Chong Boon Ooi (where the extra “o” in “Ooink” comes from) is passionate about ramen. It’s clear in how he prepares it but also how he talks about it. “You can’t just add a couple ingredients and get umami, this is a process.”

The ramen joint is celebrating five years this month at their location above QFC on Broadway and Pike, which he calls an “interesting place” and why they decided to move here.

“I just love this location, the people, the nightlife. It’s a unique place.”  Although the challenges of owning a restaurant are ever present, the pandemic has forced Chong to “move forward and find a solution.”

The menu hasn’t changed much since he opened Ooink with his wife Jiaxin Wang five years ago. Chong has chosen to focus on refinement, not change.

“We still try to refine what we do and achieve better. I don’t like to create new dishes, I like to do what I do and make it better.”

There have been additions, some in the first year, like his Miso soup and Beefy Shoyu. Other new dishes, like Malaysian Chicken and Shanghai Style Shoyu, were added during the pandemic. The Shanghai Style, though, was influenced by Chong’s 51 days on his snowboard last year. “It’s lighter, the oil on top is goose fat cooked in shallots, all the pork base are very heavy… If I’m going snowboarding with friends, that’s what I bring.”

It’s not just the soup base that’s important. Chong has discovered that water from Mt. Rainier near where he went before snowboarding season was much different from the tap water here in Seattle. “The noodle will be more fluffy, it will float. The natural spring water contains more alkaline and is softer.” Now Chong has a public but secret source for the spring water, he says, in Lynnwood, of all places. “It’s a tap that’s always running and anyone can go and pick it up. Now we go there to pick it up so we can make our noodles.”

When it comes to the chicken sandwich, it was put on the menu as a more affordable option during the Pandemic. “It’s not fancy, but you’re going to be full. One Shanghai and one chicken thigh, you will be full… You can not come to my shop and pay money and come out hungry. People have to eat and be full.”

Even though you couldn’t come in during the pandemic, Chong was preparing ramen kits to go, preparing them in the shop and having people pick them up from his home in North Capitol Hill.

Meanwhile, the pandemic claimed Ooink’s neighboring business. Marination Station closed its next door spot in September 2020.

Ooink is Chong and Jiaxin’s first restaurant, but he’s been working in the industry for 15 years. Born in Malaysia, he bounced around the world, cooking and learning.

He started in L.A., moved to Paris, Vegas, NYC where he met his wife, then Hawaii, and now Seattle, where he wants to raise his family.  “This city has very unique people. The energy is very different.”

Chong said he is grateful for the neighbors, customers, and other ramen restaurant owners that have visited his space over the past five years.

“If we don’t have the people of this community, people supporting us, I don’t think today I could sit down and chat with you. I’m very honored,” he says. “That’s why today we can be who we are and open a shop.”

Chong expects to be in the ramen business for a while still. “I just want to cook ramen before I die, I want to cook whatever I want before I die….This is how I eat it, this is how I’m going to serve it.”

Ooink is located at 1416 Harvard Ave in the Harvard Market shopping center above the QFC at Broadway and Pike. You can learn more at ooinkramen.com.

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