Nine ramen bowls is enough options that deciding can take longer than it needs to. Here's a faster way to narrow it down based on what you actually want tonight, not a full breakdown of every ingredient.
If you want something rich and classic:
Garlic Tonkotsu. Pork broth, tonkotsu base, pork chashu, fried garlic chips, seasoned egg, thick noodles. This is the bowl to default to if you just want a proper, hearty ramen and don't have a specific craving pulling you elsewhere.
If you want heat:
Spicy Umami Miso or Spicy Shoyu. Spicy Umami Miso leans into a pork miso base with chili oil and paste; Spicy Shoyu builds heat around a chicken shoyu base with chili threads and togarashi. Both are legitimately spicy — if you want to control the heat further, a Spice Bomb ($0.75) works on either.
If you want something lighter:
Cilantro Lime Chicken or Bakudan Chicken. Cilantro Lime Chicken is bright and citrus-forward on a shoyu and shio base; Bakudan Chicken is the simplest, mildest bowl on the menu — a shio base with chicken chashu and spinach.
If you don't eat meat:
Vegetarian. Oat milk and garlic oil base, tofu, spinach, cabbage, garlic chips — no animal broth in it at all.
If you want seafood instead of chicken or pork:
Shrimp Tempura. Chicken broth, shio base, shrimp oil, three shrimp tempura pieces — the only bowl built specifically around shrimp.
If you're ordering for a kid:
Kids Ramen. Chicken broth, chicken chashu, corn, thin noodles, $8.50 — sized and priced for a smaller appetite.
Still Not Sure?
Garlic Tonkotsu is the closest thing to a default order here — rich, classic, and representative of what Bakudan does well. If you're genuinely torn between two, that's a reasonable tiebreaker.