Only you can say what the word “ramen” means to you. For many, it doubtless means little more than a subsistence ration discovered in one’s youth and abandoned as soon as one could afford real food, and real dishes to cook it in.

For others those remains an occasional snack, something you can maybe dress up with an egg or some ham. Maybe it means something just a smidge more ambitious, like tossing away the little salt packet, whipping up your own sauce and using some actual veggies. For a relative few, there’s a level of awareness that ramen is a whole little cultural world built around a simple dish that can be elevated to astounding depth and richness.

I’ll confess, I’m kind of mid-tier. But Wade Price, the founder of Mobile’s Slurp Society restaurant, is a different story. He started mouths watering last summer when he first dropped word that he planned to open a ramen shop at the former site of Von’s Bistro in downtown Mobile. His social media posts expertly fueled the craving, and when Slurp Society opened in November the response was massive.

“Our first day, we had a line all the way the street, we sold out by like 12:30,” Price said. “We’re lucky, we kind a found a little niche in the market.”

A good gimmick will make you the most buzzed-about restaurant in the city for a little while. But as a few months have passed, repeated visits have shown that Slurp Society has more depth.

That’s less of a surprise if you know where Price was coming from with the concept. He said he was in culinary school when he got his hands on “Momofuku: A Cookbook,” by David Chang and Peter Meehan. A landmark in American appreciation of ramen, it added fuel to Price’s lifelong fascination with Japanese food and culture.

“That cookbook kind of blew my mind,” Price recently said. “Ever since then I was obsessed with Ramen, I kind of wanted to do it my whole career.”

Ramen was on the menu at a previous venture, Cereal Killer restaurant in Fairhope, which Price closed during the pandemic. With Slurp Society, Price decided to put it front and center.

Luck might have a little to do with the resulting success, but putting in the work counts for more. As you watch what goes on in the open kitchen at Slurp Society, you may notice fresh ingredients going into cauldrons of broth that obviously aren’t going to be ready anytime soon. Batches are started on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, meaning the broth you actually taste has had two to three days of brew time. That alone is a big operation: “We go through about 120 gallons of broth a week,” said Price.

Having visited Slurp Society several times, I’ve come to a low-key revelation about what makes the place such a pleasure. The ramen dishes are great, but it’s not just about the noodles.

If you’re looking for a place to start, you might as well go for the Slurp O.G. ($14): “insane tonkotsu broth, pulled pork, pickled onions, society egg, scallions, black garlic oil.” You get a dish with visual flair and heartiness that will make the price seem like a bargain. And the flavors will make you tell yourself that you’re never going to waste your time on basic ramen again. (You will, of course: you probably just caught a few packets during Mardi Gras. But you’ll lie to yourself.)

Other popular versions include the Battleship Curry with chicken karaage and the Spicy Red Miso (both $14) with pulled pork and kimchi.

But wait, we skipped the appetizer. If you’ve spoken with anyone who’s been to Slurp Society, they have to a certainty told you that you must try the Brussels sprouts. And you must. Prepared with “Benton’s bacon, sweet chili honey, xo aioli, furikake and bonito,” they are explosively good.

“The Brussel sprouts we do here, we call them Okonomiyaki Brussels,” said Price. “Okonomiyaki is like a savory Japanese cabbage pancake … It’s like adjacent to the Okonomiyaki, it has the same flavors.”

Now we’re beginning to get to the real heart of the matter.

“I always tell people, it’s by no means traditional in any way,” said Price. “At the end of the day, I’m a white guy in Mobile, Alabama. We just try to make food we really like.” That means using techniques and flavors from Japanese cuisine, but it also means keeping at least a toe in your own regional traditions. Chicken fried karaage style might be a Japanese thing but using buttermilk in the mix is something other.

“I’m really proud of the fried chicken we do here, it’s very Southern meets Asian,” said Price.

Another solid appetizer option is the beet karaage. “Fried beet chunks” might not sound like a winner, but these are really fun: Something about the presentation tells your mouth to get ready for a morsel of fried meat, or perhaps tofu. But what you get is fresher and cleaner than the former, more substantial than the latter.

I only belatedly ventured over to the “Bao Down” side of the menu and was blown away by the flavors unfolding bite by bite from a tiny sandwich, particularly the chicken karaage bao: There’s an aromatic cilantro lime start, followed by the saltiness of the green curry buttermilk brine chicken, followed by the embrace of sweet chili honey, followed by a clean cucumber finish. It’s a handful in a very small package.

Other bao options (Two for $9, three for $13) include Char Siu Pork, Duck Xo and Tempura Green Tomato.

Price said it’s all about trying to capture the spirit of Asia’s ramen shops, which are often tiny, intimate spaces. The tight constraints mean a lot of thought has to go into every ingredient that gets precious space in the kitchen, every dish that finds room on the menu. And that care, in turn, is what elevates the food.

“We try to give people some options,” he said. “Our space is small, our menu is small, what you see is what you get. We have to keep this menu small, so everything better be damn good.”

Slurp Society is at 69 S. Mobile St. in downtown Mobile. Hours have recently expanded to include dinner: The schedule is 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday. For information call 251-303-8400 or visit www.facebook.com/slurpsociety or https://slurpsociety.co/.