Bento Zanmai in Boulder hits the ramen spot

OK, I can stop whining. I've been on a ramen hunt for a couple of months. But I've finally sated my jones, with a trip top Bento Zanmai on the Hill in Boulder. Unlike Los Angeles, where a row of ramen shops take up most of a block along Little Tokyo, and San Francisco's Japantown, which has a several stellar restaurants that specialize in ramen, Denver is a ramen-lover's desert island. We're stranded in a place with no ramen in sight, and we're left holding an empty bowl and a pair of chopsticks. I overstate our condition. We used to go to Oshima Ramen, but it's not as good as it was when it opened a decade ago. Plus, their ramen is pricey. We've heard about a couple of Japanese restaurants north of Denver that apparently serve ramen, but we just don't feel like driving that far. We'll make the trip someday. But when we were dining at one of our favorite restaurants, Amu, in Boulder (we live close to Boulder, so it's not so far), we were talking with the owner, Nao-san, and we groused that he should serve ramen. He said, quite nonchalantly, that he was already serving ramen. Conversation at the izakaya's bar, where he was making up people's tapas-like orders, came to a silent halt. The 10 people at the bar asked, in unison, "You make ramen? Why didn't you say so?" He explained that the ramen was available at his new restaurant, Bento Zanmai, at 13th and College in Boulder's University Hill neighborhood. He warned that the ramen was only available from 3 to 6 pm -- weird hours -- but I was ready. I wanted ramen.