Tiger Den Owners Roaring Into the New Year With New Restaurant On the Horizon

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• Mein Restaurant Photo credit: Mike Tran/Instagram
• Mein Restaurant blueprint. Photo credit: Mike Tran/Instagram
• Mein Restaurant will be located within the Yun-Lu Center. Photo: Jakeisha Wilmore
• Mein Restaurant's Storefront. Photo: Jakeisha Wilmore
• Photo credit: Mike Tran/Instagram
• Photo credit: Mike Tran/Instagram
• Photo credit: Mike Tran/Instagram
• Photo credit: Mike Tran/Instagram
• Photo credit: Mike Tran/Instagram

2014 ushered in many trends for Houston's restaurant scene, but none was as explosive as ramen. Roaring onto the scene and landing on many of best of lists, Chinatown's Tiger Den. Mike Tran and partners opened the sleek izakaya specializing in ramen last fall to hour long lines for weeks. A year later, the cozy restaurant within Dun Huang Plaza still packs in a crowd.

With two Aka Sushi locations and the successful Tiger Den under his belt, what else does Tran have in store for Houston? Another restaurant.

Tran shared plans for an upcoming Korean restaurant on Instagram in September. Instead of Dun Huang Plaza which is packed to capacity these days, the Tiger Den owner is setting up shop at the Yun-Lu Center on Clarewood. The restaurant will be known as Mein Restaurant and is currently under construction at 9630 Clarewood Dr, Ste A-131. Tran expects to open Mein in 2015, that is if the city doesn't interfere with the timeline in place.

Little is known about Mein but if it's anything like Tiger Den, Tran has another breakout restaurant on his hands.