Oiistar's Simmers Savory Ramen| Wicker Park, Chicago

It's easy to get lost in a bowl of Oiistar's noodles.

The new Wicker Park ramen joint is home to exceptionally flavorful broth, peppery and rich, served in bowls packed with house-made noodles, spicy oil and tangles of slivered scallions.

Simmered for the better part of 24 hours, the Oiimen pork ramen ($14) is fatty and deep, with broth that leaves an appropriate slick of oil on your lips. Stir in a dollop of togarashi-based spicy paste ($1.50) to add a gentle burn.

The Musclemen ramen ($15) is one of the finest seafood soups we've encountered of late, packed with plump mussels and flavored with red miso. Though the soup's chewy, skinny strands lack the profundity (to borrow a term from Tampopo) of the best bouncy Japanese ramen noodles, they're certainly an enjoyable slurp.

Supplement ramen with sides that corral a mishmash of flavors: sautéed green beans with garlic, tomato, pancetta and a fried egg ($6), and sticky fried chicken with sweet garlic-sesame sauce and almonds ($9).

Chef Sunny Yim is Korean, and the restaurant's name references the Korean word for cucumber. But dinner there brings a similar Japanese utterance to mind: oishii.

Oiistar, 1385 N. Milwaukee Ave.; 773-360-8791 or oiistar.com