The restaurant Domu, at East End Market in Orlando, has the ambiance of an amazing fever dream of culinary wonders, from the smell of their delicious ramen to their wonderful side dishes. This doesn’t even take into account the additional areas of the East End Market with their amazing venues. Amazing offerings include Dochi Donuts, which features a delicious combination of sweet and chewy Japanese desserts. The Neighbors is an experimental food kitchen and bar, while Winter Park Biscuit Company serves vegan diner-style food, and Farm & Haus offers farm-style comfort food using local ingredients. Free Hand Goods is a shop that collaborates with local artisans to create handmade goods. Additionally, Gideon’s Bakehouse is an out-of-body experience when it comes to eating baked desserts such as cookies and cakes and can also be found at Disney Springs. Hinckley’s Fancy Meats has a farm-to-table style of cooking, and is near La Femme du Fromage, which is an artisan cheese seller. Other nooks house Lineage Coffee Roasting, which is a unique craft coffee roaster. Wafu is a Taikayaki, which is an ice cream shop that sells traditional Japanese Taikayaki with sweet or savory fillings. Porch Therapy, with their beautiful and serene porch plants, can be found in the same area as Skyebird Juice Bar, a vegan juice bar and kitchen. La Boutique by LFdF, with its outstanding selection of kitchen amenities and other gifts, is also found in the complex. In the heart of it all is the restaurant itself, Domu a modernized zone with different aesthetics throughout the entirety of the restaurant.
Domu originally started in 2016, with the owner, “Sonny” Nyguen, having the vision of creating a restaurant that offered house-made noodles, amazing takes on side dishes, and various additional drinks. Domu is a modernized and creative take on modern-day Japanese cuisine. This translates to the people who go there because everyone there is all smiles, having a good time, and talking to the point where it drowns out the music because they just can’t get enough of the food. Other dishes to consider are most definitely the wings with their savouriness along with their ability to show off while tasting amazing. The Krabby Patty also shows off if the preference is seafood with it being both crunchy and having the soft texture of the soft shell crab. Going to ramen, the Spicy Curry Ramen is to die for. But be warned: the spice level isn’t what it seems!
Not only has Domu received local attention, it has also been given national attention. Over the years Domu has earned two Michelin Stars with outstanding performance reviews on Yelp, Trip Advisor, Facebook, and of course The Michelin Guide. Currently, Domu has been given a second Michelin Star as of June 10, 2023. The reward was very deserved, as Domu has been in the business of creating good times, memories, and amazing food since 2016. Since then, they have both grown as a business and as a location, starting in the East End Market, Dr. Phillips, and Jacksonville. Each location is unique in its own sense with different unique styles, of the building style and theme. Straying away with the different style, the food does remain the same with the offer of the Housemade Noodles. Each dish is to die for, and that’s the way it should be when it comes to food. It’s a great place to share that experience with both friends and family.
When ordering at Domu, guests can always add onto the dishes. Each one has a flavorful yet delicious taste. We ended up ordering a total of five dishes, three of which were side dishes. These side dishes were the “Cheesus” and the “Pepperoni Cheesus,” which have a layer of cheesy corn with a side of spicy bread. The other iteration of the dish, “Pepperoni Cheesus,” is the same but with pepperoni on the top of the dish. The third dish was the lobster roll with a mixture of small and large bits of lobster. This dish was such a quickly consumed one that we almost ordered another one. For the main course, the first main dish was the Black Tonkotsu Ramen with extra chashu (pork belly) and an extra egg. The second main dish was the Richie Rich Ramen with an extra egg. The Black Tonkotsu Ramen was a very warm and comforting dish with the combination of the sweet and savory egg and chashu pork. The ramen itself was a personal favorite. The Richie Rich Ramen had the vastness of the miso and the black garlic incorporated into the dish. The ambiance shown around the restaurant is the style of how people bring more people together. The music, the lighting, the noise all of it comes together to make the experience fun. The dinner itself was delicious, and it’s no wonder that Domu is a two-time Michelin Star rated restaurant, as it’s worth the wait for a good meal.
