veggies — we don't even use a food processor, and then Hiroaki grinds the pork and we fill it by hand."

The team is excited about the future and loves the community Ninja Ramen has built in the metro area — it's the friendly nature of the business that brings them the most joy. "We have so many regular customers. Once they like us, they keep coming back. They follow us. They say they're our stalkers, and we say we love stalkers," says Fujishige.

With the cold months that lie ahead, now is the time to get your ramen fix. To find the Ninja Ramen truck, visit ninjaramenmobile.com. The team also posts recipes on its website complemented by tutorials on Instagram.