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| - Futo Buta, while sporting a hip and trendy facade, is a major let down in terms of food. They're just like every other cookie cutter restaurant trying to make traditional Asian cuisines be "cool" or "unique" but falling painfully short.
My party came late Sunday night only to find the restaurant packed with people. While not exactly counting as points against them, we ended up waiting 45 minutes for a table. Plus, with close to freezing temperatures and a crowded inside, we had to wait outside with no working heaters.
When we were finally seated we were quickly greeted by our friendly server and given water. After waiting for so long, we already knew what we wanted: the brussel sprouts appetizer, two tonkotsu ramen, and two miso ramen. The atmosphere certainly felt like a traditional izakaya with their shared wooden benches and warm inviting lighting despite the gaudy and slightly insulting poorly drawn anime characters around and inside the bathrooms.
Shortly after ordering we got our brussel sprouts appetizer. It came out on a small square plate in a pile with bonito flakes and tako yaki sauce over the top. In terms of flavor, it was almost synonymous with the toppings of traditional tako yaki, but in a char grilled brussel sprouts medium. Overall, not bad and unique, but not amazing.
When we received our ramen, we were very impressed! They looked great, although the portions seemed a little small. However, when I first tasted the tonkotsu ramen I was shocked... shocked at how unbearably bad it was. The flavor was flat and lacked the depth and creaminess normally associated with tonkotsu ramen and was insanely salty. The egg was poached rather than hard boiled, and there was no fish cake or normal accoutrements. The only saving grace was the pork belly, which had a nice barbecue flavor and meaty and wonderfully fatty texture. After asking the waitress if it were normally this salty, she said yes and that next time I should just ask for it less salty. Well, needless to say after waiting 45 minutes and paying $14 for this mediocre portion of salty ramen, I painfully suffered through the bowl. With each spoonful, rather than wanting to slurp down the soup, I meticulously drained as much broth from the noodles as possible to avoid the jarringly salty taste. Well, after only a handful of those painful spoonfuls of broth, I was surprised to find that I had run out of noodles, leaving me yearning for more food... but sadly, not from Futo Buta.
Overall, I'd say Futo Buta aims for something higher than what they can deliver. Their atmosphere, prices, and appearance denote great food, but the taste of their staple tonkotsu ramen turns all the positives upside down. WAYYYY too salty, bland, and expensive. While service was adequate, no one likes to wait 45 min for bad food, and no one likes o be told that their tastes are not correct with the norm of the food; tastes that this particular reviewer has refined after eating some of the best ramen in the world in Japan.
If I were you, I'd avoid Futa Buta as their only redeeming quality is their braised pork belly, and barely redeeming from a 1 star at that...
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