It has come to my attention that there are several restaurants that serve Asian cuisine alongside Mexican cuisine, and I’m here for it. In fact, if you build it, I will come.
By the way, there is a restaurant in Yuma, Colorado, that serves Mexican dishes and sushi. Yes, I’ll be going to Mexsu soon.
This year, we started a monthly Supper Club with friends. There aren’t any hard and fasts rules other than it should be a new-to-all-of-us restaurant. I am not writing about it generally, but this time we chose to go to Birdhouse in Erie, Colorado. This restaurant serves up tacos and ramen, and therefore I felt obligated to write about it here.
Erie has changed A LOT over the years. When we bought our Loveland home in 2003, our real estate agent was from Erie, and I don’t remember more than one restaurant there. Today, it’s quite different. For one thing, they have ramen.
Birdhouse opened in June of 2020, the pandemic summer, so I am truly glad it survived.
It has a brightly colored interior and with Mexican and Asian food on the menu, we started with a colorful Salsa Trio ($9). The mango habanero is actually kinda hot as well as flavorful. I was impressed and felt this was a good sign.
Two of us ordered the Hellfire Ramen ($21), me, of course, and we had an order of Tonkotsu Ramen ($17). Ryan had the Shio Ramen ($20), which comes with fried chicken on top.
The Hellfire is in a pork broth with all the hot things including chili oil. Although it didn’t seem super hot to me, it was super flavorful. Plus, let’s be honest, I am not always a good judge of heat levels, but our friend’s head was sweating, so yes, it was very spicy. And I will admit, my lips (constantly chapped in the winter) stung a bit. This ramen lives up to the name, Hellfire.
By the way, I love the little crunchy things on top! They were onion, sort of like the fried onions you put on that green bean casserole at Christmas. Also, the noodles were spot on.
Ryan’s chicken was fried perfectly. I tried some and it was crunchy and moist. He felt his broth was a little bland, but I think he should have added a little chili sauce to it (you have to ask for it).
Honestly, this is the most expensive ramen I have encountered in Colorado, but we all left with leftovers so it’s a good amount of food. Our friend Caleb, also ordered a taco, and I should have for this blog, but couldn’t bring myself to order a $5+ taco. It was just a little too pricey to justify when this blog is costing me not paying me. True story!
He had a shrimp taco ($6.00) and declared it to be tasty. At that price, I’ll take his word for it. Sorry, I should have snapped a photo.
While it is expensive, this restaurants does one of those things I love when dining out: they box up your leftovers. Seriously, folks, it’s the little things I really appreciate.
I probably won’t be back because we don’t go to Erie that often and I have lots more ramen, tacos and pho spots to try, but I’d recommend it. Especially for you chili heads out there that like it hot and spicy, and don’t mind $20 ramen.
Birdhouse, 526 Briggs St., Erie, Colorado 80516
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