The Colorado Ramen Restaurant Where Everything Is DIY

Ramen just got a choose-your-own-adventure twist. At Hangang Ramen in Aurora, Colorado, you're not ordering a bowl of soup off a menu, you're building it yourself — convenience-store style. Inspired by the self-cook ramen stations along the Han River in Seoul, Korea, this family-owned spot lets diners browse rows of instant noodle packs, pick their preferred brand and spice level, and then, make the perfect bowl of ramen by customizing it with dozens of toppings like marinated eggs, Spam, fish cakes, dumplings, and even kimchi corn cheese (Don't forget that furikake belongs in your next bowl of ramen). Once you've assembled your haul, you bring it to a self-cook station where your pot is waiting.

It's fast-casual in the truest sense: a mash-up of late-night cravings, grocery-store scavenger hunts, and tabletop cooking. And while Hangang may be one of the first to bring this trend to Colorado, it's part of a growing DIY ramen wave. Similar spots like Ramyun in Centreville, Virginia, and Noodl in Montreal, Quebec, are popping up across North America — proof that instant noodles have officially gone gourmet.

Sure, outsiders may think that it looks like a TikTok gimmick, but the appeal of build-your-own instant ramen bars goes way deeper than novelty. For a lot of us, ramen is survival food: Cheap, salty, dependable, and nostalgic. Now places like Hangang in Colorado are letting you cook it at your own table, add toppings, and customize it so you can put together your own bowl of ramen however you want. It's like childhood or college instant noodles, but make it interactive.

It's also a genius business: no chef and no kitchen needed. Just a wall of packaged noodles, some boiling water, toppings, and chopsticks. Diners do all the work, the prices stay low, and the food still feels fun and personal. Plus, the soup setup makes for a great photograph. Between the bright packaging, tabletop cookers, and totally unhinged toppings like cheese pile-ons, it's tailor-made for the 'gram.